1 00:00:03,740 --> 00:00:09,250 It's really great pleasure for me to introduce our speaker today, Professor Esther Head, 2 00:00:09,250 --> 00:00:16,820 who is a professor of social anthropology at Zeph at Academic College in Israel. 3 00:00:16,820 --> 00:00:27,860 She has spent the past 30 years researching teaching and also being an activist on feminism and social struggles. 4 00:00:27,860 --> 00:00:41,750 Her work focuses on bureaucracy and gender with the context of immigration, politics, welfare, education, development projects and the Holocaust. 5 00:00:41,750 --> 00:00:48,620 She visited the web. Her website will show you the extent of her work and publication show. 6 00:00:48,620 --> 00:00:58,040 I will not go into that, but she has. She's the author of numerous books and articles, and there's her talk. 7 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:07,430 Today is based on one of her books, which has come out recently, which is called Stage Violence towards mothers and children. 8 00:01:07,430 --> 00:01:13,670 The topic of the title of her talk is threatened motherhood in the Israeli welfare state, 9 00:01:13,670 --> 00:01:21,890 the discourse and the practise behind the disqualification of disadvantaged women motherhood. 10 00:01:21,890 --> 00:01:33,740 Another of good books, good books, like all our other books, is the daughter of immigrants and bureaucrats Ethiopians in an Israeli absorption centre. 11 00:01:33,740 --> 00:01:39,500 And she's a co-editor of Israel Local Anthropology and Many, many more. 12 00:01:39,500 --> 00:01:47,910 So it's there. I'm going to stop here and ask you to do to give us the benefit of your tool, right? 13 00:01:47,910 --> 00:01:52,790 So over to you. Thank you. OK, thank you so much, Soraya. 14 00:01:52,790 --> 00:02:02,540 I'm really grateful. So thank you for inviting me to give a talk on this distinguished platform of the women's rights in the Middle East seminars. 15 00:02:02,540 --> 00:02:07,640 And I'm honoured to be hosted by the Middle East Centre in Oxford. 16 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:16,100 And my thanks go also to me, Stacy Churchill, for her valuable assistance in organising this event and for the wonderful poster. 17 00:02:16,100 --> 00:02:20,080 My academic home. It's the first Academy College in April. 18 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:28,070 The book's publication, the one that I'm my talk is based on, and I'm grateful for that. 19 00:02:28,070 --> 00:02:33,710 So in my talk, I shall elaborate on the role of state authorities, 20 00:02:33,710 --> 00:02:40,430 especially the welfare system and the courts, in undermining disadvantaged women's motherhood. 21 00:02:40,430 --> 00:02:51,050 I should also describe a few cases as time will allow, illustrating the devastating outcomes of this confrontation for both mothers and children 22 00:02:51,050 --> 00:02:57,860 and the hopeless struggle of mothers to prevent the disqualification of their mother would. 23 00:02:57,860 --> 00:03:08,840 My study emerges from 30 years of involvement in single mothers struggles against the expropriation of the custody of the offspring. 24 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:16,580 Many insights were also gained from critical reading or feminist studies on motherhood and poverty. 25 00:03:16,580 --> 00:03:26,900 I came to realise that although motherhood is widely cherished, its value in practise is connected to state policies in various interests. 26 00:03:26,900 --> 00:03:36,350 Hence, I shall examine the gap between the highly esteemed value bestowed on motherhood and salary vis-a-vis its work. 27 00:03:36,350 --> 00:03:46,580 In reality, with my participation in mother struggles against the expropriation of the motherhood started in the beginning of the 90s. 28 00:03:46,580 --> 00:03:51,860 It happened when I met killing young newcomer from South Africa. 29 00:03:51,860 --> 00:03:58,010 Killen was referred to me by a journalist who wrote about the problematic attitude of the social workers 30 00:03:58,010 --> 00:04:06,560 toward her complaint about her divorces suspected sexual conduct toward the two year old daughter. 31 00:04:06,560 --> 00:04:10,790 After our meeting, I became profoundly involved in Karen's case. 32 00:04:10,790 --> 00:04:16,580 For a long time and told me that the social workers blamed her and her daughter 33 00:04:16,580 --> 00:04:22,580 for imagining things and suggested that she should have psychiatric tests. 34 00:04:22,580 --> 00:04:32,330 Soon after the article was published, the social workers claimed that Gunn is an unfit mother in an abusive mother. 