Class 4: Mizrahi Identity and Protest in Israel, from the Black Panthers to Shas

Early Protests and the Israeli Black Panthers

Though Mizrahi protests against state policies did occur in Israel’s early years, most notably in the 1959 Wadi Salib uprising, it was in only the 1970s that sustained pushback against Ashkenazic hegemony in Israel began to emerge, in part due to the discontent of the younger generation of Mizrahim raised in Israel. This materialized through both the flourishing of new forms of culture and political mobilization on both the left and the right. 

In the early 1970s, a group made up primarily of young Moroccan Israelis in Jerusalem raised the profile of Mizrahi discontent by launching an organization they called the Israeli Black Panthers. Loosely inspired by the Black Panther movement in the United States, the group provoked controversy by accusing the state of racism against a large segment of its Jewish community. One of its most famous publications, the Israeli Black Panther Haggadah, expresses its critique of Israeli society in the language of the Passover liturgy. Israel’s Labor Party leadership, especially Prime Minister Golda Meir (who led the government from 1969 to1974), responded by deriding the group, but the substance of the Black Panthers’ accusations would later be broadly acknowledged as accurate. 

Political Mobilization and the Rise of Likud and Shas

Mizrahi discontent with the policies and attitudes of the secular, socialist Labor Party, which led Israel under one name or another from 1948 to 1977, created an opportunity for the right-wing opposition leader Menahem Begin of the Likud Party to add more Mizrahi voters to its traditional middle-class Ashkenazic base, contributing, among many other factors, to Likud’s earthshaking victory in 1977. His appeal to Mizrahim can be seen in this famous 1981 speech, in which he critiques anti-Mizrahi statements that were made during a rival party’s rally. Beginning in 1984, some Mizrahi voters opted for a new option: the Shas Party. Shas, which took its name from an abbreviation of Shomerei Sefarad, “Sephardic Guardians,” presented itself as a religious party for Sephardim and Mizrahim. Though guided by the leadership of Baghdad-born Israeli Chief Sephardic Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, Shas appealed not only to Orthodox voters but also to all Mizrahim who felt that the party would best advocate for their causes. The ongoing support of Mizrahi voters for Likud and Shas, which has mostly backed Likud leaders in post-election coalition negotiations, has been among the reasons Likud prime ministers have led Israel in all but twelve years since 1977. The importance of the three-way relationship among Mizrahi voters, Shas, and the Netanyahu-led Likud is highlighted in this billboard.

Music, Food, and Mizrahi Cultural Pride

The 1970s also marked the emergence of a broader popular musical culture. At the time, Israeli radio stations featured predominantly Ashkenazic artists and songs that suited Ashkenazic musical tastes, resembling European melodies more than those popular in neighboring Arab countries. Mizrahi musicians would perform music in styles coming from the across region such as maqam popular in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Yemen and Andalusi, m'aluf, and chaabi styles popular in North Africa at family and community events. However, in the 1970s, a number of artists began to gain a mass following through the circulation of cassette tapes. Several artists who would emerge most prominently, such as Zohar Argov and Ofra Haza, were of Yemenite background. While their lyrics were usually in Hebrew, the melodies were in styles connected with specific places in the Middle East and North Africa. In the 1980s, some of these singers would begin to gain national fame, and the reclamation of Mizrahi identity became a source of pride. Over the decades to come, Mizrahi music would become increasingly mainstream, arguably a dominant form of musical culture in Israel, as exemplified by “Habib Galbi” and “This Isn’t Europe.” Other Mizrahim have reclaimed their connection to MENA culture in additional ways. Mizrahi foods, such as the North African egg and tomato dish shakshuka, have become increasingly popular in Israel. 

Intellectual Debates on Mizrahi Identity

Since the 1980s, some intellectuals have pushed back against the very notion of Mizrahi identity, arguing that it and the broader processes it represents have wrongfully severed them from Arab (or Turkish, or Persian) cultures, as discussed in Yehoud Shenhav’s The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity. Yet while many Mizrahim resent how early Israeli state policies treated them and express concern about enduring racism against them in Israel, few indict Zionism at large, more commonly voicing contempt for the governments of their Muslim countries of origin.

<h2>Lasting Inequalities and Ongoing Influence</h2>

Despite Mizrahi success in some forms of Israeli culture and the Mizrahi role in electing Israel’s dominant political coalition, major economic gaps between Mizrahim and Ashkenazim endure. While marriage between Ashkenazic and Mizrahi Jews has become commonplace in Israeli society, it remains extremely rare in Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) communities, and to varying extents, prejudices against Mizrahim exist within most segments of Israeli society. In many ways, the Mizrahi/MENA Jewish past continues to shape the present-day realities of these communities in Israel, Europe, and the Americas, as well as those that remain in the Muslim world.