Amalia Sa’ar
Biographic Data
| ID | 87252 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amalia Sa’ar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amalia |
| FAMILY NAME | Sa’ar |
| SIGNATURE | SA’AR A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Haifa |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7886-332X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 200 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Early Retirement with Regard to Gender and Ethnic Marginalization
This article examines early retirement among Palestinian women in Israel. Following quantitative evidence that these women are prone to early retirement, we conducted qualitative research to unravel the underlying socio-economic forces guiding their retirement decisions. We conducted twenty-six semi-structured interviews with early retirees, recruited using the snowball method, revealing a range of push and pull factors influencing early retireme…
Feminist vernacular security expertise and its aftermath
The article analyzes the emergence of an epistemic community of local feminist experts on disarmament. Drawing on a five-year action-oriented ethnography, it documents the learning process initiated by Life Without Guns, a joint Jewish-Palestinian feminist group of activists in Israel. The ethnographic materials demonstrate how feminist grassroots activists, defined as non-traditional security actors, use transnational vernaculars to position the…
All Her Glory
This ethnographic paper explores modest fashion (MF) among Muslim and Jewish women in Israel as a lens to situated, everyday practices of cosmopolitanism in a Middle Eastern setting. We find that, through its spread across offline and online spaces, MF creates unexpected interactions between Jewish and Muslim-Palestinian women, whose communities are, by and large, mutually hostile. Drawing on participant observation, netnography, and interviews, …
Anti-consumerism as a class practice
This article documents a cultural script of 'non-materialistic parental investment' in a private kindergarten in Israel, and the paradoxes that accompany it. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, the analysis reveals an inherent tension between an anti-materialistic ideology and the immersion of the kindergarten in a hyper-consumerist culture. While the explicit discourse emphasizes simplicity and unmediated emotional nurturing, the kindergarten in …
Daffawi
This ethnographic paper explores attitudes and perceptions of Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) regarding Palestinians from the West Bank (PWB). It focuses on the semantic complex of ḍaffāwi ('who comes from the West Bank'), which entails a combination of cultural superiority, distrust, romanticizing, and ambivalence. Treating the ḍaffāwi as a speech act and reading it as a cultural text that is rooted in PCI's collective political unconscious…
Millennial femininity and the harmonious state of mind
The article depicts feminine subjectivity among women of the millennial generation. Content analysis of an open question relating to the answers of 623 Israeli participants reveals perceptions of femininity as at once gender conscious and non-political. Respondents express a strong sense of entitlement to gender equality yet retain an essentialized perception of gender differences. They are aware of the contradictory demands directed at women, bu…
Economic Citizenship at the Intersection of Nation, Class, and Gender
This paper looks at the adaptation of the idea of economic citizenship (EC), or the conditioning of civil inclusion on economic participation, to the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who as a national minority are subject to long-standing political discrimination. I focus on two categories of women-low-income, poorly educated women and middle-class professional women-to explore the articulation of EC at the intersection of gender, class, and natio…
Economic Citizenship
With the spread of neoliberal projects, responsibility for the welfare of minority and poor citizens has shifted from states to local communities. Businesses, municipalities, grassroots activists, and state functionaries share in projects meant to help vulnerable populations become self-supportive. Ironically, such projects produce odd discursive blends of justice, solidarity, and wellbeing, and place the languages of feminist and minority rights…
Security as care
The article engages with feminist care theories and practices of community building in the context of armed conflict. Based on an ethnographic study (2016-2018) of the security concerns of Israeli citizens living in the Gaza Envelope and their positions regarding the siege on Gaza, we find that in this region, vernacular security is closely linked with care, social reproduction and communitarianism. Communitarian ethics is intertwined with separa…
Gender/Nationality Intersections in Attitudes Toward Gun Carry among Israeli Citizens