35 00:04:32,330 --> 00:04:40,580 They recommended to the court to provide protection for the child, who is allegedly maybe at risk. 36 00:04:40,580 --> 00:04:47,840 The youth investigate investigator's evaluation determined that the child could have been sexually molested in the site. 37 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:54,440 The psychiatrist suggested that the father is capable of losing the sense of what is forbidden. 38 00:04:54,440 --> 00:05:02,490 Nevertheless, the judge's verdict was to remove the girl from her mother's custody to the father's custody. 39 00:05:02,490 --> 00:05:09,150 Based on the social workers recommendations, the mother suffers from the symbiosis syndrome. 40 00:05:09,150 --> 00:05:16,450 The judge ruled that the mother harms the girl, perceiving her as part of her entity. 41 00:05:16,450 --> 00:05:20,130 Quoting this psychiatrist opinion, he couldn't. 42 00:05:20,130 --> 00:05:29,830 He concluded the Killen is unaware of her difficulties was the father and his spouse a well, 43 00:05:29,830 --> 00:05:36,160 excuse me, and therefore they are capable of dealing with them. 44 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:42,080 Our efforts to get to get help from senior officers in the Ministry for children's 45 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:50,560 rights organisations from Parliament members and even from the town's mayor failed. 46 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:58,480 The little girl was removed to her father's home later on when my involvement with many other cases expanded. 47 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:06,820 I came to realise the Kerins and her daughter's affair represented a broad reality beyond this specific case. 48 00:06:06,820 --> 00:06:12,850 The social workers and the judge's attitude was found to be part of a general victim. 49 00:06:12,850 --> 00:06:18,280 Declining to examine thoroughly unjust and evil decisions and practises. 50 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:24,040 Unable or unwilling to take steps to do justice with mothers and children. 51 00:06:24,040 --> 00:06:29,890 Adhering to state authorities expectations and to power sent those interests. 52 00:06:29,890 --> 00:06:37,870 I learnt that Karen's case is not exceptional, but it rather represents a bureaucratically structured phenomenon. 53 00:06:37,870 --> 00:06:47,420 It entails consistent behavioural patterns of officials who are committed to the employing organisation from which they obtained the living, 54 00:06:47,420 --> 00:06:56,050 engaged social and professional benefits. State authorities undermine mothers custodial rights over the children, 55 00:06:56,050 --> 00:07:03,940 especially through the discourse about child child's well-being and parental incompetence. 56 00:07:03,940 --> 00:07:09,700 Blaming mothers for physically endangering and neglecting their children. 57 00:07:09,700 --> 00:07:15,850 While the formal discourse emphasises the value of biological motherhood in practise, 58 00:07:15,850 --> 00:07:21,630 underprivileged mothers custody over the offspring can be easily undermined. 59 00:07:21,630 --> 00:07:28,030 Single parent mothers are a susceptible group for which babies can be taken away to adopt. 60 00:07:28,030 --> 00:07:35,830 Adoption in the children can be taken away to foster families or to welfare institutions. 61 00:07:35,830 --> 00:07:41,800 Although motherhood is repeatedly praised in court hearings and in general, public discourse. 62 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:48,550 Yet in practise, it is often placed below the well-being and lives of women's children. 63 00:07:48,550 --> 00:07:54,520 It follows that considering the good of the child is so superseding, 64 00:07:54,520 --> 00:08:06,840 that would the mother inadvertently implies receiving the mother is an object and a function for the other, in Bulga Hooker's words. 65 00:08:06,840 --> 00:08:18,780 However, quite often when the social and legal authorities intervene in their lives, neither the mother nor the child's rights seem to prevail. 66 00:08:18,780 --> 00:08:25,800 The mother child conflict in the Israeli welfare state is widely revealed in practises of adoption and out-of-home 67 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:37,710 placement of children and youth involving the expropriation of parenthood when a when they grant thornton is involved. 68 00:08:37,710 --> 00:08:46,260 According to Shimoni and Benveniste, single parent mothers are most of the most susceptible population with regard to 69 00:08:46,260 --> 00:08:50,940 outperform placement of babies and children who are being taken away to adoption, 70 00:08:50,940 --> 00:09:02,910 foster families or to welfare institutions. This one for policy is justified by claims about physical abuse and dangerous neglect of minors. 