Israeli protest movements fighting for the money: Settlers win, Black Panthers fail
A new Israeli television series tells the contradicting stories of two parallel protest movements that erupted in the 1970s: the Black Panther movement with its social protests, and the Gush Emunim settlement movement.
“When all is said and done, if you take a look at your protest and their protest, you really have to salute them. They’re consistent. They followed their protest, their beliefs. … Where there is belief, people succeed. They always win.” The speaker is Yamin Suissa, a leader of the “tent protest” of 1977. His penetrating look at himself and his fellow protesters in the 1970s, compared to the settlers’ protests at the same time, is the most telling moment in the first episode of “The Right to Shout,” a new series that begins March 11 on Channel 8.
This outstanding series by Uri Rosenwaks documents the main protest movements in Israel, using authentic archival material. The first episode, “From Musrara to Sebastia,” tells the stories of two protest movements that emerged in the early 1970s: the social protests of the “Black Panther” movement, founded by young Moroccan Jews living in Jerusalem’s poor Musrara neighborhood, and the protests of the religious nationalist settlers of the Gush Emunim settlement movement, whose Israeli-born founders came from well-to-do Ashkenazi families. One of their first attempts at settlement in the West Bank took place in 1974, near the Arab village of Sebastia.
The Panthers wanted to provide a megaphone to the cries of the Mizrahim (Jews of Middle Eastern origin), who were suffering from discrimination. They wanted to force the government to redirect resources to them in order to improve their lives. Gush Emunim fought to settle the West Bank despite the government’s opposition. They acted out of an ideological belief in the integrity of the Greater Land of Israel.
The series tells stories of these two protest movements in tandem, following the chronological order of events. Ostensibly, there is no connection between these two groups of young people. They came from different backgrounds and fought for different goals. From the very beginning, however, the leaders of the Black Panthers made a point of comparing the vast government investment in thriving settlements to the people of the “Second Israel,” who were left behind when it came to government budgetary considerations.
