Hyphenated. Transnational Feminism in Contemporary Israeli Art

Abstract

The chapter discusses Jewish Israeli women immigrant artists through the case study of artist Jennifer Abesirra (b. 1984), an immigrant from France of Algerian origin. Abesirra's artworks stand as examples of the complex, multilayered, and dynamic identity of immigrant women in Israel. The discussion in the chapter integrates global and transnational aspects of women's migration with local perspectives, which are unique to the ethnic, religious, social and civic circumstances in the state of Israel. It tackles feminist issues, arguing for a new understanding of the role played by immigrant women within the nation–state. While striving to problematize essentialist theorisation, it examines heterogeneous constructions of gendered selves by women who live in transnational contexts: out of the mosaic of artistic artefacts analysed arises an argument that challenges the binary thinking that distinguishes the ‘Israeli society’ from ‘women migrants, and ‘the State of Israel’ from the ‘Middle Eastern space’.