71 00:09:02,910 --> 00:09:13,320 I suggest that the expropriation of disadvantaged single mothers for parenthood serves the interests economic, organisational and professional. 72 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:22,950 Thus, they argue that women's fertility is exploited by powerful groups to gain custody over their offspring. 73 00:09:22,950 --> 00:09:29,760 The expropriation of custody over babies and children from disadvantaged mothers is also perceived as means of 74 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:38,940 silencing mothers claims conveying a threatening message to other women who demand economic assistance from the state. 75 00:09:38,940 --> 00:09:42,840 Some feminist studies stress the connexion between globalisation, 76 00:09:42,840 --> 00:09:50,370 neo-Liberal policies and women's poverty, in particular of those heading single parent families. 77 00:09:50,370 --> 00:09:59,910 However, these studies ignore the connexion between women's weakness and the hidden threat of losing custody over the treatment. 78 00:09:59,910 --> 00:10:06,450 My research and social activity unveiled this hardly spoken phenomenon. 79 00:10:06,450 --> 00:10:12,930 Stigmatising and disqualifying disempowered women's motherhood occurs by blaming these women as 80 00:10:12,930 --> 00:10:21,180 failing mothers and by blurring society's responsibility for their and the children's situation. 81 00:10:21,180 --> 00:10:28,080 Andrea Wylie and Mary Pool to argue in a similar vein that blaming the sick and stigmatising 82 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:36,090 women is bad mothers is a familiar response to many social problems in the last decades. 83 00:10:36,090 --> 00:10:44,160 Those growing feminist research relating to the profound role of motherhood in the feminine identity. 84 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:52,680 Afro-American scholars criticised the white feminists for ignoring the immense importance of motherhood for women. 85 00:10:52,680 --> 00:11:01,080 According to Riley and Porter, this week's thought the feminist attitude to motherhood emerges from perceiving motherhood as a 86 00:11:01,080 --> 00:11:10,120 major source of women's oppression and is causing the vulnerability and limitation in Israel to. 87 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:14,700 There's a growing tendency to connect motherhood and the feminine identity. 88 00:11:14,700 --> 00:11:25,950 Similar studies focus on full mother's hardships. However, almost none deal with a potential threat over these women's motherhood. 89 00:11:25,950 --> 00:11:31,710 The caring for the child discourse on the one hand and the bed mother discourse on the other 90 00:11:31,710 --> 00:11:39,210 ensure the widely accepted public legitimacy for taking away children school from their families. 91 00:11:39,210 --> 00:11:44,820 The gap between the rhetoric above the right of motherhood and the practises that 92 00:11:44,820 --> 00:11:51,600 undermine it can be explained as serving the interests of the welfare institutions lobby, 93 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:57,330 which depends on the out of home placement welfare policy. 94 00:11:57,330 --> 00:12:05,940 If you go the issue by several prominent judges we serve can serve to illustrate how decisions expropriate 95 00:12:05,940 --> 00:12:13,290 and women's motherhood are based on rhetoric about biological motherhood versus children's welfare. 96 00:12:13,290 --> 00:12:14,880 So Judge Beam has. 97 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:26,100 Chief Monk, for instance, admitted that the verdict he examines raised the concern that taking away babies for adoption is a problematic practise. 98 00:12:26,100 --> 00:12:33,450 He implied that there is an inconsistency between the rhetoric opposing adoption of disadvantaged parents, 99 00:12:33,450 --> 00:12:43,100 offspring by better off couples and actual decisions in specific cases, he wrote. 100 00:12:43,100 --> 00:12:45,410 In his walk as follows, 101 00:12:45,410 --> 00:12:55,250 it appears to me that all agree that the adoption law is not a tool for biggest redistribution of children's population in the country. 102 00:12:55,250 --> 00:13:05,270 We are not ready. The children will be taken away from the parents custody just because the economic or spiritual situation is unfair. 103 00:13:05,270 --> 00:13:11,000 Similar statements were expressed in other various buildings by High Court judges. 