The study explores how nationality and gender effect attitudes on the presence, use, and misuse of guns by security forces and civilians in Israel. Using data from a national survey ( n = 721), we find that Israelis, Jews, and Arabs have more positive attitudes toward military firearms than civilian gun carry. The vast majority agree that display of military arms increases the public sense of security. Numbers are much lower regarding civilian ca…
Emotionalising national security, depoliticising the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
This study explores the growing presence of emotional terminology within Israeli popular discourses on national security, as reflected in the daily talk of Israelis living on the border with the Gaza Strip. It is based on ethnography conducted in 2016–18 as part of a multi-site, multidisciplinary study on articulations of security in frontier communities. Findings reveal that the grassroots discourse of national security is saturated with emotion…
Women under and against the Occupation
Product Review| November 01 2019 Women under and against the Occupation: Feminist Perspectives Space and Mobility in Palestine. Peteet, Julie. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017. 239pages. isbn 9780253025111.No Place for Grief: Martyrs, Prisoners, and Mourning in Contemporary Palestine. Buch Segal, Lotte. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. 211pages. isbn 9780812248210.Women, Reconciliation, and the Israeli-Palestinian …
The Ḥawākīr of Nazareth
This article documents the ḥawākīr of Nazareth. Once widespread in the city, these traditional domestic gardens were integral to households of all economic backgrounds. They served as a space for work and socializing, constituted a center of collective (extended family) life, and provided a wide diversity of crops. However, in recent decades ḥawākīr have disappeared rapidly as new houses were built overtop them and residents’ tastes changed. Toda…
Feminist identifications across the ethnic-national divide
This study explores young Israeli Jewish and Palestinian women's gender ideology and their readiness to endorse the label 'feminist'. Using data from a large-scale survey among students in the northern periphery of Israel, we found that feminism has become a source of identification for both Jewish and Palestinian young women in Israel, and that Palestinians are more inclined to endorse the self-label 'feminist' than Jews. We also found that each…
Economic Citizenship
With the spread of neoliberal projects, responsibility for the welfare of minority and poor citizens has shifted from states to local communities. Businesses, municipalities, grassroots activists, and state functionaries share in projects meant to help vulnerable populations become self-supportive. Ironically, such projects produce odd discursive blends of justice, solidarity, and wellbeing, and place the languages of feminist and minority rights…
Economic Citizenship
The person in the disabled body
This paper aims to make a dual contribution. We draw on anthropological understandings of"person" as a holistic category to resurrect the personhood of individuals with disabilities, as a correction tothe overwhelming tendency to reduce their humanity to their physical injury. We likewise reverse theanalytical gaze by using these individuals' experiences to understand the normative, culture-bound perception of "healthy" persons. We thus highlight…
The Gender Contract under Neoliberalism
This paper interprets the pressure to raise Palestinian-Israeli women’s labor force participation within the unfolding neoliberal project in Israel, arguing that women’s stalled workforce integration reflects embedded economic rationality. Poor infrastructure and discriminatory policies, combined with Israel’s rapid economic privatization, set contradictory expectations for Palestinian-Israeli women: their opportunity-cost calculations include en…
Anti‐Crisis by JanetRoitman.Durham
Responses
Emotional Performance as Work Skill
This article documents the use of emotion pedagogies (EP) during economic empowerment projects for low-income Hebrew-speaking women in Israel, where a significant part of business-training curriculum is dedicated to narratives of self and performances of reflexive, emotional speech. Participant observations in weekly training sessions reveal contradictory effects: Despite clear neoliberal undertones of self-reliance, individual responsibility, an…
Between a gender and a feminist analysis
This article argues that professional literature on national security in Israel, especially during the second Intifada (2000-4), reinforced the invisibility of a range of insecurities informing the lives of women and members of marginalized groups. The authors discuss the problematic of using 'gender' without a feminist perspective and examine the challenges of incorporating the latter into quantitative studies of security, then briefly present t…
