Siah (, an acronym for ''Smol Israeli Hadash'', (, "Israeli New Left")) was an Israeli left-wing group active between 1968 and 1973. Reuven Kaminer describes them as "the major force of the student left in the 1968–1973 period."Kaminer, Reuven (1996). ''The Politics of Protest: The Israeli Peace Movement and the Palestinian Intifada''. Sussex Academic Press. p. xix. As their name suggests, the group's language, organization, and tactics were influenced to some extent by the global

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...

. Siah was a combination of two groups in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that had been created independently. The Tel Aviv group was initially created by

Mapam File:Pre-State_Zionist_Workers'_Parties_chart.png, chart of zionist workers parties, 360px, right rect 167 83 445 250 Hapoel Hatzair rect 450 88 717 265 The non-partisans (pre-state Zionist political movement), Non Partisans rect 721 86 995 243 ...

supporters at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

who chose to break away from the party in protest against its decision to ally itself with

Mapai Mapai (, an abbreviation for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', ) was a Labor Zionist and democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger into the Israeli Labor Party in January ...

. These were soon joined by former members of Maki. The Jerusalem group was made up of

Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

students with less political experience, some of them recent immigrants who had come to Israel to fight in the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

. The Tel Aviv members saw themselves as Zionists, while "the Jerusalemites considered themselves a-Zionists or even anti-Zionists." Siah's leading activists included

Ran Cohen Ran Cohen (; born 20 June 1937) is an Israeli politician and former Knesset member for Meretz. Biography Said Cohen (later Ran Cohen) was born in Baghdad, Iraq. At the age of 13 year, he immigrated to Israel through Iran. He hebraized his first ...

, Dani Peter, Yossi Amitai, Benyamin Cohen, and Zvika Deutch.Kaminer, Reuven
"SIAH – Smol Israeli Hadash (Israeli New Left)"
''Israeli Left Archive''. An important action by Siah members in 1972 is documented in the book My Home, My Prison by Raymonda Hawa Tawil. Following the refusal of villagers from Akrabeh to sell to Jewish settlers in 1972, the Israeli military declared fields used by the people of Akrabeh to be in a training, firing zone, dangerous and off limits. When no training appeared, villagers began to till and plant the land until April 28, 1972 when an Israeli plane dropped an unknown chemical on the fields killing the plants and poisoning the land. Eighty members of Siah demonstrated in support of "Palestinian

self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...

" and the villagers of Akrabeh. Some were arrested and prosecuted, even court-martialed. Siah broke apart in 1973 over the issue of reentering electoral politics, which most of the Tel Aviv group supported and most of the Jerusalem group opposed. The former faction, which called itself the "Blue-Red Movement" (blue for Zionism, red for socialism), became part of

Moked Moked () was a left-wing political party in Israel. Background Moked came into existence on 25 July 1973 during the seventh Knesset, when the Maki parliamentary group (which had one seat, held by Shmuel Mikunis) was renamed Moked, following i ...

Notes

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External links

Siah
description and documents at the Israeli Left Archive
Siach: Israel New Left
1971 English-language publication by the group
Blue-Red Movement documents
at the Israeli Left Archive (in Hebrew) Left-wing politics in Israel Political organizations based in Israel New Left