104 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:18,080 In one case, Judge Joshua Bell from the original court rejected the social workers recommendation to 105 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:25,400 transfer a girl to an adoptive family based on psychologist's observation that the mother is, 106 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:27,920 quote, retarded and primitive. 107 00:13:27,920 --> 00:13:38,570 In his verdict, you rule the adoption law was not designed to enable a redistribution of children and the transfer from one family to another family. 108 00:13:38,570 --> 00:13:47,180 Just because even the new family, the parents level is much higher or because in another family conditions of 109 00:13:47,180 --> 00:13:53,180 bringing up children in the atmosphere are better in the biological family. 110 00:13:53,180 --> 00:14:03,620 Thus, just be a bit of statement criticises the rapist for distribution of babies, according to parents socio economic status. 111 00:14:03,620 --> 00:14:13,940 It seems, therefore, that the judge's reproach of the social workers emphasising that the state cannot be an agency that transfers babies from 112 00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:23,840 poor parents to better off parents demonstrates his understanding that this is what the authorities do in practise. 113 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:30,710 A similar judicial criticism of the social workers was expressed by the former High Court judge a lack of culture. 114 00:14:30,710 --> 00:14:39,860 School I expressed her reservations with regard to the prolonged legal discussions in the bay what was called baby of Scrive case. 115 00:14:39,860 --> 00:14:47,630 She criticised sharply the windfall theory authorities for the deep and I quote blow to the natural 116 00:14:47,630 --> 00:14:55,340 justice principle for no fault of the mother and of court and for abusing the parent's weakness. 117 00:14:55,340 --> 00:15:05,000 Giving up the child in quote school bussing crisis forgot to blamed the social work, especially to get in haste. 118 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:14,150 Parents acceptance to the adoption, capturing parents in providing acceptance to the adoption. 119 00:15:14,150 --> 00:15:26,360 Abusing mothers weakness to get control over the children seems to be embedded in the social power order and the part of social political bargains. 120 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:31,160 This veiled implication behind the expropriation of women's custody over the 121 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:38,420 babies and children gained only negligible attention in the feminist research. 122 00:15:38,420 --> 00:15:40,160 Gorman novel, for instance, 123 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:50,900 should suggests that the Social Workers Act is a whip against single parent mothers and that they do not feel empathy to the mother situation. 124 00:15:50,900 --> 00:15:58,760 Yet, she ignores the connexion between women's poverty and the disqualification of motherhood. 125 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:08,210 It is argued, then, the legal and wilful practise practises enable the expropriation of disadvantaged 126 00:16:08,210 --> 00:16:14,510 women's motherhood using the children as a resource for social transaction. 127 00:16:14,510 --> 00:16:24,710 This argument will be illustrated by the drug rehabilitation syndrome that refers to pregnant and boosting drug addicted women. 128 00:16:24,710 --> 00:16:32,900 However, in cannabis work on mother foetus relationships and the use of drugs by pregnant women describe the 129 00:16:32,900 --> 00:16:40,190 legal development that created the independent status of the minor in unborn baby in this case. 130 00:16:40,190 --> 00:16:48,950 Apart from the mother status and rights. In fact, the separate status of the unborn baby from that of the mother enables those 131 00:16:48,950 --> 00:16:54,920 in authority to abolish the mother's rights rights with regard to the foetus, 132 00:16:54,920 --> 00:16:59,990 justifying this by claiming that the mother may harm the baby. 133 00:16:59,990 --> 00:17:11,030 This position serves the welfare authorities in on both equal stimulating what was called pregnancy police, 134 00:17:11,030 --> 00:17:22,970 which will intervene in any decision that the woman makes during her pregnancy, claiming that it can influence negatively the fate of harbouring. 135 00:17:22,970 --> 00:17:29,480 Cadabby argues that the draconian step that's how she will seek the steps she says 136 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:36,440 are employed against pregnant women who are in a medically and need for position. 137 00:17:36,440 --> 00:17:42,100 Society found here, she writes. The chance to impose supervision. 