ISRAEL'S BLACK PANTHERS

...According to The Jerusalem Post, ninety-two per cent of all large families (those with more than four children) are Sephardic...

...Mrs...

...More important, if the Panthers employed such tactics now, it would alienate many of the Sephardim, who, as a rule, want to become more like the Ashkenazim, since they believe in the basic inferiority of their own culture...

...They will not substitute for more realistic welfare subsidies and decent housing...

...Most poor Sephardic Jews tend to support Gahal, the leading Israeli right-wing political party...

...First, taking the reforms on their own terms, they are seriously inadequate...

...This image has prevailed within as well as outside Israel...

...However, he went on to say that there might come a time when this policy would change...

...Meir's newly appointed "Committee on Children and Youth in Need" will probably be no more meaningful than its American counterparts...

...Despite recent exclamations of concern, confessions that neglect did occur in the past, and promises of immediate and meaningful action, the Israeli government has responded only in patchwork fashion to the Black Panthers' demands...

...they claim they are simply responding to a serious problem which has long been overlooked because the state had to focus on more pressing concerns such as national defense...

...The Ashkenazi government might be able to buy the Sephardim off with token political representation and reforms, if Sephardic Jews continue to believe in the inferiority of their own culture and aspire to the Ashkenazi "good life...

...There is little or no educational reinforcement in the family, and study conditions in cramped flats are almost impossible...

...Nor are the problems of prostitution among Sephardic girls or increasing crime rates likely to be solved by employing more social workers, who are often resented in Sephardic neighborhoods...

...A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing told me that there is nothing new in this policy...

...Similar sentiments are evident in the remarks of Fred Weisgal, an American civil rights lawyer and recently arrived immigrant to Israel, who is working in the Ministry of Justice...

...The oldest members of the Jewish community are the Sephardim who now comprise the membership of the historically elite Sephardic Council, the organization which has represented the Jewish community in Jerusalem for more than 700 years...

...the mean for the Western family is fewer than three...

...Ashkenazi Israelis have not yet admitted the challenge to their authority and domination veiled in Black Panther complaints and frustrations...

...Thus far, the Panther group has insisted that it is not a "political" organization...

...thus far, the Panthers have refused political co-optation and personal reward...

...Therefore, the Panther accusations of massive discrimination have forced Israelis to confront, perhaps for the first time, the very nature of their theoretically democratic, egalitarian state...

...The survival of Israel, they claim, is dependent on maintaining not only military, but economic, technological, and scientific superiority over their Arab neighbors...

...They are planning a trip to the United States to "let American Jews know what happens to the dollars they contribute...

...When I asked officials about increased welfare subsidies, free high school education, better medical facilities, job training programs, and the like, I was con-standy told that there simply isn't enough money for everything, especially in view of the security situation...

...The only value of the committee, an Ashkenazi friend joked, may be that "Golda will have to sit there and listen to the unpleasant truth, whether she wants to hear it or not...

...All of this, Israeli officials defensively claim, has a historic explanation...

...Furthermore, mass public protest and demonstrations have always been considered slightly "subversive" in view of the partial state of war which has existed for so long...

...At one demonstration last summer in Jerusalem, more than 3,000 people turned out to support Panther demands for an end to the oppression of Sephardic Jews...

...Many of the Panther leaders combine charisma and dedication...

...In addition, the government operates a special program under which Sephardic children need score only seventy per cent of the minimum grade in order to pass...

...They demand, on one hand, all the accoutrements of Ashkenazi "civilized" life, and, on the other, respect for Sephardic traditions—large families, Middle Eastern food, music, and art—not realizing that these traditions are part of what prevents Sephardic Jews from obtaining the economic and social benefits of Ashkenazi life...

...One of the elder statesmen of the Sephardic community, Eli Eliacher, chairman of the Sephardic Council of Jerusalem, believes that reform of the electoral process—which now decisively favors Ashkenazi control —is necessary to give Sephardic Jews a greater voice in formulating government policy...

...The Panthers themselves are partially responsible for the failure of Israelis to deal seriously with the more fundamental questions facing the modern technocratic state, for, as was the case with the early black civil rights activists in the United States, many of Israel's Panthers are unaware of the extent of their own oppression and the schizophrenic response to their problems...

...Most Israelis basically trust their government and are happy with it...

...Larger families, less housing, less education, less capital, and less political representation than the Ashkenazim are manifestations of Sephardic inequality...

...One of the founders of the Black Panthers is Sa'ahdia Marciano, a slender, dark-skinned Moroccan Jew, who speaks with maturity and political sophistication beyond his twenty-one years...

...the Sephardim are culturally and socially still a part of the underdeveloped, obviously inferior, Arab world...

...Efforts have been made to absorb them into bureaucratic positions, much as the American "war on poverty" attempted to absorb activists in the black movement...

