Regulating the Undesirable: Statusless Women in Israel

Abstract

This paper explores how laws and procedures in Israel concerning various forms of legal status deem women foreigners to be “statusless.” In particular, it examines the treatment of three groups: Palestinian women residents of the Occupied Palestinian Territories who are married to Palestinian citizens of Israel; asylum-seeking women from Africa; and women from the former Soviet Union who have been trafficked by the sex industry, or who have lost their legal status after separating from an Israeli-citizen spouse. Drawing on various data sources—such as information and case studies published by aid organizations; legal proceedings; discussions held by parliamentary legislative committees; state officials’ commentaries in the media; and interviews with women and service providers—we map the policies that manage the entry and residence of foreigners, and explore their ideological tenets and specific impact on women. We argue that statuslessness is being justified by an ethnocratic discourse that demarcates foreigners as undesirable, and that it is maintained by hobbling existing infrastructures, such as the Convention on the Status of Refugees, family unification procedure, or the Protocol for the Prevention of Human Trafficking—and draining them of their meaning.