138 00:17:42,100 --> 00:17:48,730 The feminine birthing functions, which are anyway very susceptible to its control. 139 00:17:48,730 --> 00:17:59,020 Nevertheless, I suggest that this is the opportunity to take away unborn babies from women in a vulnerable situation that is behind the pregnancy. 140 00:17:59,020 --> 00:18:10,120 Police, rather than intentional, practise this practise of undermining women's right both rights or punishing drug addicted women. 141 00:18:10,120 --> 00:18:20,740 Hence, it is not surprising that about 50 percent of the babies that are born with a drug rehabilitation syndrome were taken away to adoption. 142 00:18:20,740 --> 00:18:25,780 May suggest that taking away babies for adoption takes place from underprivileged 143 00:18:25,780 --> 00:18:32,680 mothers and not only from mothers who are suspected of harming the foetus. 144 00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:42,430 This policy stimulates the widely accepted belief that those mothers babies should be taken away for the baby's sake. 145 00:18:42,430 --> 00:18:51,820 It appears, therefore, that the state intervention in individuals and families lives and the use of coercive coercive means 146 00:18:51,820 --> 00:18:59,950 are directed toward marked groups with so-called social deviants or absence of parental competence. 147 00:18:59,950 --> 00:19:11,230 A widely accepted human pressures that lobbyists and better off childless people exert on politicians seem to lie behind the rhetoric. 148 00:19:11,230 --> 00:19:21,040 The legislation and the coercive means. The discourse that perceives the good of the child ascending above biological motherhood has 149 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:26,850 been revealed in various strategies relating to adoption brought to the Israeli courts. 150 00:19:26,850 --> 00:19:32,200 This advantage lover's vulnerability, which makes it easier to take away the babies, 151 00:19:32,200 --> 00:19:37,660 was exposed in several cases that became known as the baby strife. 152 00:19:37,660 --> 00:19:46,090 There were three cases famous cases one 2004, the other in 2013 and the other one in 2017. 153 00:19:46,090 --> 00:19:57,430 Those cases can demonstrate how the adoption practises undermine the biological role of motherhood, especially that of disadvantaged mothers. 154 00:19:57,430 --> 00:20:05,830 In several cases, birth mothers who suffered from postpartum depression gave up the babies for adoption, 155 00:20:05,830 --> 00:20:16,270 but regretted the decision a short time later. The most famous affair took place in 2004 and 2005. 156 00:20:16,270 --> 00:20:21,340 I was exposed to that fear following a meeting with the birth mother and her spouse. 157 00:20:21,340 --> 00:20:25,960 While our pain was discussed at the High Court in that case, 158 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:33,640 the mother confirmed her consent to giving up the baby because of economic and emotional difficulties. 159 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:37,840 She regretted her decision after a short time, according to the law. 160 00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:46,120 At the time, a birth mother could relinquished her consent to give away her baby within three months 161 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:52,120 and her babies would be returned to her after a long legal struggle in the courts. 162 00:20:52,120 --> 00:20:58,960 The High Court's verdict determined that the baby should be left with the adoptive adoptive parents. 163 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:07,180 According to the social workers recommendations, the verdict was saturated with rhetoric about the value of the family. 164 00:21:07,180 --> 00:21:10,210 The voice of blood and the voice of nature. 165 00:21:10,210 --> 00:21:22,390 Side by side with claims about the good of the child, although the latter concept is vague and ambiguous, is revealed by some scholars. 166 00:21:22,390 --> 00:21:28,240 The judges decided seem to prefer the adoptive parents choose. 167 00:21:28,240 --> 00:21:34,090 A law scholar argued that this verdict illustrates how High Court judges are 168 00:21:34,090 --> 00:21:42,310 influenced by the world views and tend to ascribe heavy weight to experts opinions. 169 00:21:42,310 --> 00:21:53,410 Ben David, another scholar from social work, also pointed to the problematic use of definitions of current parenthood, 170 00:21:53,410 --> 00:21:59,290 competence and the good of the child in forced adoption processes. 171 00:21:59,290 --> 00:22:06,640 The legal discourse, she argued, brings in the voice of the professional expert What is the biological parents? 