Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T12:04:57.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

8 - The Palmach Women

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2011

Efrat Ben-Ze'ev
Affiliation:
Academic Centre Ruppin, Israel
Get access

Summary

The recruitment of women was not on the agenda when the Palmach was first established as a guerilla force, in May 1941. Only a small number of women were accepted at the start. However, as mentioned in Chapter 7, the idea of the hakhsharah, a unit combining young men and women, came into being in 1942. As the structure of the hakhsharah took root, women became an integral part of the Palmach. However, as early as 1943 it was decided that the women would train separately from the men, would be commanded by women, and would mainly carry out auxiliary military functions. The number of women in the Palmach reached its peak at the beginning of 1948 – over a third of the Palmach as a whole.

The participation of women in the Palmach became at the time a symbol of its existence – a young woman in shorts with a tent or a desert landscape in the background was the popular image. Women's incorporation into the Palmach had ideological roots in European socialism. August Bebel's influential book Woman under Socialism ([1883] 1904) had a lingering formative influence on socialist movements, of which the Palmach perceived itself as an offshoot. Socialism, argued Bebel, could succeed only if women were liberated from the family role imposed on them by the capitalist mode of production. The most direct influence on the Palmach came from the Soviet bloc.

Type
Chapter
Information
Remembering Palestine in 1948
Beyond National Narratives
, pp. 146 - 166
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Palmach Women
  • Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, Academic Centre Ruppin, Israel
  • Book: Remembering Palestine in 1948
  • Online publication: 07 October 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761737.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Palmach Women
  • Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, Academic Centre Ruppin, Israel
  • Book: Remembering Palestine in 1948
  • Online publication: 07 October 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761737.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Palmach Women
  • Efrat Ben-Ze'ev, Academic Centre Ruppin, Israel
  • Book: Remembering Palestine in 1948
  • Online publication: 07 October 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761737.011
Available formats
×