Siah ( he, שי"ח, an acronym for ''Smol Israeli Hadash'', ( he, שמאל ישראלי חדש, "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 mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
.
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
Mapam ( he, מַפָּ״ם, an acronym for , ) was a left-wing political party in Israel. The party is one of the ancestors of the modern-day Meretz party.
History
Mapam was formed by a January 1948 merger of the kibbutz-based Hashomer Hatz ...
supporters at
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
who chose to break away from the party in protest against its decision to ally itself with
Mapai
Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...
. These were soon joined by former members of
Maki
Maki may refer to:
People
*Mäki, a Finnish surname (includes a list of people with the name)
*Maki (name), a Japanese given name and surname (includes a list of people with the name)
Places
*Maki, Ravar, Kerman Province, Iran
*Maki, Rigan, Ke ...
. The Jerusalem group was made up of
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
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 (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 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, S ...
. 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 ( he, רן כהן, born 20 June 1937) is an Israeli politician and former Knesset member for Meretz.
Background
Born Said Cohen in Baghdad, Iraq, Cohen was 13 years old when 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" 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 ( he, מוקד, lit. "Focus") was a left-wing political party in Israel.
Background
Moked came into existence during the seventh Knesset, when Maki (which had one seat, held by Shmuel Mikunis) merged with the Blue-Red Movement, which was ...
.
Notes
{{reflist
External links
Siahdescription and documents at the Israeli Left Archive
Siach: Israel New Left1971 English-language publication by the group
Blue-Red Movement documentsat the Israeli Left Archive (in Hebrew)
Left-wing politics in Israel
Political organizations based in Israel
New Left