172 00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:16,450 Voice is not heard. The verdict in the above mentioned case demonstrate the fake biological motherhood of underprivileged 173 00:22:16,450 --> 00:22:26,170 mothers is subject to powerful social bargaining and is controlled by state authorities state authorities. 174 00:22:26,170 --> 00:22:33,430 In this reality, it is possible to carry out unofficially into class trade in babies. 175 00:22:33,430 --> 00:22:40,300 Judge Ella BrokerCheck implied this understanding, calling the calling to cancel the adoption. 176 00:22:40,300 --> 00:22:42,130 She exposed the bias we. 177 00:22:42,130 --> 00:22:52,630 The hearings closed, for instance, by the prolonged trial which benefited the doping company who had kept the baby with them through that time. 178 00:22:52,630 --> 00:22:58,150 Contrary to pro culture judge on one Bach, the president of the High Court at the time, 179 00:22:58,150 --> 00:23:03,460 and the other five judges decided not to cancel the adoption process. 180 00:23:03,460 --> 00:23:11,320 The explanations reality the mother's emotional distress after giving birth and ignored the fact that she 181 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:18,850 was psychologically pressured by social workers to sign her consent to offering her baby for adoption. 182 00:23:18,850 --> 00:23:30,190 They also ignored the recommendations of the mother's advocate, the baby's guardian and the psychologist, none of which fitted the position. 183 00:23:30,190 --> 00:23:41,410 The judges adopted the hypothetical assessment of endangering the minor if it were to be returned to his biological mother. 184 00:23:41,410 --> 00:23:52,450 Disqualifying the supremacy of biological mother would block use the term optimal parental competence to justify the High Court's decision. 185 00:23:52,450 --> 00:23:53,440 Thus, 186 00:23:53,440 --> 00:24:05,440 the discourse on the good of the child served to whitewash the cruel implications for the biological mother and for biological motherhood at large. 187 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:14,800 It appears, therefore, the judge's verdicts explores a striking contradiction between the rhetoric and the actual decisions. 188 00:24:14,800 --> 00:24:21,940 Institute specific cases The formal rhetoric criticised decisively taking away children of poor, 189 00:24:21,940 --> 00:24:30,640 disadvantaged parents for adoption, perceiving it as an act of this redistribution connected to the class structure, 190 00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:41,020 justice and social workers who come from realistic, relatively better off groups seem to prefer those who are closer to the social status. 191 00:24:41,020 --> 00:24:50,110 Relying conveniently on social workers recommendations, the judges transfer babies of mothers in stressful situations to better off 192 00:24:50,110 --> 00:24:57,460 parents endorsing the supremacy of optimal parenthood over biological attachment. 193 00:24:57,460 --> 00:25:03,940 It is argued the thought that the courts and the welfare system serve the interests of better off groups, 194 00:25:03,940 --> 00:25:16,360 facilitating the exploitation of the bursting of ability of disadvantaged women as a resource for fun for fulfilling the demand for babies. 195 00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:27,100 If more affluent women, I shall describe now one case in which I was profoundly influenced accompanying a mother who struggles to prevent, 196 00:25:27,100 --> 00:25:33,160 prevent the welfare authorities and the courts from taking away her 11 year old son. 197 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:43,630 This case illustrates the unbearable outcomes for disadvantaged single parent mothers in confronting powerful state agencies. 198 00:25:43,630 --> 00:25:48,700 The professional discourse plays a prominent role in such cases. 199 00:25:48,700 --> 00:25:55,630 The conspicuous stance used in this discourse against parental incompetence and the good of the child. 200 00:25:55,630 --> 00:26:02,740 Both are perceived by the social and legal authorities as potentially incompetent. 201 00:26:02,740 --> 00:26:10,960 Some 24 years ago, Edun was taken away from Batya and impoverished blind single parent, 202 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:18,530 and he was transferred over a period of one year and a half to state controlled institutions. 203 00:26:18,530 --> 00:26:24,070 I was exposed to this case when Maja called me following a radio interview in which 204 00:26:24,070 --> 00:26:29,740 I talked about the disturbing conditions in welfare institutions for youth at risk. 205 00:26:29,740 --> 00:26:37,090 My involvement in this offer included daily telephone conversations with visits at home, 206 00:26:37,090 --> 00:26:42,580 participating in court hearings and taking with talking with journalist Knesset members, 207 00:26:42,580 --> 00:26:48,790 lawyers, police officers, professionals in children's rights organisations and others. 