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Thread on why the [nonBlack] Mizrahi Struggle went reformist and the social conditions that brought Pantherim into existence (very long):
Disclaimer: This is by no means an exhaustive thread. I made this at the request of a friend who wanted the information about Pantherim and the history NB Mizrahi struggle, and why it eventually turned reformist and often right wing.
Before starting off this thread it is important to realize that the history of [nonBlack] Mizrahim in Palestine must be contextualized properly. Common tropes of Mizrahi ‘fascists’ versus Ashkenazi ‘leftists’ need to be avoided, but so too must romantic narratives as well.
The history itself is tragic but is also a case study of how a settler class can expand to fit those who under the Euro-American definition of race would not be ‘white’ but also not Black. And it’s also a case study in how far Zionism will go to maintain itself.
I selected passages from Smadar Lavie’s book ‘Wrapped in the Flag of Israel’ as while it primarily is a criticism of the Mizrahi feminist movement and its anti-Palestinian tendencies, she provides a good historical overview of how Mizrahim were historically marginalized.
Important to note is how despite being marginalized within Isr*eli society both historically and presently being integrated into the settler class over the last several decades has given NB Mizrahim power over Palestinians and Black people [Jewish and non-Jewish].
![Important to note is how despite being marginalized within Isr*eli society both historically and presently being integrated into the settler class over the last several decades has given NB Mizrahim power over Palestinians and Black people [Jewish and non-Jewish].](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EqYzD0cVEAMP-an.jpg "Important to note is how despite being marginalized within Isr*eli society both historically and presently being integrated into the settler class over the last several decades has given NB Mizrahim power over Palestinians and Black people [Jewish and non-Jewish].")
Another thing to note is how social conditions prevent a Palestinian-Mizrahi coalition (whether political or militant) from forming. NB Mizrahim are positioned in such a way as a buffer to ensure the continuity of the Zionist project.
“Part of the occupation machinery” is the key phrase here. In the diaspora this could be replaced by “2 degrees of separation at best”
Meaning that collective postionality prevents NB Mizrahim and NB non-European Jewish people from forming coalitions with Palestinians. Individuals from these groups can contribute to revolutionary struggle, such as Reuven Abergel, but current social conditions prevent much else.
Another excerpt describing how NB Mizrahim became part of the settler class. At first viewed as a subversive element within settler society Zionism had to expand to include them or else risk collapse of its project in Palestine.
It is known that originally this wasn’t going to be the case but Pantherim’s protests against Ashkenazi [white Jewish] supremacy shook the state enough to where its ruling classes decided to over time integrate NB Mizrahim into the settler class, while still marginalizing them.
Pantherim’s original members were of predominantly Moroccan and Iraqi origin, often from working class neighborhoods neglected by the state, and of a socialist political persuasion.
Formed by Reuven Abergel, Kochavi Shemesh, Charlie Biton, and Saadia Marciano among others Pantherim started as group while not devoted to armed revolution, very much devoted to challenging the system of Isr*eli society and at times finding common cause with Palestinians.
Article from EI about Pantherim from 2019: https://electronicintifada.net/content/when-israels-black-panthers-found-common-cause-palestinians/26821
It is important to keep in mind that initially a possibility of an NB Mizrahim-Palestinian coalition forming early in Isr*el’s history was a big fear in the minds of the original Ashkenazi founders of the state. Unfortunately such a coalition never came about.
Post-1978 Pantherim’s membership went into civil society NGO style activism. Partly due to police repression early on and also due to integration into Knesset politics. Saadia Marciano for example helped form the Left Camp of Isr*el which was a coalition similar to Hadash.
Shemesh eventually helped to form Hadash by merging Pantherim with the Rakah faction of Maki. By essentially merging with it what was essentially a faction of a settler communist party Pantherim doomed themselves to at best reformist NGO politics.
Maki’s interests came to dominate Hadash despite representation of ‘48 Palestinians and NB Mizrahim. In addition to participating in a fundamentally antiBlack, anti-indigenous system in the Knesset Pantherim’s more radical tendencies were effectively quashed.
The NB Mizrahi struggle today is a shadow of its former self and will most likely not recover much if at all. The history itself is tragic to say the least. Zionism effectively instrumentalized those it marginalized early on to help it consolidate colonial power.
I won’t go into majority NB Mizrahi support for Likud as that is well documented and could take another thread to describe. But in a nutshell it has its roots in how Mapai marginalized them early on and Likud posed as their savior despite being part of the same ruling class.
I feel that discourse is too volatile to touch all that much but know that the ‘Mizrahi fascist versus Ashkenazi leftist’ is a simple trope which refuses to navigate the historical complexity of why the situation is the way it is.
It’s also not the responsibility of Black people and the indigenous population of Palestine to deal with [nonBlack] intra-Jewish affairs, and putting that upon them would not be right.
I probably could have highlighted a lot more things but hopefully this is enough for a basic overview and a good history lesson of sorts.
Feel free to add anything if you see fit. I may make another somewhat related thread in the near future.