...these, however, are already overcrowded...

...But recently a small, uneducated group of North African street kids, known as the Israeli Black Panthers, has denounced the image as false, charging that it fosters exploitation of Jews of North African ("Sephardic" or "Oriental") origin...

...Although this number is not impressive by American demonstration standards, it is extremely unusual for Israel, where before the advent of the Panthers demonstrations concerning domestic social issues were virtually unknown...

...Jews from Yemen are just as intelligent as those from New York, he argues, and just as capable of leading the Israeli state...

...Of course, no set of "sweeping reforms" would be complete without a national investigatory committee...

...Until this year, secondary school students have had to pay fees to attend, but the government has extended free, compulsory education to the first year of secondary school in an attempt to encourage Sephardic youngsters to stay in school...

...All Honor to the Prostitutes...

...Most of the unskilled jobs not performed by Arabs are held by Sephardic Jews...

...These reforms have basic weaknesses...

...Cohavey Shemesh, another leader, chose not to go on the much coveted trip to the United States, because, as he put it, "Someone has to stay to run the shop and teach young Panthers...

...The reforms are created and administered by well-intentioned, paternalistic Ashkenazim who believe that by teaching their Sephardic brethren the virtues of Western civilization and culture —clean houses, birth control, educational (university) tradition, and planning and saving—most of the objective inequalities of Sephardic Jewry will eventually be eliminated...

...A graduate student at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, she has lectured on the Middle East and has contributed to The New Republic...

...A quickie pre-university course cannot compensate for what has not been taught in elementary and secondary school...

...ISRAEL'S BLACK PANTHERS JUDITH P. MILLER For years Israel has projected an image of industrious-ness, purposeful cooperation, and earnest dedication of all Israelis to the task of what is almost their national motto: "building the country...

...Last May, Prime Minister Golda Meir established a twelve-member committee to conduct a "multidimensional" investigation of "Children and Youth in Need...

...The army, one of the most important integrative organizations in Israeli society (although it has not one Oriental general), has instituted a program in which some "disadvantaged" youths can forgo the last six months of military service to prepare themselves through a special "pre-academic" course at a university for entrance examinations...

...The committee, which is personally chaired by Mrs...

...In the political sphere, only one member of the eighteen-member Cabinet, twenty per cent of the Knesset, and three per cent of all top governmental officials are Sephardim...

...According to government statistics, Sephardic children account for sixty per cent of elementary school enrollment, thirty-five per cent of secondary school enrollment, and only twenty-five per cent of secondary school graduates...

...Officials also admit, a bit more uncomfortably, that because the Sephardic Jews lived for so many years in Arab countries and have therefore become "Arabized," the most difficult issue to resolve is cultural differentiation...

...In response to Black Panther demonstrations, the ruling Ashkenazim, Jews of European origin, are hastily instituting reforms of the type familiar to Americans from their own "war on poverty"—"enrichment" programs for college-age youth, Head Start for pre-school children, and the like—to cope with what Israelis call "the Sephardic problem...

...The underrepresentation of Sephardic Jews in all major aspects of Israeli life is so great that had a "siege" mentality or an actual state of war not existed for so long, a group like the Panthers probably would have emerged years ago...

...When former Prime Minister Ben-Gurion endorsed a reorganization of the political system to allow for territorial constituencies, his party broke with him primarily over this issue...

...Paradoxically, however, those generally regarded as the Israeli "pioneers" are the Jews who arrived in the waves of immigration of the early 1900s, and who went on to shape the nation's cultural, social, and political patterns...

...Judith P. Miller has served as Middle East correspondent for the New York radio station WBAI...

...However, this would necessitate spending less money on military and defense and far more on housing and education...

...In addition to these demands, the Panthers have raised, often inarticulately and with far less publicity, the question of the suppression of Sephardic culture...

...In many ways the Panthers resemble black American civil rights leaders of the early 1960s, and they have an undeniably good issue...

...Here Is the Other Israel...

...The government is also attempting to accelerate Sephardic attendance at the universities by providing special scholarships, partially financed by contributions from the United States...

...Many Sephardim, including some Panthers, see greater political representation as a solution to their problems...

...In this context, the size of the Panther following is even more impressive...

...One additional year of free and compulsory education at the secondary level does not effectively meet the dropout problem: Sephardic youngsters drop out not because they cannot afford the fees, since many are on tuition scholarships, but because their families cannot afford to relinquish the income the youngsters could earn if they were working...

...It is difficult to foresee the evolution of the Black Panthers or the effect they will have on Israeli society in the long run...

...This sequence of arrivals, according to government spokesmen, explains the current economic and social imbalance...

...He is also working to raise the government poverty line, currently a monthly income of less than $145 for a family of eight, which now encompasses about twenty per cent of the population, most of whom are Sephardic...