208 00:26:48,790 --> 00:26:59,410 I witnessed Matyas incidents, intolerable experiences caused by various local and state officials and in court hearings. 209 00:26:59,410 --> 00:27:02,590 This are first thought that started following, 210 00:27:02,590 --> 00:27:11,650 but just a demand that her son be removed to another class because of the clash between her and his class teacher. 211 00:27:11,650 --> 00:27:17,860 Her request was dismissed by the school director and the head of the local and occasional department. 212 00:27:17,860 --> 00:27:24,220 He then stayed at home for a whole year while Batya tried to find another school for his son. 213 00:27:24,220 --> 00:27:30,850 Is these efforts were blocked by the head of the Education Department Budget carried on her fight by turning 214 00:27:30,850 --> 00:27:38,680 to the local and national media to the State Controller Organisation for Children's Welfare and Human Rights. 215 00:27:38,680 --> 00:27:49,020 Knesset members and to officials in the Ministry of Education. These ActionScript angrily responded by the local Department of Education Welfare, 216 00:27:49,020 --> 00:27:54,000 but there was one that the son would be taken away from her if she did not stop the 217 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:59,580 public accusations is that you continued her confrontation with the authorities. 218 00:27:59,580 --> 00:28:07,140 The social workers in the scene, the local welfare department, recommended expropriating for custody of Edun. 219 00:28:07,140 --> 00:28:15,210 The main claim was that she was suffocating her son depending on him and disturbing his development. 220 00:28:15,210 --> 00:28:22,050 The courts accepted the social workers recommendation, as they do in most similar cases. 221 00:28:22,050 --> 00:28:30,120 The order to abolish custody and to remove the ban against his and his mother switched to an emergency shelter. 222 00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:37,710 Edun stayed there for 11 months. He ran away a few times and was called by the policeman who returned him to the shelter. 223 00:28:37,710 --> 00:28:43,440 Then Ivana was transferred to a welfare who was still in Jerusalem, far from his mother's home. 224 00:28:43,440 --> 00:28:51,720 He stayed there for another seven months. Following my suggestion to serve as a foster family for Edun, which was approved by the court. 225 00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:59,220 Edun was transferred to my role. He told us about his tough experiences in the shelter and in the hospital, 226 00:28:59,220 --> 00:29:09,660 and about the coercive means used to control and to punish the inmates amongst which were cold showers and then forced isolation. 227 00:29:09,660 --> 00:29:22,260 But to complain the few times about the as violent behaviour and was repeatedly told by police officials that everything was OK when he then was 16, 228 00:29:22,260 --> 00:29:30,030 but to die the way of breast cancer, he left. He left us and left us and returned to his mother's home. 229 00:29:30,030 --> 00:29:38,190 Edun has never succeeded to recuperate, and he was repeatedly involved in illegal activities dealing with the police and the courts. 230 00:29:38,190 --> 00:29:44,370 From a gifted child, he became a homeless person and often involved in criminal circles. 231 00:29:44,370 --> 00:29:50,190 This example demonstrates the oppressive power that state authorities hold and employ, 232 00:29:50,190 --> 00:29:55,770 especially when it comes to individuals who lack socio economic resources. 233 00:29:55,770 --> 00:29:59,040 My understanding is, therefore, as stated earlier, 234 00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:08,760 the disadvantage women like Batya can be conveniently stigmatised by the welfare and legal state system is unfit mothers. 235 00:30:08,760 --> 00:30:16,620 This case also reveals how the welfare and educational departments serve as a as the long arm of the local municipality. 236 00:30:16,620 --> 00:30:24,890 Silencing and punishing mothers who are troublemakers by expropriating the custody of the children. 237 00:30:24,890 --> 00:30:34,590 Expropriating custody of the children serves to convey a warning or threat to single parent mothers against disturbing though authorities by, 238 00:30:34,590 --> 00:30:45,360 for instance, demanding housing or subsistence assistance and becoming a burden on the state treasurer in mature but and in case the public 239 00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:54,060 attention gains with the media coverage of the story irritated the officials and incited the desire to teach materialism, 240 00:30:54,060 --> 00:31:03,930 taking away an only child who would signal to other mothers in a similar situation to be careful when turning to the authorities. 