When Israel's Black Panthers Found Common Cause With Palestinians
When Israel's Black Panthers Found Common Cause With Palestinians
When Israel's Black Panthers Found Common Cause With Palestinians
Black Panther founder Reuven Abergel at his home in Jerusalem with the
logo: “Enough with poverty!”
Jaclynn Ashly
A Mizrahi Black Panther protest poster from the early 1970s addresses
Israel’s prime minister at the time, Golda Meir: “Golda, Golda / Fly away /
We’ve had enough of you.”
Jaclynn Ashly
The Panthers saw their struggle as being intricately linked to Palestinians. “It
wasn’t like we were fighting for Palestinian rights – not in the way the
privileged [Israeli] left-wing does now,” Abergel told The Electronic Intifada.
“But we understood that when we’re fighting for Palestinian rights, we’re also
fighting for our own rights.”
The Panthers developed connections with the Palestine Liberation
Organization as early as 1972 and recognized it as the “legitimate leaders of
the Palestinian people.”
“We had talks, and we understood their need for independence and to
eliminate the occupation, and we agreed that the problems with the Mizrahim
and of the Arabs are intertwined,” Kokhavi Shemesh, one of the founders of
the movement, is quoted in Chetrit’s book as saying.
“There will be no equality and no chance for the Mizrahim as long as there’s
occupation and a national struggle, and on the other hand, the national
struggle will not be over so long as the Mizrahim are at the bottom of the
ladder, and are practically an anti-Arab lever,” he adds.
Charlie Biton and Kokhavi Shemesh were the first Israelis to ever meet
Yasser Arafat, then head of the PLO, according to Chetrit, and the Panthers
developed relationships with various members of the Fatah movement in the
occupied West Bank.
“If the police were after them, they would run from them and hide in
Palestinian homes,” Chetrit told The Electronic Intifada. “They were really
supporting each other. This was a very radical movement.”
“The less Arab you are, the more Israeli you are”
If the 1967 war created them, the 1973 war “put an end to the Panthers as we
know it,” Chetrit said. “There were no more mass demonstrations in
Jerusalem. There were no more solidarity demonstrations. It was the end of a
radical period.”
According to Abergel, Israeli authorities flooded the movement with
informants, and even friends of Panther members were targeted for arrest.
“People were scared to hang out with us or speak to us because they could be
arrested by the police,” Abergel said. “They [Israeli authorities] worked on
isolating us from the rest of our community.”
Despite the crackdown and their ostracization, after the Panthers’ meeting
with Golda Meir a government committee was established to investigate
poverty. As a result, Israel’s 1972 state budget – nicknamed the “Black
Panther budget” by Israel’s parliament – was tripled in all areas dealing with
education, welfare and healthcare.
The Panthers dispersed. Some joined left-wing parties in Israel’s parliament.
Charlie Biton joined Hadash, a Palestinian-led communist party in Israel.
Abergel, meanwhile, continues his work in social justice, providing tours
around Jerusalem to explain the historical realities of both the Mizrahim and
Palestinians.
Despite the Panthers’ efforts, the Mizrahim did not become radicalized.
Abergel said that ultimately Israel was successful in using Palestinians as a
tool to force the Mizrahim into identifying with their Jewish over Arab
identities.
“They [Israel] would just shut up the Mizrahi struggle because the
Palestinians were painted as a bigger threat, manipulating Mizrahi people
into joining with the Ashkenazim,” he said.
“That’s why the Zionists will never stop their policies and operations on the
Palestinian people because they know that if they ever become quiet on the
Palestinian issue, that’s when internal [Israeli] problems will arise.”
Certainly, educational disparities between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi
communities persist. In 2015, just under 29 percent of second-generation
Mizrahi immigrants had a university or college degree, compared to about 50
percent of Ashkenazim. The wage gap between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi
workers in Israel also remains stark.
There is a clear formula in Israel, Chetrit added: “The less Arab you are, the
more Israeli you are.”
“So you have to erase that image in the mirror every morning,” he said. “And
you start to hate yourself. Women start dying their hair blond to get rid of
any signs of Arabness. They wear a Star of David pendant around their neck,
and when you see an Arab, insult them. So you can really feel like you’re
Jewish.”
Nevertheless, Chetrit said Israel did not succeed entirely. There is a new wave
of young Mizrahim, he told The Electronic Intifada, who are returning to the
Arabic language and their Arab identities as poets, artists, filmmakers,
musicians and even academics.
Gila said she would not have the same identity or knowledge she has were it
not for the Black Panthers.
“For us [left-wing Mizrahim], the Panthers were the ones who paid the
highest price,” she said. “They gave us the voice, the vocabulary and
infrastructure. They gave us everything we do and write today. They are
heroes for us.”
Jaclynn Ashly is a journalist based in the West Bank.
Posted by Thavam