Reuven Abergel ( he, ראובן אברג'ל, ar, رَؤوبين أبيرجل; 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,
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
, the fourth of eight children. He
immigrated
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
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 the seamline
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
neighborhood of
Musrara, a former Palestinian neighborhood whose residents were forced to abandon their homes following the
1948 War.
Political activism
In response to the
Wadi Salib riots The Wadi Salib riots were a series of street demonstrations and acts of vandalism in the Wadi Salib neighborhood of Haifa, Israel, in 1959, sparked by the shooting of a Moroccan Jewish immigrant by police officers. Demonstrators accused the police ...
in
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the 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 metropol ...
, 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, ; ar, جولدا مائير, Jūldā Māʾīr., group=nb (born Golda Mabovitch; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was an Israeli politician, teacher, and '' kibbutznikit'' who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to ...
.
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 {{Unreferenced, date=June 2017
The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition ( he, הקשת הדמוקרטית המזרחית, ''HaKeshet HaDemocratit HaMizrahit'') is a social justice organization among Mizrahi Jews (Jews from Arab and Muslim lands and ...
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
Anti-Zionist Jews
Moroccan emigrants to Israel
20th-century Moroccan Jews
Israeli people of Moroccan-Jewish descent
Living people
1943 births
People from Rabat