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Marsha Friedman, the first declared lesbian MK in Israel, passed away
Friedman, one of the pioneers of the struggle for women's rights in Israel, passed away at the age of 83. During her tenure in the Knesset, she broke glass ceilings, led protests, put the spotlight on issues considered taboo at the time such as abortions and violence against women.
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March
Abortions
LGBT
Shulamit Aloni
Women's rights
Eli Ashkenazi
Thursday, September 23, 2021, 8 p.m.
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MK Marsha Friedman, one of the pioneers of the struggle for women's rights in Israel, passed away on Tuesday at the age of 83. Friedman was the first declared lesbian MK in Israel, breaking glass ceilings and throwing a spotlight on previously unspoken issues, such as abortions and violence against women.
"Yesterday, the Knesset toyed with an unusual issue: what to do for husbands who beat their wives?"
"The issue was brought up for discussion, of course, by MK Marsha Friedman," it was written, "who called heaven and earth against the violence in which husbands treat women."
According to the Davar newspaper, "Friedman failed to convince those present in the plenary hall of the seriousness of the problem, and smiles and cries flew from all corners of the house."
Looking back 45 years, it is difficult to understand how the phenomenon of violence against women was then considered an esoteric issue that was even ridiculed.
For Marsha Friedman, bringing the issue up for public discussion was on her mind.
She broke the bond of silence surrounding the phenomenon, which until then had been registered with the police as a minor assault offense and sometimes even as a "violation of public order."
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Pioneers of the struggle for women's rights in the country.
Marsha Friedman (Photo: Government Press Office, Yaakov Saar)
Friedman was born in 1939 in New York, to a father who is a labor leader and active in trade unions. Shortly after the Six Day War, she immigrated to Israel with her partner and their baby daughter. She began teaching in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Haifa, and during this period the feminist worldview began to develop and crystallize in her.
Friedman and other women from Haifa founded a movement called "Nalham - Women for a New Society", and began working to raise feminist consciousness in Israel. They published a newspaper, which was distributed in shopping centers in Haifa, Elite "on strike in protest of the workers' wages were higher than their own. together with the professor again at Haifa University, Marilyn, held a university seminars on women and raised their discourse and feminist awareness.
in 1973, she competed as part of a list sequence of Shulamit Aloni eighth general election. Friedman was inserted in place The third and was elected to the Knesset,After the party won three seats.
One of the leaders in the struggle for the right to abortion
During her tenure she submitted a bill to allow abortions.
According to the language of the proposal, the law was supposed to allow "abortion at the request of the woman, without additional conditions, for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy."
After the defined period of time, the proposal sought to allow a gynecologist to perform an abortion without the approval of another party, under the following conditions: danger of physical or mental harm to the mother;
Danger that the child will be born with a disability;
And pregnancy as a result of rape.
The proposal, which was considered far-reaching, did not receive Knesset support.
Among the activists for women's rights, there was widespread protest following the law that fell.
They went out to demonstrations and fought gynecologists who on the one hand opposed the law and on the other hand performed illegal abortions, and published their names.
Marsha Friedman and other activists even invaded a gynecologists' conference and demanded a speech at it, but were refused.
"Smiles and cries flew from all corners of the house."
The article in the newspaper Davar about a discussion on domestic violence in the Knesset (Photo: Official website, Davar)
Relations between Friedman and Shulamit Aloni ran aground, and in early 1976, Friedman and Aryeh Luba Eliav, who retired from the party, formed the Social Democratic faction. In the elections to the Ninth Knesset, Friedman and other women formed the "Women's Party," which failed to pass the blocking percentage.
Along with other activities, Marsha Friedman established the first shelter in Israel for women victims of violence in the Hadar HaCarmel neighborhood of Haifa. The shelter, called "Women for Women", ensured that the women who come to it receive police protection, financial support, medical and social services, childcare and more. Beyond the vital assistance to women who have taken refuge in the shelter, Friedman also saw it as another contribution to the general feminist issue, as a place where evidence would be gathered that would serve the overall struggle of women against violence against them.
Her worldview in Israel in the mid-1970s was considered radical and few identified with her ideas.
For example, in a dialogue held by a newspaper on the issue of women's rights in 1976, author Michal Snunit stated that "to take and implant Marsha Friedman's ideas here, it's just like getting off another planet."
However, she admitted that she identified with Friedman's remarks that when there is a problem with the children during the break, the woman does not necessarily have to find a solution, and said that that day her husband asked her what she would do with their daughter while attending the symposium.
Inspired by Friedman, she replied that he had to find a solution and take the girl.
"Great inspiration for thousands of proud women and men"
Friedman is the first declared lesbian MK.
Shortly after the end of her term in the Knesset, she came out of the closet as a lesbian and moved in with a partner.
The two set up a women's center in Haifa, which was also a bookstore called "Voice of the Woman."
"The association mourns the death of Marsha Friedman who fought in her life for our right to live our lives in freedom, pride and without violence," the Association for the LGBT in Israel praised her. Proud.
We all hope that even thanks to her groundbreaking legacy, we will see a proud female representation in Israeli politics. "
News about Marsha Friedman's coming out of the closet (Photo: Official Website, This World)
The political system also paid tribute to Marsha Friedman. "Brave and groundbreaking, she was a prominent activist for human rights, one of the founders of the feminist movement in Israel, and a partner in opening the first shelter in Israel for battered women," wrote Minister of the Environment and Meretz Speaker Tamar Zandberg. "Taboo: incest, prostitution among girls, LGBT rights, national rights for Palestinians, and the right of women to have an abortion. She later came out of the closet and actually became the first lesbian former MK in Israel," she said. "And the zeal to protect human rights has not diminished. She passed away yesterday, but her legacy will continue to live on."
MK Naama Lazimi (Labor) described Friedman as "a groundbreaking woman, one of the leaders of the feminist wave of the 1970s and 1980s, a former MK, human rights activist, gender equality and the rights of the proud community, a Haifa and national figure."And wrote that she "paved the way for all of us." "Let there be a remembrance of a revolution," she concluded.
"Many women took part in the cause and were responsible for the achievements of feminism in its first decade," wrote researcher Hannah Safran in her book "Do Not Want to Be Nice."
"At the same time," says Safran, "Marsha Friedman's figure occupies a central and leading place throughout the period, especially as one who, as a Member of Knesset, represented the movement and her ideas on the most public and political stage in the country." New and initiated the establishment of women's centers. "
In 1981, Friedman left Israel and returned to the United States.
Even after that, she continued to maintain contact with women's organizations in Israel.
Many of the ideas she led 45 years ago, which were considered revolutionary, are today summed up in Israeli society.
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