Intense engagement
Low-Income "Single Moms" in Israel
This article on low-income "one-parent mothers" in Israel is based on 32 in-depth interviews and supportive data from a longitudinal study. Findings problematize scholarly treatments of "single mothers" as a universal category, showing it to be culturally specific and polysemic. It is argued that low-income one-parent mothers embody a central tension in the Israeli male-breadwinner/female-caretaker gender contract, as its initial class bias is ex…
Masculinity in Crisis
This paper argues that the Palestinians in Israel are undergoing a deep crisis of masculinity that is at once a reaction to, and a reflection of, their collective situation. Notwithstanding some important benefits that accrue to them as citizens, they are subjected to structural violence, which includes policing, racism, and discrimination. Their socio-economic conditions are poor, and their sense of identity and cultural vitality are on the defe…
Postcolonial Feminism, The Politics of Identification, and the Liberal Bargain
The article focuses on the complex positioning of people from disempowered backgrounds with respect to liberalism and liberal dividends. The author offers the term liberal bargain, paraphrasing Deniz Kandiyoti's 'patriarchal bargain' and Cynthia Cockburn's 'ethnic bargain,' and dwells on the interconnections between the three. The liberal bargain indicates the particular consciousness and symbolic whitening that 'colorized' (i.e., excluded/oppres…
Carefully on the Margins
Christian Palestinians in Israel are a religious minority within a national minority. Among the Palestinians of Haifa, however, they are a majority and an elite. By examining practices of children's socialization, I follow the ongoing process of boundary maintenance among Christian Palestinians in the city of Haifa as they navigate among their potentially conflictual affiliations with the Israeli state, the Palestinian nation, and the Christian r…
Lonely in your firm grip
Recent feminist literature on Arab women has emphasized their agency and strategizing capabilities. In particular, researchers have highlighted women's skilled utilization of their blood rights for protection and lifelong support within the patriarchal group. I take issue with this generalization, using ethnographic material on Palestinians inside Israel. I argue that women's entitlement to protection is more limited than is usually assumed. An a…
The Gender Contract under Neoliberalism
This paper interprets the pressure to raise Palestinian-Israeli women’s labor force participation within the unfolding neoliberal project in Israel, arguing that women’s stalled workforce integration reflects embedded economic rationality. Poor infrastructure and discriminatory policies, combined with Israel’s rapid economic privatization, set contradictory expectations for Palestinian-Israeli women: their opportunity-cost calculations include en…
Masculinity in Crisis
This paper argues that the Palestinians in Israel are undergoing a deep crisis of masculinity that is at once a reaction to, and a reflection of, their collective situation. Notwithstanding some important benefits that accrue to them as citizens, they are subjected to structural violence, which includes policing, racism, and discrimination. Their socio-economic conditions are poor, and their sense of identity and cultural vitality are on the defe…
Low-Income "Single Moms" in Israel
This article on low-income "one-parent mothers" in Israel is based on 32 in-depth interviews and supportive data from a longitudinal study. Findings problematize scholarly treatments of "single mothers" as a universal category, showing it to be culturally specific and polysemic. It is argued that low-income one-parent mothers embody a central tension in the Israeli male-breadwinner/female-caretaker gender contract, as its initial class bias is ex…
Feminine Strength
This article explores a particular discourse on women's power among Palestinians inside Israel. I present ethnographic documentation of resourceful women who are commonly referred to as qawiyyi (strong), and offer the term "feminine strength" to talk about what I see as a normative script for "proper"handling of femininity and power. I argue that feminine strength encourages women to channel their achievements back to the home, and discourages th…
Contradictory Location
This paper takes issue with a certain inconsistency in the collective portrait of Palestinian women citizens of Israel, as it is depicted in the feminist literature which emphasizes, simultaneously, multiple forms of oppression and impressive resisting capacities, but does not give sufficient explanation of how these two seemingly contradictory aspects interrelate. I argue, using ethnographic data, that more attention than that paid so far should…
How Can I Feel for Others When I Myself Am Beaten?’ The Impact of the Armed Conflict on Women in Israel
Security as care
