Archival research, security records and violence against women: Evidence from the First Intifada

Considering the principle of respect des fonds, this chapter ties together archival research, gendered violence and diplomatic history. It presents a close reading of one textual object, a 13-page original document titled Killings of Women During the Uprising, recently found in the Israel State Archives (file dated 1990–1991). The chapter shows how diplomatic records that were left unregulated by state memory laws may contain valuable information pertaining to the lives of silent subjects and victims of intra-communal violence during the First Intifada (1987–1993). The document reveals a list of extreme killings of Palestinian women who were suspected to be collaborators by Palestinian militant groups in the West Bank and Gaza. The subsequent silencing of these events evokes ethical dilemmas that are linked to wider issues concerning the use of archival sources that contain evidence about gender-based violence. The study finds that Israeli delegates used lists of dead women to shape and deepen a one-sided narrative about Palestinian violent masculinity. In this microhistory, the dual legal system in Israel/Palestine is re-evaluated in a way that uncovers the everyday practices that defined the double role of Israeli women’s policy agencies: as domestic bureaucratic units and as practitioners of public and soft diplomacy.