...While Panthers mock Israeli leaders at demonstrations, they have not publicly endorsed other candidates, nor have they answered questions concerning broader political issues...

...all pledge before elections to help Sephardic Jews but are unwilling to nominate Sephardic candidates on their national slates...

...A third possibility depends to a large extent on the development of the Panthers, or the emergence of a similar ethnically oriented protest group within Israel...

...Most officials discount the Panthers as a politically motivating force...

...In addition to housing benefits, tax deductions and work opportunities afforded new immigrants serve as a constant irritant to Sephardim, who increasingly feel a part of what the Panthers call "the other Israel...

...Although Eliacher believes that reform of the system is necessary, he feels it is most unlikely, since it would necessitate a complete shake-up of the existing political structure...

...An Israel of and within the Middle East, whose predominant culture would be Sephardic, is anathema to those Israelis who immigrated with their Western culture and values, intending to transform the promised land in their own image...

...This policy of giving the best housing to new immigrants has caused bitterness and frustration among the Sephardim, some of whom have been waiting more than fifteen years to move into better accommodations...

...Within the past year, a renovation fund has been established to provide, on the recommendation of a social worker, loans or grants to families that cannot afford to buy larger flats (most apartments are purchased, not rented, in Israel), but wish to improve or refurbish present accommodations...

...But they are certainly not good boys now...

...The Panthers are a loosely structured group...

...Most Ashkenazim, including those in power, are more than willing to admit that something must be done, but few believe that allowing the Sephardic majority power commensurate with its numbers would strengthen the Israeli state...

...One Panther said to me, "Do you know what would happen to everything we have fought for if they [the Ashkenazim] could tell Sephardim that we were pro-Arab, or just another political lobby...

...Their simultaneous desires are to retain their Middle Eastern Jewish traditions and culture and still gain a larger share of economic and social wealth now controlled and distributed by Ashkenazim—principally for the benefit of those who possess or are willing to accept Western values, education, and culture...

...Eliacher claims that the denial of power and influence to Sephardic communities is the Ashkenazi strategy for safeguarding the control and leadership they now exercise...

...The large Sephardic migrations to Israel began in the 1940s and continued well after Israel had become a state...

...Jocharon Peres, an eminent sociologist at Hebrew University, contends that the economic gap between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews is increasing...

...Most of these immigrants came without skills and education appropriate to a modern, technological state...

...The parties are controlled by the Ashkenazim...

...No Israeli official," I was told, "would ever be allowed to espouse segregation as they do in your country...

...I am waiting for the coming of the Arab Black Panthers...

...Golda Meir's reaction to her April meeting with the Panthers is indicative of governmental paternalism: "Perhaps they were good boys once, and I hope they will be good in the future...

...If they continue to awaken Sephardim to the fundamental injustices in their society, if they manage to teach young Sephardic Jews pride in their traditions and culture, if they themselves begin to believe that their culture is not incompatible with the progress and defense of Israel, and if they find some political way of manifesting these beliefs, the very nature of the Israeli state could in time be altered...

...They continue to work independently in Sephardic neighborhoods, organizing and winning support for their demands...

...Oriental Jews are sometimes degradingly referred to as "schwartz," Yiddish for black...

...Israel spends about fifty per cent of its annual national budget (about twenty-five per cent of annual GNP) on defense...

...The Black Panthers as a group indicate ambivalence toward their "Arabized" ethnic group...

...Bound by common dangers and goals—so goes the mythology—the Jews of 101 national origins are fused together and reborn as "Israelis," one people, one race, united by religion, sharing equally in the fruits of their labor and land...

...In Jerusalem, the head of the Municipality's Social Welfare Department, Eliezer Jaffe, says that in response to increasing crime rates and growing numbers of prostitutes on the streets (almost all of whom are young Sephardic girls), the Department has greatly increased the number of social workers in disadvantaged areas...

...Housing reflects the clustering of people by ethnic origin, and the poorest and most overcrowded ethnic neighborhoods are Sephardic...

...Meir, will spend about a year investigating everything from family planning (or the lack of it) to the prisons and correctional institutions which once confined many of the young Panther leaders...

...Improving Sephardic housing conditions, which would be a profound change, involves a direct confrontation with a fundamental national priority: encouraging immigration by guaranteeing new housing for the 2.5 million new immigrants Israel hopes to admit by 1981...

...Every Arab country has its Ashkenazim," he told me...

...We are one race...

...These reforms are aimed at helping the poor "disadvantaged" Sephardic Jews take on good Ashkenazi traits and aspirations as rapidly as possible...

...This sense of inferiority, which borders on self-hate, is reminiscent of black Americans' feelings of personal failure before the advent of the Black Power concept...

...Therefore, a Western-oriented state, led by those who are comfortable with Western science and technology, is essential...

