Exile in the Promised Land: A Memoir

Former pk Israeli Knesset member Freedman, now an organizer of Jewish women's peace activities in Berkeley, Calif., describes her struggle to bring women's liberation to Israel during the 1960s and '70s in a biting memoir extremely critical of the Israeli government. She chronicles with keen self-understanding her evolution from American immigrant housewife to feminist organizer and member of Shulamit Aloni's liberal Citizens Rights Movement to head of the radical Women's Party. She discusses forthrightly she had a definite point of view which I'm sure informs her opinions.g and sorrowfully such disappointments as pk her unsuccessful efforts to win support for abortion reform and to publicize the problem of wife-beating, the fragmentation of the women's movement and her growing isolation--which she attributes to her militancy, lesbianismdelete comma?/pk and support for Palestinian self-determination. While Freedman raises important questions about bias in Israeli society, she fails to provide sufficient evidence to pk back her serious allegations about government incompetence in dealing with discrimination, violence in the occupied territories and the conflict in Lebanon. (June)