Crisis-Laden Time: Temporal Crisis and Speculative Pregnancies during the Gaza War

This article assumes that the critical and catastrophic time of the Gaza War is also characterized by a crisis of time, a temporal crisis in which the future is uncertain and in doubt and the present progresses at a foreign and unbearable pace. Based on this assumption, the article seeks to examine two instances of speculation about pregnancy that were prevalent in Jewish society in Israel during the war. The first is the possibility of pregnancy among the women kidnapped to Gaza, and the second is the possibility of an expected “baby boom” during the war. The article considers how these speculations served in coping with the temporal crisis of the war. It addresses speculative pregnancies, but reveals that the ties between pregnancy and speculation run deep and wide, far beyond these specific speculations: it demonstrates how pregnancy is a phenomenon about which much is always speculated, how pregnancy in its early stages is often itself nothing more than speculation, and how it echoes the form of speculation in holding a similar attitude toward the future, and in particular the uncertain and threatening future.

In contrast to the prevailing analysis that considers pregnancy and female fertility in war “from the outside,” from the perspective of the soldiers, leaders, or society, as part warfare against the enemy (through rape leading to pregnancy or mutilating women’s bodies to, practically or symbolically, harm their reproductive capabilities), or as part of national mobilization (“the national womb”) this study seeks to examine the experience of pregnancy “from the inside,” and to use insights that emerge from the perspective of the experience of pregnancy to understand additional aspects of the function of speculative discourse on pregnancies during war.

Examining these speculative pregnancies from the perspective of the experience of pregnancy teaches us not only about Israeli society during the war, but also about pregnancy itself. It challenges the relationship between pregnancy and death, the distinction between desired and unwanted pregnancies, and the connection between pregnancy and the future. Ultimately, the goal is to allow space for women’s experiences in thinking about war and to understand the meanings and costs that the use of these experiences for the benefit of the war, imposes on women’s lives and bodies.