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Intersex Activists in Israel: Their Achievements and the Obstacles They Face

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Abstract

This article focuses on the dynamic between the medical policy on intersex bodies and intersex activists in Israel. Recently, in many countries changes have taken place in medical guidelines regarding intersex patients and laws that regulate medical practices and prohibit irreversible surgeries for intersex babies for cosmetic reasons and without the patient’s consent. In Israel, intersex activists are limited by several factors. On the one hand, they are influenced by the achievements of intersex activism around the world but on the other, the pathologizing medical discourse and socio-medical practices, which include early diagnosis, early irreversible surgeries, and secrecy surrounding intersexed bodies, present obstacles to achieving bodily autonomy for intersex individuals and social recognition of different sex development. Nevertheless, intersex activists are attempting to find different social and media spaces in which to achieve public acknowledgement and future bodily autonomy for intersexed people and seeking medical professionals’ cooperation. Recently, the Israeli Ministry of Health published a new circular for intersex/DSD patients, and while it does not clearly forbid irreversible surgeries, it provides information about the complexities of intersex people and their experience.

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Notes

  1. See Malta’s law, detailed here: https://meae.gov.mt/en/Public_Consultations/MSDC/Pages/Consultations/GIGESC.aspx.

  2. Relating to a person who identifies as gender non-binary, as both male and female, or neither.

  3. Ritual circumcision is a very important tradition in Judaism. The ritual marks the covenant between the Jewish people and G-d and includes the removal of the foreskin, usually at the age of eight days. Some doctors who took part in my research explained that there are times that intersex babies who have male genitals and female internal organs are circumcized.

  4. Describes the inner relations between emotions and embodied experiences, how the body expresses emotions, and how emotions are expressed in bodily manners.

  5. The link to the Facebook page:

    https://www.facebook.com/%D7%A0%D7%A8%D7%AA%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%9F-%D7%96%D7%9B%D7%95%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A0%D7%98%D7%A8%D7%A1%D7%A7%D7%A1-119012418134853/

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  1. The Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, 9190501, Jerusalem, Israel

    Limor Meoded Danon

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Meoded Danon, L. Intersex Activists in Israel: Their Achievements and the Obstacles They Face . Bioethical Inquiry 15, 569–578 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-018-9877-2

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