ABSTRACT
The article is based on the author’s personal involvement in the feminist struggle against pornography in Israel, which took place in the beginning of the third millennium. It describes the feminist organizations’ struggle and success in passing a law against porn on public TV and their failure in courts, trying to prevent the legalization of Playboy Channel. The article elaborates on the conspicuous role of the liberal discourse in the clashes between the right-wing parties and mainstream media, which enhanced the infiltration of pornography into Israeli society, and the feminist coalition. The article points to the vested interests of politicians and the media in supporting the legitimation of pornography. Highlighting the role of the courts in this process, it unveils the power of patriarchy, preferring males’ sexual predominance to females’ human dignity, in the name of freedom of expression. This discourse served to gain public and legal legitimacy of a phenomenon which is essentially embedded in criminal spheres.
