Reuven Abergel (, ; born December 26, 1943) is a Moroccan- Israeli social and political activist and a co-founder and former leader of the Israeli Black Panthers.

Biography

Reuven Abergel was born in 1943 in

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, the fourth of eight children. He

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

to Israel with his parents and seven siblings in 1950. The family was sent to the immigrant tent camp in Pardes Hana. Later they moved to

Musrara Musrara (, , also known by its Hebrew name, Morasha, ) is a formerly Ottoman neighborhood in what is now West Jerusalem. It is bordered by the Israeli neighborhoods of Mea Shearim and Beit Yisrael to the north, by the Russian Compound and Kik ...

, a former

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

neighborhood in Jerusalem whose residents were forced to abandon their homes following the

1948 war The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the Stat ...

Political activism

In response to the

Wadi Salib riots The Wadi Salib riots were a series of Demonstration (people), street demonstrations and acts of vandalism in the Wadi Salib neighborhood of Haifa, Israel, in 1959. They were sparked by the shooting of a Moroccan Jewish immigrant by police officers. ...

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Abergel began to distribute leaflets around his neighborhood. He co-founded the Israeli Black Panthers following the arrest of his friends. He became a leader of the movement and his home became its headquarters. He was present at the group's meeting with then-Prime Minister

Golda Meir Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government. Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...

. Since then Abergel has been active in the struggle for social justice and peace in Israel/Palestine as a member of various groups and movements. He currently serves on the board of the

Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition () is a social justice organization among Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab and Muslim lands and the East) in Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, ...

and was elected to the leadership of Tarabut ("connection"), a joint Jewish-Palestinian political party for peace and equality in Israel.

References

External links

Interview with Reuven Abergel in Arabic with English subtitles
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abergel, Reuven Jewish Israeli anti-Zionists Moroccan emigrants to Israel 20th-century Moroccan Jews Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent Living people 1943 births People from Rabat Moroccan Jews in Israel

Biography

Political activism

See also

References

External links