An Israeli Black Panther’s call for true democracy

JVL Introduction

A co-founder of the Mizrachi Black Panthers in Israeli in 1971, Reuven Abergel recounts the extreme prejudice and contempt he and other suffered at the hands of Israel’s Ashkenazi elite.

While so many of that generation of immigrants supported Menachem Begin’s Herut Party in 1977 and continued to support the right, the Black Panthers did not.

In a hard-hitting critique, Abergel recounts the racism he grew up with and the ongoing racism of Israeli society. Unlike most Israelis he fights it, the continuing “racism toward Mizrahim, Ethiopians, and Arabs” and he draws no distinction between those who are oppressed.

This article was originally published by +972 Magazine on Mon 8 May 2023. Read the original here.