The article engages with feminist care theories and practices of community building in the context of armed conflict. Based on an ethnographic study (2016-2018) of the security concerns of Israeli citizens living in the Gaza Envelope and their positions regarding the siege on Gaza, we find that in this region, vernacular security is closely linked with care, social reproduction and communitarianism. Communitarian ethics is intertwined with separa…
The Ḥawākīr of Nazareth
This article documents the ḥawākīr of Nazareth. Once widespread in the city, these traditional domestic gardens were integral to households of all economic backgrounds. They served as a space for work and socializing, constituted a center of collective (extended family) life, and provided a wide diversity of crops. However, in recent decades ḥawākīr have disappeared rapidly as new houses were built overtop them and residents’ tastes changed. Toda…
Emotional Performance as Work Skill
This article documents the use of emotion pedagogies (EP) during economic empowerment projects for low-income Hebrew-speaking women in Israel, where a significant part of business-training curriculum is dedicated to narratives of self and performances of reflexive, emotional speech. Participant observations in weekly training sessions reveal contradictory effects: Despite clear neoliberal undertones of self-reliance, individual responsibility, an…
Intense engagement
Masculine Talk
Emotionalising national security, depoliticising the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
This study explores the growing presence of emotional terminology within Israeli popular discourses on national security, as reflected in the daily talk of Israelis living on the border with the Gaza Strip. It is based on ethnography conducted in 2016–18 as part of a multi-site, multidisciplinary study on articulations of security in frontier communities. Findings reveal that the grassroots discourse of national security is saturated with emotion…
Between a gender and a feminist analysis
This article argues that professional literature on national security in Israel, especially during the second Intifada (2000-4), reinforced the invisibility of a range of insecurities informing the lives of women and members of marginalized groups. The authors discuss the problematic of using 'gender' without a feminist perspective and examine the challenges of incorporating the latter into quantitative studies of security, then briefly present t…
Economic Citizenship at the Intersection of Nation, Class, and Gender
This paper looks at the adaptation of the idea of economic citizenship (EC), or the conditioning of civil inclusion on economic participation, to the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who as a national minority are subject to long-standing political discrimination. I focus on two categories of women-low-income, poorly educated women and middle-class professional women-to explore the articulation of EC at the intersection of gender, class, and natio…
Gender/Nationality Intersections in Attitudes Toward Gun Carry among Israeli Citizens
The study explores how nationality and gender effect attitudes on the presence, use, and misuse of guns by security forces and civilians in Israel. Using data from a national survey ( n = 721), we find that Israelis, Jews, and Arabs have more positive attitudes toward military firearms than civilian gun carry. The vast majority agree that display of military arms increases the public sense of security. Numbers are much lower regarding civilian ca…
Feminist identifications across the ethnic-national divide
This study explores young Israeli Jewish and Palestinian women's gender ideology and their readiness to endorse the label 'feminist'. Using data from a large-scale survey among students in the northern periphery of Israel, we found that feminism has become a source of identification for both Jewish and Palestinian young women in Israel, and that Palestinians are more inclined to endorse the self-label 'feminist' than Jews. We also found that each…
Maneuvering between State, Nation, and Tradition
This paper presents ethnographic documentations of Israeli Palestinian "women without men," who seek out married men and use the notion of polygyny to make moral sense of their non-normative heterosexual relationships. The women's presentations of self are construed against popular attitudes to polygyny as practically negligible and morally anachronistic. Following a political-economic approach to gender as constructed, historical, and embedded i…
Comparing Cultures
Feminist vernacular security expertise and its aftermath
The article analyzes the emergence of an epistemic community of local feminist experts on disarmament. Drawing on a five-year action-oriented ethnography, it documents the learning process initiated by Life Without Guns, a joint Jewish-Palestinian feminist group of activists in Israel. The ethnographic materials demonstrate how feminist grassroots activists, defined as non-traditional security actors, use transnational vernaculars to position the…