241 00:31:03,930 --> 00:31:08,460 Thus, mothers can be controlled by threatening the mother. 242 00:31:08,460 --> 00:31:14,160 In general, judges appear to assume in good faith or under constraint. 243 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:22,650 The social workers are driven by sincere concern of children's well-being and carrying out invaluable work. 244 00:31:22,650 --> 00:31:27,300 Although abuse of children seem to occur often in welfare institutions, 245 00:31:27,300 --> 00:31:35,300 judges seem to believe that they are better than a home in which the mother is allegedly unable to protect her child. 246 00:31:35,300 --> 00:31:43,650 Judge judges routinely rely on them own on diagnosing agencies that cooperate with their welfare authorities. 247 00:31:43,650 --> 00:31:50,460 Thus, both the good of the child and the right of motherhood are not guaranteed in the welfare state. 248 00:31:50,460 --> 00:31:53,940 It seems that the child will be in the child. 249 00:31:53,940 --> 00:32:01,050 Mother bonding can be joke or dies by state authorities, especially when it comes to disadvantaged mothers. 250 00:32:01,050 --> 00:32:11,910 So to conclude, elaborating on the mother child conflict revealed that the social value attached to the concept of the good of the child serves as 251 00:32:11,910 --> 00:32:21,750 a smokescreen in bowls and ghitis words to conceal the instrumental use of motherhood for realising social political interests. 252 00:32:21,750 --> 00:32:27,160 Discussing the context of the Australia welfare policy at present concerning babies and children, 253 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:36,120 the three may highlight the fragile status of motherhood is influenced by women's socio economic situation disadvantage. 254 00:32:36,120 --> 00:32:41,490 Mothers custody can be easily terminated by using the terminology of caring. 255 00:32:41,490 --> 00:32:48,000 Four minus one being the sitting, he is proceeding the mother's right to motherhood. 256 00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:58,170 I try to unveil the destructive outcomes of the unrestricted power of state agencies and other powerful organisations over wars, children and mothers. 257 00:32:58,170 --> 00:33:09,480 Hence, I conclude that underprivileged women's, biological and sociological natures exploited by more affluent people, the state and various agencies. 258 00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:15,960 Thank you. Thank you very much. Just really fascinating paper. 259 00:33:15,960 --> 00:33:25,470 I really appreciate hearing about this because we know that Israel is a pro naturists country. 260 00:33:25,470 --> 00:33:35,700 In fact, when it comes to infertility treatment, Israel has got the highest rate number of free IVF cycle in the world. 261 00:33:35,700 --> 00:33:41,130 So when you think you know, in a country like that, everything has to be encouraged to what's motherhood? 262 00:33:41,130 --> 00:33:46,450 And everything you're telling us is the discrimination which exists there. 263 00:33:46,450 --> 00:33:59,400 And I imagine we can discuss it later about, is it a particular social group of women who are being actually targeted, vulnerable groups? 264 00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:06,540 You know, you are saying women are exploited, you know, women's facilities exploited, you would have. 265 00:34:06,540 --> 00:34:16,500 So they want to encourage people to have more children, and this is surely a disincentive for people to go on reproducing. 266 00:34:16,500 --> 00:34:23,070 So I have many, many comments and questions, but I just I wanted to thank you very much. 267 00:34:23,070 --> 00:34:27,840 I'm sorry that I can't see all the participants. Thank you for coming. 268 00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:36,060 And I very much hope that at some point we can open and be in-person and meet everybody, which is a completely different dynamics. 269 00:34:36,060 --> 00:34:43,830 But thank you so much as that. I really, really learnt and enjoyed, learnt from and enjoy your paper and what I see you next. 270 00:34:43,830 --> 00:34:48,390 I will ask you many more questions on that. Thank you so much. 271 00:34:48,390 --> 00:34:53,640 And thank you, Soraya, very much and thanks as they see our wonderful work. 272 00:34:53,640 --> 00:35:05,400 And it was really. A pleasure. Thank you.