This theme focuses on  the history of the medical profession in Palestine, using legal analysis (the regulation of professions) and focusing on the effect of the legal arena on the creation of professions, particularly the medical profession. This unique combination of legal history and the history of medicine shed light on the inception and development of medical professions in Palestine, including previously under-examined professions such as dentistry, particularly during the Mandate era. One sub-theme that Dr. Katvan examined in depth was Women in the Medical/Health Professions, focusing on the role of women in the history of healthcare in Palestine, especially between the two world wars. In this context he (individually or collaboratively) examined the regulation of Midwifery and of Dentistry in Palestine. The conclusions that emerged from these studies are that legal regulation shaped the image of these occupations and of the women who practiced them, and that in doing so it deferred to the medical establishment, which was controlled primarily by men.

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Katvan, Eyal, Bartal, Nira, "A Law is Born: The Midwives Ordinance, Gender and Professional Regulation during the British Mandate", One Law for Men and Women: Women and Law during the British Mandate (ed. Eyal Katvan, Margalit Shilo, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari) (2010) 469 (in Hebrew) 
This article describes the historical foundations of the Midwives Ordinance in Mandatory Palestine in 1929. Among the topics that are discussed are the effect of regulation on midwifery, the ways in which the Ordinance reflects distrust of folk midwives (dayah); the wording of the Ordinance, typified by blurred boundaries that sometimes brought on tensions between the powers of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists; the midwife’s status as a professional woman whom the Ordinance transformed into a kind of overseer of women’s body (that of the birthing mother) in the service of the British authorities or her own people; and the process of cementing the “female” and the roots of the inferior status of midwifery compared with other medical occupations.

 

 

Eyal Katvan, “The History of Dentistry in pre-State Israel: The De-Feminization Process”, 16 Hamishpat (2011) 173 (in Hebrew).

         

 

Eyal Katvan and Meron Pioterkovski, “Josephine Zurcher-Fallsheer – The Forgotten Doctor”,  Bioethics, Law and Medicine (forthcoming 2020) (in Hebrew)     

The entry and integration of women in the medical profession had a profound impact for other women – on the one hand, because they created a precedent and a model for other women to follow, while, on the other hand, they could provide essential health services to female patients, many of whom were barred form, or deliberately avoided treatment for reasons of modesty, or for other motives. Josephine Theresia Zürcher, born 1866 in Zurich (Switzerland), is commonly known, in the German-speaking world, as one of the first female Swiss doctors. She was also one of the first doctors and veterinarians in the Near and Middle East. However, there is very little that is known about her, especially the fact, that she was the second female doctor in Ottoman Palestine and in the city of Haifa. This article attempts to do this some (historical) justice, as we will present here, a brief overview of her floruit with a special focus on her activities in the Land of Israel. This will be done while analyzing her activities in the broader context of the importance of the integration and the place of women in professionalism in general (and women in the medicine sector in particular), and in a multicultural reality, in which importance is attached to the question of gender interaction between therapist and patient.

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Eyal Katvan, “That was the Beginning”: Professionalization and Americanization of Dentistry in (Pre-State) Israel”, 58 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF DENTISTRY (2010) 147 (the American Academy of the History of Dentistry).  

The history of dental practice in Israel dates back to 1953, with the establishment of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Hebrew University. This article will discuss the early roots of American involvement in Israeli dentistry: beginning with the late Ottoman period in Palestine, through the British Mandate, the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and the institution of the Faculty of Dentistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It will introduce the central characters who promoted the professionalization process of dentistry in Israel -- a process made possible by the 'Americanization' of the field: importing American knowledge and practice. Moreover, this article will demonstrate that although the majority of dentists and dental practitioners arrived in Palestine from Russia and from Germany, the main professional influence was American.

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Eyal Katvan, Nira Bartal, “The Midwives Ordinance (Palestine, 1929): Historical Perspectives and Current Lessons”, 17 NURSING INQUIRY, (2010) 165. 

Until 1929, midwifery in Palestine was relatively open to anyone and only partially regulated by the 1918 Public Health Ordinance, legislated shortly after the beginning of British rule. This article describes the factors that guided the shaping of midwifery and suggests possible sources of inspiration for the British legislator in crafting the Midwives Ordinance in 1929, including American, local (Jews and Arabs), and British ones. The Midwives Ordinance reflects the adjustment of midwifery to changes in the society that evolved under the British Mandate. The ordinance shows how the modern midwife’s role contracted relative to the traditional one, in the context of social processes in other countries, east and west. This historical research project is based on interviews, archive documents and research literature. It analyzes the British interests in regulating midwifery, including the rationale of preserving public health and reducing infant mortality, against a background of political power struggles as well as cultural, social and professional diversity in Palestine (the tensions between the powers of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists).

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Eyal Katvan, “Toothless Law”: The Regulation (or Vaguelation) of Dentistry in Mandate Palestine”, MEDIZIN, GESELLSCHAFT UND GESCHICHTE – BEIHEFTE 2019

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Eyal Katvan, “Women in the Professions in Mandate Palestine”, 34 NASHIM JOURNAL  2019

This article recounts the fascinating dynamics of women entering the professions of law, dentistry and midwifery during the Mandate period in Palestine. After presenting the theoretical background relating to the concept of “profession” and the relationship between the statutory regulation of occupations and their professionalization, it focuses on the relationship between women and the professions as it was differentially impacted by legislation in the Mandate period. The story of women’s entrance into the professions thus provides a partial response to the question of how the British framed laws in the complex reality of Mandate Palestine, while endeavoring not to be perceived as discriminating against or privileging either Jews or Arabs. I shall present the process of women’s entrance into or exclusion from different occupations while examining the various narratives that accompanied the regulation of these occupations, in order to expose the common threads or differences between them. I conclude that the regulation of these professions may be understood not through a single uniform narrative, but in various patterns of integration: feminization and de-feminization, professionalization and de-professionalization, sensitization, politicization, and shifts in custom and tradition, which are slow and at times work to the benefit of professional women and at others to their detriment.

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Eyal Katvan, Nadav Davidovitch, “Between Health, Politics and Professionalism: Medical Examination of Emigration Applicants to Pre-State Israel, 1925-1928”, 11 Israel (2007) 31 (in Hebrew).

The article focuses on two instances when physicians were dismissed from their position as medical examiners in the Warsaw Eretz Israel office in 1925-28. These two related episodes serve as a case study for placing the medical examination of Jewish immigrants to Palestine by the Zionist movement in a broader social, political and professional context. Apart from their important public health function, Zionist physicians and administrators viewed the medical examination as an important vehicle for acquiring political and professional authority, which created constant tensions among political, ideological and medical considerations. An analysis of the various interests involved can help to understand the interaction between Zionism and public health during a decisive period when the basis for the medical selection of immigrants by the Zionist movement was being laid.

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Eyal Katvan, “Omi Leissner, Mining Women’s Bodies: The Case of Childbirth in Israel” In NASHIM JOURNAL 2019

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Shnoor Boaz, Eyal Katvan, “The Ringworm Victims Compensation Law – 1994: Legislation and Court Decisions – between Rhetoric and Compensation”, RINGWORM - THE INTERNATIONAL  AND THE ISRAELI SAGA, (eds: Shvarts S, Sadetzki S.,  Ben Gurion University Publication) (2018) 459 (in Hebrew)