Millennial femininity and the harmonious state of mind
The article depicts feminine subjectivity among women of the millennial generation. Content analysis of an open question relating to the answers of 623 Israeli participants reveals perceptions of femininity as at once gender conscious and non-political. Respondents express a strong sense of entitlement to gender equality yet retain an essentialized perception of gender differences. They are aware of the contradictory demands directed at women, bu…
Carefully on the Margins
Christian Palestinians in Israel are a religious minority within a national minority. Among the Palestinians of Haifa, however, they are a majority and an elite. By examining practices of children's socialization, I follow the ongoing process of boundary maintenance among Christian Palestinians in the city of Haifa as they navigate among their potentially conflictual affiliations with the Israeli state, the Palestinian nation, and the Christian r…
Lonely in your firm grip
Recent feminist literature on Arab women has emphasized their agency and strategizing capabilities. In particular, researchers have highlighted women's skilled utilization of their blood rights for protection and lifelong support within the patriarchal group. I take issue with this generalization, using ethnographic material on Palestinians inside Israel. I argue that women's entitlement to protection is more limited than is usually assumed. An a…
Postcolonial Feminism, The Politics of Identification, and the Liberal Bargain
The article focuses on the complex positioning of people from disempowered backgrounds with respect to liberalism and liberal dividends. The author offers the term liberal bargain, paraphrasing Deniz Kandiyoti's 'patriarchal bargain' and Cynthia Cockburn's 'ethnic bargain,' and dwells on the interconnections between the three. The liberal bargain indicates the particular consciousness and symbolic whitening that 'colorized' (i.e., excluded/oppres…
Comparing Cultures
Feminine Strength
This article explores a particular discourse on women's power among Palestinians inside Israel. I present ethnographic documentation of resourceful women who are commonly referred to as qawiyyi (strong), and offer the term "feminine strength" to talk about what I see as a normative script for "proper"handling of femininity and power. I argue that feminine strength encourages women to channel their achievements back to the home, and discourages th…
Contradictory Location
This paper takes issue with a certain inconsistency in the collective portrait of Palestinian women citizens of Israel, as it is depicted in the feminist literature which emphasizes, simultaneously, multiple forms of oppression and impressive resisting capacities, but does not give sufficient explanation of how these two seemingly contradictory aspects interrelate. I argue, using ethnographic data, that more attention than that paid so far should…
How Can I Feel for Others When I Myself Am Beaten?’ The Impact of the Armed Conflict on Women in Israel
Maneuvering between State, Nation, and Tradition
This paper presents ethnographic documentations of Israeli Palestinian "women without men," who seek out married men and use the notion of polygyny to make moral sense of their non-normative heterosexual relationships. The women's presentations of self are construed against popular attitudes to polygyny as practically negligible and morally anachronistic. Following a political-economic approach to gender as constructed, historical, and embedded i…
Masculine Talk
Masculinity in Crisis
This paper argues that the Palestinians in Israel are undergoing a deep crisis of masculinity that is at once a reaction to, and a reflection of, their collective situation. Notwithstanding some important benefits that accrue to them as citizens, they are subjected to structural violence, which includes policing, racism, and discrimination. Their socio-economic conditions are poor, and their sense of identity and cultural vitality are on the defe…
Intense engagement
Low-Income "Single Moms" in Israel
This article on low-income "one-parent mothers" in Israel is based on 32 in-depth interviews and supportive data from a longitudinal study. Findings problematize scholarly treatments of "single mothers" as a universal category, showing it to be culturally specific and polysemic. It is argued that low-income one-parent mothers embody a central tension in the Israeli male-breadwinner/female-caretaker gender contract, as its initial class bias is ex…
Between a gender and a feminist analysis
This article argues that professional literature on national security in Israel, especially during the second Intifada (2000-4), reinforced the invisibility of a range of insecurities informing the lives of women and members of marginalized groups. The authors discuss the problematic of using 'gender' without a feminist perspective and examine the challenges of incorporating the latter into quantitative studies of security, then briefly present t…
