Sarai Aharoni - The Intimacy of Power: Gender and the US Navy in Haifa

Dr. Sarai Aharoni, lecturer in the Gender Studies Program of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, will look at the relationship between the United States and Israel – a topic much debated and discussed in the media and the public sphere – by turning away from the official channels of diplomacy and to another form of collaboration and interaction. The lecture will present a microanalysis of US Sixth-Fleet port calls, Rest and Recreation, and naval diplomacy in the Port of Haifa during 1978-2001. The documentation of everyday civil-military encounters in the city supports the claim that in the Mediterranean context, American military expansion was welcomed both by political elites and the general public. In this process, a politics of consensus was created through repeated activities, ceremonies, and cultural frames, that stressed the shared values and importance of US-Israel relations. Although the negative effects of routine visits (vandalism, crime, prostitution, and rape) were never publicly acknowledged on the national level, various mechanisms for containing and minimizing urban conflict were developed over time by local officials, entrepreneurs, and residents. The lecture focuses in particular on the narratives of and about women who were involved as agents in the daily maintenance spaces frequented by American servicemen, and reveals that intimacy, sexuality, and even motherly love were significant elements among the mechanisms of containment.