...housing has always been provided for new immigrants...

...They have also begun to place more emphasis on enrollment of Sephardic children in nursery schools...

...Or Israel may decide to take meaningful and necessarily expensive action in order to hasten Sephardic re-education—that is, to hasten Sephardic assimilation within Ashkenazi society...

...Even more important than the adequacy of the reforms is the question of their motivation and ideology...

...In the universities, fewer than twelve per cent of the students are Sephardic...

...Since the Panthers, and Oriental Jews in general, look more like Arabs than their Ashkenazi countrymen, they are often stopped at road blocks while European-looking citizens are allowed to pass...

...But within the Panther organization, a few members whose political awareness is highly developed will discuss these issues privately...

...The Western-oriented, technological Israeli society reinforces the feelings of basic inferiority of Sephardic culture held by Ashkenazim and Sephardim alike...

...At present, there are no territorial constituencies in the Knesset, since all members are elected at large by the nation from lists presented by the political parties...

...They believe that the state of Israel, because it is a "Jewish state," embodies the values and traditions of Judaism—love of justice, wisdom, tolerance, individual freedom, and equality...

...One per cent in the Government, ninety-six per cent in Jail...

...Such attitudes are reminiscent of white American attitudes towards blacks and their culture...

...The Panthers, who speak in simple Hebrew, show political and social sensitivity...

...The Sephardim suffer from tremendous overcrowding in settlements which are often situated far from cities and towns...

...But far more fundamental questions are inherent in the Black Panthers' demands for such traditional reforms as better housing, jobs, educational opportunities, and admission of former convicts to the army, a gateway to economic opportunity in Israel...

...These Jews came mainly from Russia and Poland, and many had good educations and technical skills...

...The Ashkenazim who rule the country and are now condescending towards the Sephardim are the very immigrants who cast aside their European educations to work with their hands on the land—draining swamps, building highways, and farming the fields...

...But Ashkenazi Israelis point condescendingly to the Arab failure to compete with Israeli scientific and economic achievements and, although it is hardly ever openly stated, imply that Jews raised in such a "backward" environment could not possibly be as capable as those raised in the West...

...Ashkenazi paternalism is revealed in the almost universal Israeli failure to take the Black Panthers seriously either as individuals or as a political group with great potential...

...Most Israelis, however, emphatically deny that the Ashkenazi-Sephardic gap is caused by racism...

...They are challenging the Western-oriented Ashkenazi rule of a country which is more than sixty per cent Sephardic and Middle Eastern...

...Most Ashkenazim believe that the heart of the Sephardic problem is that the Sephardim are not like them...

...Those Panthers who have a measure of political sophistication are reluctant to voice the fundamental question of Israeli identity at this time, for they realize that this tactic would undermine all they hope to win from the existing political system and its rulers...

...He advocates the establishment of a massive "city kibbutz" system to save Sephardic children from the "influence" of their parents...

...Mixed (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) marriages are increasing, but they are still frowned upon by some...

...Unless the Panthers convince the Ashkenazim that discontented Sephardim really could be a security problem, a massive program aimed at the transformation of Sephardic Jews into Ashkenazim is not likely...

...The average number of children in the Oriental family is 4.3...

...The "bad boys" show traditional Israeli talent for public relations, illustrated in the very selection of their name and through provocative political slogans: WE Are a Security Problem Too...

...Government statistics indicate that the average per capita income of Sephardic families is about fifty-four per cent that of the Ashkenazim families...

...We have no choice but to continue saying, for the time being, 'no comment' to questions concerning formal domestic politics or Palestinians and Arabs...

...If Ben-Gurion's prestige was not sufficient to force serious consideration of this approach, there seems to be little promise that the political parties will consent to a decline in their influence by giving up control over candidates...

...They are, in effect, asking whether Israel will continue to be a Beverly Hills or Shaker Heights East, where Americans can cavort in their blue and white "Shalom Israel" caps, feeling perfectly at home with the Western-style economic and governmental machinery and people they encounter, or whether Israel will finally reconcile itself to its geographic and historic position in the Middle East and allow the Levantine culture of the majority of its citizens to determine national government and character...

...Because of the ambivalence they feel towards their own ethnic group and the fear that they may in fact be "inferior" to their Westernized brothers, the Sephardim, though an oppressed majority, are the most chauvinistic Israelis, to the point of jingoism, and the most anti-Arab, despite the cultural affinity with Arab neighbors...

...Those Panthers who have a measure of political sophistication are reluctant to voice the fundamental question of Israeli identity at this time, for they realize that this tactic would undermine all they hope to win from the existing political system . . ." Although oppression and separation of the darker skinned, Arab-looking Sephardim have not been a government policy, a kind of unofficial cultural racism does exist...

...This emphasis on urban, European middle-class culture, white collar employment, and technologically oriented youth is ironic...