Dekel, Tal: Feminist art activism in Israel: Intersectional analysis in a deeply divided society

Feminist activist art that relates to the local sensitivities, needs and inequalities, is a fundament approach to the many cultures and groups of women within the country. Therefore, this talk will use the approach of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1988; Hill-Collins and Bilge, 2019) that considers the relative and dynamic positions of oppression in which women from various social groups are positioned in, according to identity categories such as race, class, gender, religion, physical ability, etcetera.

There are many common denominators between Israeli artists involved in feminist activism and artists doing similar work in other countries however, the local framework of the artists based in Israel makes them distinct in many ways that influence their strategies and the content of their work. This local framework does not overlook issues that are global concerns, shared in many different ways by countless women, such as motherhood, sexuality, the labor market, but burning local issues are also addressed – among them chauvinism and militarism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ethnic minorities and immigration, conflicting religious backgrounds, and civil rights in the state of Israel.