Historical Rupture or Continuity?

Abstract

From the point of view of the institutional legal history of shariʿa courts in Israel, the article focuses on the elements of rupture and/or continuity introduced by the appointment of Hanāʾ Manṣūr-Khaṭīb as the first female judge in Israeli religious courts against the background of three main elements, the subordination of shariʿa courts to the Israeli legal system, the reaction of shariʿa courts to the challenges posed by secular and conservative Muslim actors inside the Palestinian minority, and the definition of gender roles in the Muslim judiciary in Israel. Despite some elements of rupture with the past, the article argues that the appointment is part and continuation of an active strategy of the pragmatic use of “the past” of Islamic legal tradition already pursued by shariʿa courts since 1995, and that the appointment of Manṣūr-Khaṭīb can be inscribed in a framework of “patriarchal liberalism,” following the definition of Moussa Abou Ramadan, proving that, still, gender is anything but irrelevant.