Nostalgia Sunday – The Israeli Black Panthers

July 17, 2011 - 8:48 PM by

A few weeks ago, in an interesting footnote to history, a 1977 political poster was sold at auction for $260. The catalogue listed the opening bid at $150 so it is heartening to know that the Hadash party can still elicit public support – at least $110 dollars worth.

The poster, “Vote Vav – the Black Panthers of Hadash” was printed before the elections for the ninth Knesset in 1977, one of the most important elections in Israel’s history, and the one that brought the Likud party into party after 29 years in the opposition.

It seems only fitting, in the era of Facebook “Like”-driven revolutions, to take a look back at the granddaddy of Israeli social protest, Ha-Panterim HaShchorim (Black Panther) movement.

“The Black Panthers’ uprising was begun by a group of young, unemployed, dropout residents of the Musrara neighborhood located at the border between East and West Jerusalem,” writes Sami Shalom Chetrit, chief editor of Kedma – Middle Eastern Gate to Israel. “The neighborhood was then housed by 650 Mizrahi immigrant families, the majority of whom came from North Africa, with a minority coming from Iraq.

The immigrants and their children — people like Saadia Marciano, Charlie Biton (who went on to serve as a four-time Knesset member) and other now legendary Black Panthers — suffered discrimination at the hands of an establishment that was primarily non-religious and Ashkenazi (of European origin) that, with best if mistaken intentions, set out to educate the younger generation in Westernism and Socialist Zionism.

“The local youth self organization began with demands from the municipal youth department, regarding the educational system and extra-curricular activities. However these demands soon intersected with exposure to the radical left of Matzpen [a radical Socialist and anti-Zionist organization] which produced a radical Mizrahi social consciousness attuned to social economic perspectives…”

The revolutionary spirit of the late Sixties meant that every authority should be questioned and every establishment upended. The result: the Labor party, bastion of enlightenment, was now the enemy.

Kochavi Shemesh stated: “Saadia came up with the name ‘Black Panthers’. The idea was to frighten Golda [then Prime Minister Golda Meir]. She said that this name wouldn’t let her sleep. That’s what we wanted. We succeeded. With this name we changed the entire discourse between the social movements and the establishment.”

According to Marciano’s 2007 obituary in The Independent, “The Zionist establishment was thrown by the challenge. Golda Meir, the Labour prime minister who briefly put some of them in prison, said after meeting a delegation that they were ‘not nice people’. Teddy Kollek, the mayor of Jerusalem, bellowed at them to ‘get off my lawn, you bastards’ when they demonstrated outside the town hall. Marciano was hailed as the ‘face of the Black Panthers’ after he was given a black eye by the police.”

Despite their need to shock, the Panthers were far more interested in social and cultural causes. They stole milk bottles from middle-class Rehavia and delivered them to poor neighborhoods. They organized concerts (I love this poster featuring boy balladeer Avi, Martin Davidson’s Hassidic pop act and an Armenian band called The Moskitos). They organized politically, first as the Black Panthers and eventually as the Hadash party.

The Black Panthers fragmented after the 1973 Yom Kippur War but the movement’s influence is still with us. As Chetrit puts it, “First, they granted legitimacy and acceleration, together with additional political conditions, to the process of Mizrahim leaving the hegemonous political center, headed by Mapai [Labor]… After that came the exit from the Likud as well to the new alternative of Shas.

“Second, the Panthers prompted a Mizrahi cultural awakening… Initially it was music that blossomed forth, followed by poetry and prose, and above all, academic research. Later came cinematography and the arts. Third, the Panthers helped to bring about a radical social discourse in Israel…”

There are several online resources for more information about this seminal movement. The Israel Left Archive has a fascinating online collection that includes press clippings, photographs, leaflets, posters and other materials authored by the Black Panthers.

Interviews with Marciano and others can be seen in a documentary by Chetrit, together with Eli Hamo, called The Black Panthers Speak.

The legacy lives on. Last month, Haaretz reported that a group of Musrara artists and residents plan to rename two neighborhood streets “Black Panthers’ Way” and “They’re Not Nice”. Charlie Biton was interviewed on the radio today about the grassroots protest against high housing prices. On the other side of the spectrum, former Shas leader Arye Deri recently announced his intention to run for Knesset (I told you this would happen, months ago). Looks like the time is ripe for a Panthers revival.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, News, Nostalgia Sunday, Politics, Pop Culture, Profiles, Religion, Social Justice 

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One Comment on Nostalgia Sunday – The Israeli Black Panthers

  1. Nostalgia Sunday – Musikat kassetot | ISRAELITY on Mon, Jul 25th 2011 12:10 AM

    2. [...] week I wrote about the Jerusalem-based Black Panther movement of the 1970s and 1980s. This week, let’s take a look at what was happening in Tel Aviv at [...]

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