A-Infos (en) Anarkismo.net: Alternative Libertaire - 1962-2000: Matzpen, the enemy within (fr)

From 1962 to 2000, the Israeli far left was embodied by Matzpen, a newspaper and an 
organization that left a strong mark on the Israeli peace and pro-Palestinian movements. 
Reading Israeli newspapers headlines from between 1968 and 1971 (there were more than a 
dozen at that time), it might seem that Israel had three main parties: the Labour Party, 
Gahal (the future Likud) and... the Israeli Socialist Organization, better known as 
Matzpen ("The Compass"), the name of its monthly journal. As subscribers to the "Argus de 
la presse" press monitor, every week we received dozens of clippings from various 
newspapers. Matzpen was a name known to all and, as the voice of the enemy within, was 
accused in the media and on the streets (though not the police, well-informed as they 
were) of all possible crimes imaginable, from the attack on the oil refineries in Haifa to 
the success of the Egyptian army at the Suez Canal in October 1973. The Israeli ambassador 
to West Germany claimed that we were "no more than 20,000 activists"! Instead, not even at 
its highest point did the movement ever achieve more than about a hundred*.

The Communist Party staggered by the Six-Day War

Two factors explain this popularity. The first is that after the June 1967 war, there was 
no longer any opposition - all the political parties of the left and the intellectual 
critics had joined the "union sacrÃe" and supported the war, except for the Israeli 
Communist Party which, for its part, remained for many years stunned by the Arab defeat, 
as its leaders and Arab militants had gambled on a victory of "progressive States" - Egypt 
and Syria - linked to the Soviet Union.** Throughout Israel, the dozens of male and female 
Matzpen activists were the only ones to loudly denounce the occupation, to speak of 
"Palestinians" (a new concept at that time in Israel) and to support the emerging 
Palestinian national movement*** - something the ICP itself would only do after 1972 - 
while clearly defining itself as a left-wing, anti-Zionist organization. This peculiarity 
of Matzpen is linked to the qualities of its public speakers and spokespeople - especially 
Moshe Machover, Akiva Orr, Haim Hanegbi and Arie Bober - and their knowledge of the 
history of Zionism and the State of Israel. The right-wing political scientist Ehud 
Schprinzak once said in an interview that his inability and that of the government's 
propaganda teams to successfully counter the effects of Matzpen abroad was due to the fact 
that "the Matzpen militants knew everything about the history of Israel, whereas we knew 
nothing...".

The second factor was related to the times: we are in middle of the "May 1968" period, and 
while Matzpen recognized itself in this new Western far left, the latter "adopted" Matzpen 
and served as a loudspeaker for our ideas across Europe and North America. In 
turmoil-filled universities, the name of Matzpen was better known than any Israeli 
government minister, with the exception of the sinister Moshe Dayan.

Little by little, Matzpen, which had been especially active in the universities, gained 
ground among young Israeli high-school students, so much so that the Education Department 
of the municipality of Haifa, a city where Matzpen was very active, even organized an 
"anti-Matzpen seminar" which was compulsory for high-school seniors.

The war in October 1973 (the "Yom Kippur" or "October" War) confirmed what Matzpen had 
been preaching in the desert: that the Arab states would soon return to war because they 
could not accept the crushing defeat of 1967. At that time, Israeli strategists were 
predicting "a thousand years [sic] without war or peace"... Paradoxically the October war 
- that only Matzpen had predicted - marked the end of its monopoly as an opposition force.

The earthquake provoked by the victorious crossing of the Suez Canal by the Egyptian army 
and Syria's recapture of the Golan Heights in the space of 24 hours, would cause a gradual 
shift in opinion, which questioned the politics of war and occupation, leading to the 
birth of the Peace Now movement in 1978.


Dissolving into the wider pacifist movement

The 1982 Lebanese War was to see the first mass anti-war movement, and Matzpen militants 
played an important role in its emergence. But Matzpen lost its more or less unique role 
as political opposition and became more of an ideological movement within the larger 
movement, and a bridge to the Palestinian movements, with whom we had kept close ties 
since the early 1970s.

This bridging role was the cause of the first repressive measures against Matzpen. Until 
then, the Israeli authorities had tolerated its activity****. It had been the object of 
social ostracism and occasional bouts of police harassment - censorship of the newspaper 
in particular. But in 1987, the Alternative Information Center (founded by Matzpen)***** 
was closed by the authorities and its director accused of "supporting terrorist 
organizations." But the First Intifada was about to explode and the Palestinians in the 
Occupied Territories were about to express themselves in a massive way for the first time. 
The organization continued to exist for another ten years or so, publishing its paper and 
organizing political discussion circles, but there was no longer any real reason for it to 
exist, and its activists directed most of their energy into directing the Israeli 
solidarity movement with the Intifada.******

Shortly before the new millennium, Matzpen dissolved******** after thirty-eight years of 
action and political education which, as one of Israel's "new historians" wrote, 
"discovered decades before what the academic world believes it has discovered today". 
Anti-Zionism is no longer a marginal current in Israel. And Matzpen made an enormous 
contribution to that.


Michael Warschawski (Jerusalem)


Original French version published in "Alternative Libertaire", February 2010.
English translation by FdCA International Relations Office

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org
========================================
Some remarks on inaccuracies by the author who should know better... - I.S.
* Till the splits in 1970, Matzpen never had more than 30 members, with a significant 
number of Palestinian citizens of Israel. With the full circle of supporters it may have 
reached this number.
** The CP also supported the Israeli establishment and till this day never renounced the 
allocation of 75% of Palestine to the Palestinian Jewish minority.
*** As mainly anti-authoritarian anti-capitalists (libertarian communists), Matzpen never 
supported any national movement. We were in friendly communication with the more radical 
and secular part of this movement and joined the struggle against the 1948 and 1967 
occupation, transfer and suppression of the Palestinians in our way.
**** The repression against Palestinian members of Matzpen started much earlier. In 1968/9 
our member Halil Toama even served a sentence of 9 months in jail for socializing with 
like-minded people from East Jerusalem.
***** In 1970, the Lambertist Trotskyists and the Third Worldists left Matzpen, while the 
author of this article and other supporters of the Trotskyist 4th International tried to 
take over Matzpen in 1972. When they failed, they left and called themselves 
Matzpen-Marxists. The CIT was their project.
****** During the '80s (mainly 1984-5), Matzpen helped to end the ban on Palestinian 
radicals participating in elections together with other radicals not in the CP.
Later Matzpen's main specific activity was support for the Israeli nuclear whistle-blower 
Mordechai Vanunu. After his release, the focus was on Kav La'Oved - the alternative to 
trade unions - which serves Palestinian and guest workers mainly.
******** The Trotskyists dissolved, while the original Matzpen still exists. Lately some 
of the members of Matzpen have been involved with the Anarchists Against the Wall initiative.




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