Israel: 'Father' and 'mother' return to government forms

This week a small but significant decision by the Israeli government to return the words "father" and "mother" on government forms presents a victory for family values and reversing woke political correctness that has been sweeping the world.

The order released by Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fox, stated that all government offices must provide forms that include the words "father" and "mother" in addition to the current forms that list "parent 1" and "parent 2".

While much of gender-neutral terminology has its roots in progressive academia, in Israel the battle against using the terms "father" and "mother" started in kindergarten, explains Michael Fua of the organization Choosing Family in conversation with Frontline News.

About four years ago Naamat, an organization which operates several kindergartens, made a change in a traditional role-playing activity where children pretend to have a family Sabbath meal. Instead of having "Sabbath father" and "Sabbath mother" the kindergarten coined a new gender-neutral term "Sabbath greeter". 

Naamat said they were responding to the changing reality of family which necessitated a change in their values-education. 

Removing the roles of mom and dad from kindergarten can have a significant effect on how children perceive what family, parents, mom, and dad are — and that's the point.

"This is part of a larger move designed to change consciousness through language, to delete the words father and mother and turn them into offensive terms," Fua explained.

The drive to remove the labels "father" and “mother” didn't stop there. In October 2020 Knesset Member Yorai Lahav Hertzanu introduced a bill to replace "father" and "mother" on all government forms with "parent 1" and "parent 2". Even though the bill was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 48–25 several government departments implemented the change anyway.

The issue came to a boiling point in 2021 when Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national blood bank and ambulance service, switched "father" and "mother" to "parent 1" and "parent 2" on blood donor forms.

Religious educational institutions led a public outcry, boycotting blood drives. Institution leaders said the change would "weaken the healthy family consciousness and the national identity," and that "every granting of legitimacy begins with a change of language." 

After a decline in blood donations, MDA removed the entire question about the donor's parents claiming the information wasn't all that necessary after all.  

Fast forward to December 2022 when a newly elected government included in its coalition agreement a commitment to reinstate the terms "mother" and "father".  

With pressure from organizations like Choosing Family, and the traditional Noam Party, the government announced this week they would reinstitute the use of "mother" and "father". 

While this latest change is a win for traditional labels, there is still more to be done. Under the new policy there are still forms that use "parent 1" and “parent 2” alongside forms that use "father" and "mother". This is something between a stalemate and a compromise — each side gets a form of their own.

Reflecting on the efforts that have been made, Fua reiterates the importance of the issue, "Every person has a father and a mother, and we mustn't remove this basic concept from our language or our culture." 

The next step in restoring traditional labels is to have it codified into law.  Choosing Family has already prepared a bill to change forms from using parent 1/parent 2 to using father/mother twice accommodating same-sex households while respecting the terms "father" and "mother".