Budgeting Care Services during the COVID-19 Crisis

On the first day of the COVID-19 lockdown, all social workers employed by Israel were deemed “nonessential workers” and sent home on unpaid leave. Rates of food insecurity and violence against women increased immediately. Nonetheless, the emergency was defined as military and scientific, not a matter for those providing care. How was this temporary halt to caring services constituted as rational? I examine changes in the meaning of “care” and in related policy decisions made by Israel’s Ministry of Welfare, by the Bank of Israel, and by the country’s Ministry of Finance. Applying feminist critical discourse analysis, I find that