Author: Ben Reiff

Exploring Israel’s Black Panthers: A Revolutionary Movement “Israel’s Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation’s Founding Myth,” by Asaf Elia-Shalev, University of California Press, 2024. In 1971, a groundbreaking movement emerged from Jerusalem’s Musrara neighborhood challenging the Ashkenazi establishment in Israel. “We want to organize against the Ashkenazi government and establishment… We will become the Black Panthers of the State of Israel,” declared the group. Born from the marginalized Mizrahi Jewish community, the Israeli Panthers fought against racism, poverty, and police brutality, drawing inspiration from the American Black Panther Party. Despite facing suppression and infiltrations by authorities, the Panthers…