Economic Citizenship
With the spread of neoliberal projects, responsibility for the welfare of minority and poor citizens has shifted from states to local communities. Businesses, municipalities, grassroots activists, and state functionaries share in projects meant to help vulnerable populations become self-supportive. Ironically, such projects produce odd discursive blends of justice, solidarity, and wellbeing, and place the languages of feminist and minority rights…
Economic Citizenship
The person in the disabled body
This paper aims to make a dual contribution. We draw on anthropological understandings of"person" as a holistic category to resurrect the personhood of individuals with disabilities, as a correction tothe overwhelming tendency to reduce their humanity to their physical injury. We likewise reverse theanalytical gaze by using these individuals' experiences to understand the normative, culture-bound perception of "healthy" persons. We thus highlight…
The Gender Contract under Neoliberalism
This paper interprets the pressure to raise Palestinian-Israeli women’s labor force participation within the unfolding neoliberal project in Israel, arguing that women’s stalled workforce integration reflects embedded economic rationality. Poor infrastructure and discriminatory policies, combined with Israel’s rapid economic privatization, set contradictory expectations for Palestinian-Israeli women: their opportunity-cost calculations include en…
Anti‐Crisis by JanetRoitman.Durham
Responses
Emotional Performance as Work Skill
This article documents the use of emotion pedagogies (EP) during economic empowerment projects for low-income Hebrew-speaking women in Israel, where a significant part of business-training curriculum is dedicated to narratives of self and performances of reflexive, emotional speech. Participant observations in weekly training sessions reveal contradictory effects: Despite clear neoliberal undertones of self-reliance, individual responsibility, an…
Feminist identifications across the ethnic-national divide
This study explores young Israeli Jewish and Palestinian women's gender ideology and their readiness to endorse the label 'feminist'. Using data from a large-scale survey among students in the northern periphery of Israel, we found that feminism has become a source of identification for both Jewish and Palestinian young women in Israel, and that Palestinians are more inclined to endorse the self-label 'feminist' than Jews. We also found that each…
The Ḥawākīr of Nazareth
This article documents the ḥawākīr of Nazareth. Once widespread in the city, these traditional domestic gardens were integral to households of all economic backgrounds. They served as a space for work and socializing, constituted a center of collective (extended family) life, and provided a wide diversity of crops. However, in recent decades ḥawākīr have disappeared rapidly as new houses were built overtop them and residents’ tastes changed. Toda…
Women under and against the Occupation
Product Review| November 01 2019 Women under and against the Occupation: Feminist Perspectives Space and Mobility in Palestine. Peteet, Julie. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017. 239pages. isbn 9780253025111.No Place for Grief: Martyrs, Prisoners, and Mourning in Contemporary Palestine. Buch Segal, Lotte. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. 211pages. isbn 9780812248210.Women, Reconciliation, and the Israeli-Palestinian …
Emotionalising national security, depoliticising the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
This study explores the growing presence of emotional terminology within Israeli popular discourses on national security, as reflected in the daily talk of Israelis living on the border with the Gaza Strip. It is based on ethnography conducted in 2016–18 as part of a multi-site, multidisciplinary study on articulations of security in frontier communities. Findings reveal that the grassroots discourse of national security is saturated with emotion…
Economic Citizenship
With the spread of neoliberal projects, responsibility for the welfare of minority and poor citizens has shifted from states to local communities. Businesses, municipalities, grassroots activists, and state functionaries share in projects meant to help vulnerable populations become self-supportive. Ironically, such projects produce odd discursive blends of justice, solidarity, and wellbeing, and place the languages of feminist and minority rights…
Sociology (31 works) · Political science (27 works) · Law (24 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (18 works) · Politics (18 works) · Gender Studies (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Gender, Security, and Conflict (9 works) · Middle East Politics and Society (9 works)