A new book: Over Their Dead Bodies Power, Knowledge, and the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Israel

Over Their Dead Bodies is the first book written in Hebrew which addresses the social and cultural aspects of the discourse and practice in the Israeli National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in Abu Kabir.

The Israeli public was exposed to forensic medicine primarily through foreign television series, wherein over the course of 45 minutes, the forensic experts definitively establish the cause of death or identity of the unidentified corpses. 

The Israeli public also learned of the Institute via the Israeli press which has related to the Institute on the one hand as all-powerful during periods of terrorist attacks, and on the other as the great organ thief. 

In all these respects, the Institute has been considered a separate entity from the society within which is it located. In contrast, Meira Weiss’s book discusses the workings of the Institute as a result of its being a part of the  Israeli society. Each chapter addresses a different social issue and the Institute’s role in relation to the issue in question.

Terrorist attacks, treatment and identification of soldier’s remains, identification of the “Yemenite Children”, harvesting corpses without consent, the murder of Jewish and non-Jewish women, foreign workers, determining the cause of death of the Palestinian child Hilmi Shusha, the autopsy of Palestinian “terrorists”, the discourse surrounding Yitzhak Rabin’s autopsy – all these topics and more are addressed in the current book, as they related to social and cultural processes which enable the discourse and the practice of the Institute. 

Over Their Dead Bodies is based on anthropological fieldwork performed over the course of many years, which included  participant observation at the different departments of the Institute (autopsy rooms, family reception office, biology lab), interviews with Institute staff members and other related parties (senior officials in the police forensics department, directors of the Hadassah hospital skin bank), and document analysis.

The book is infused with raw quotes from the author’s fieldnotes, alongside the description of her personal coping involved in performing fieldwork at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine.  

Meira Weiss is a Professor Emeritus specializing in Anthropology of Medicine, Science and the Body. She has published many books and articles, among them "Conditional Love" (Bergin @Garvey) and “The Chosen Body: The Politics of the Body in Israeli Society” (Stanford University Press). Recently she published the novel “Semblance of Absence” which takes place during the Yom Kippur War.

The novel "Semblance of Absence"

The novel, "Semblance of Absence," concentrates on an un-spoken event that occurred during the October War (the Yom Kippur War) of 1973.

The novel is based on a true story and includes sections from field notes written by the author while pursuing her first research (M.A. thesis) in Anthropology.

 Meira Weiss presents the reader with the loss and pain of Yetti and Carol Berkowitz, who lost their son, Yoji, at the end of the October War. While investigating the circumstances of his son's death, Carol, the novel’s hero, discovers a secret, relating to the management of the war and his son’s death.

This discovery leads to destructive revelations regarding the characters involved in Yoji’s death. The voice of Carol, the protagonist, is joined by many others, including soldiers who were abandoned in the desert, members of the "defense forces," as well as the author's voice.

 The novel poses human and ethical dilemmas and keeps the reader flipping through the pages with bated breath. October 2013 marked 40 years since that terrible war. The timing of the novel’s release, so close to the 40th anniversary, reflects the author’s belief that the October War of 1973 is not over. It seeps deep into our pores and emerges from within in our day-to-day lives…

The book was widely praised over all media channels– TV, radio, newspapers, the internet.

 Meira Weiss is a Professor Emeritus specializing in Anthropology of Medicine, Science and the Body. She has published many books and articles, among them "Conditional Love" (Bergin @Garvey) and “The Chosen Body: The Politics of the Body in Israeli Society” (Stanford University Press). Her book on the Israeli Institute of Forensic Medicine and the polio outbreak of the 1950s is currently awaiting publication.