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Birthing the Nation

Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel

Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of California Press

Published:24th Jul '02

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Birthing the Nation cover

In this rich, evocative study, Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh examines the changing notions of sexuality, family, and reproduction among Palestinians living in Israel. Distinguishing itself amid the media maelstrom that has homogenized Palestinians as "terrorists," this important new work offers a complex, nuanced, and humanized depiction of a group rendered invisible despite its substantial size, now accounting for nearly twenty percent of Israel's population. Groundbreaking and thought-provoking, Birthing the Nation contextualizes the politics of reproduction within contemporary issues affecting Palestinians, and places these issues against the backdrop of a dominant Israeli society.

"This well-written and theoretically informed book remains faithful to the reality of the politics of reproduction in Galilee-indeed to the reality of Galilee society. Throughout, the narrative rings true. Kanaaneh argues compellingly and convincingly that understanding reproductive behavior clarifies how Palestinians within Israel negotiate the tortured path of self-definition and definition."-Rashid Khalidi, author of Palestinian Identity: The Construction of a Modern National Consciousness; "Birthing the Nation provides the first serious and comprehensive treatment of an issue full of intense meaning. Kanaaneh sets her unique study against a backdrop of Israeli political arithmetic, Palestinian subordination, nationalism, gender culture, globalization and modernity. Women's bodies and reproductive potential are the sites on which this demographic contest is played out. Therefore, this book has relevance and resonance far beyond the ethnographic site."-Julie Peteet, author of Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement

ISBN: 9780520229440

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 18mm

Weight: 408g

300 pages