Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth

Asaf Elia-Shalev

Book cover for Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth
Book cover for Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth

Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth

Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth

Asaf Elia-Shalev

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Description
The powerful story of an activist movement that challenged the racial inequities of Israel.

Israel's Black Panthers tells the story of the young and impoverished Moroccan Israeli Jews who challenged their country's political status quo and rebelled against the ethnic hierarchy of Israeli life in the 1970s. Inspired by the American group of the same name, the Black Panthers mounted protests and a yearslong political campaign for the rights of Mizrahim, or Jews of Middle Eastern ancestry. They managed to rattle the country's establishment and change the course of Israel's history through the mass mobilization of a Jewish underclass.

This book draws on archival documents and interviews with elderly activists to capture the movement's history and reveal little-known stories from within the group. Asaf Elia-Shalev explores the parallels between the Israeli and American Black Panthers, offering a unique perspective on the global struggle against racism and oppression. In twenty short and captivating chapters, Israel's Black Panthers provides a textured and novel account of the movement and reflects on the role that Mizrahim can play in the future of Israel.
Asaf Elia-Shalev is an Israeli American journalist based in Los Angeles. He is a staff writer for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, which distributes his work to dozens of media outlets in multiple languages.
"In his compelling new book Israel's Black Panthers, Asaf Elia-Shalev offers a richly detailed account of Israel's Black Panthers in the 1970s."-- "Haaretz"

"In the 1970s, a group of Moroccan Israeli Jews protested against the racial hierarchy then existing in Israel that left many of them both impoverished and lacking rights. Their campaign, inspired by America's Black Panthers, was, says Asaf Elia-Shalev, part of the wider global struggle against oppression."
-- "New Statesman"

"Drawing on archival press accounts, government documents and interviews with surviving Panthers, Elia-Shalev -- a Los Angeles-based reporter with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency -- weaves a tale of young street toughs who underwent a political awakening. These young men saw their plight as a result of entrenched prejudice and lack of public resources, and they decided to fight back."-- "J: The Jewish News of Northern California"

"In Israel's Black Pan­thers, Asaf Elia-Shalev forces us to con­front the some­times vast dis­tance between con­sti­tu­tion­al aspi­ra­tion and social and polit­i­cal prac­tice."-- "Jewish Book Council"

Publisher: University of California Press
Pub date: 2024-03-19
Length: 344 pages

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