The moral panic surrounding single mothers in Israel was similar to other moral panics in its external form, but not in its internal content. The way in which it evolved and occurred fits the classic characteristics of moral panic. It originated in the concern of government officials about future social unrest, which could lead to the destabilization of the economic situation in Israeli society. Single mothers’ demands were considered to be deviant behavior symptomatic of the more troubling behavior of other social elements. The bodies of deviant mothers who refused to obey the new rules were stigmatized and criminalized. The moral panic that emerged was bound by history, shaped and supported by ideologies and beliefs central to the working of the political economy of neo-liberalism. Contemporary research of moral panic examines the origin and nature of moral panics, within the neo-liberal regime and its techniques of rules and governance. This paper sought to contribute to this effort through the analysis of a moral panic mobilized by the Israeli Government, which emerged at a historical moment of social-political transition, when Israel was moving to adopt an ideology of neo-liberalism that would replace the traditional, entrenched values and beliefs of the welfare state. References