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Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 2809

ANARCHISM IN PALESTINE AND ISRAEL

by Uri Gordon

Anarchism has been a political undercurrent in Palestine and Israel for a century, appearing in three disconnected waves: the libertarian socialism of the early Kibbutz communes, the publishing and cultural activities of Yiddish-speaking immigrants, and contemporary Israeli anarchism. In Palestinian society there are individual sympathizers, but no organized anarchist movement, with Marxist parties such as Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leading the secular left wing. Yet the first Intifada (1987-1989) drew widespread support from anarchists as a grassroots uprising involving tax refusal, general strikes, urban confrontation and the establishment of underground schools and mutual aid projects. Since 2000, Israeli and international anarchists have been leading solidarity campaigns in Palestine.

EARLY KIBBUTZ MOVEMENT, 1910-1926

Anarchist ideas circulated widely in the second and third waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine, and were central to the formation of the early Kibbutzim. The first twenty eight communes were founded in 1910-1914, following labor disputes and strikes at the colonies established during the first wave of immigration. The founders, mostly young and unmarried, built the communes on principles of collectivism, equality and self-management, aspiring to create a free socialist society of Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

Anarchism was highly influential in the communards' party Hapoel Hatzair (The Young Worker), whose paper included articles by and about Proudhon and Kropotkin. Aharon David Gordon (1856-1922), a forestry clerk who immigrated as a laborer to Palestine aged 47, became a spiritual leader of Hapoel Hatzair and was very close to anarchism. Influenced by Hassidic mysticism and the writings of Nietzsche and Tolstoy, Gordon promoted collective manual labor as a key to Jewish regeneration, and spiritual liberation through creativity and reconnection to nature. A staunch anti-militarist and pacifist, Gordon spoke nothing of a Jewish State and called for respect and cooperation with Arab peasants.

Joseph Trumpeldor (1880-1920), an immigrant soldier who organized early Jewish defence forces, was influenced by Kropotkin and Tolstoy and declared himself "an anarcho-communist and a Zionist".

Inspired by Trumpeldor, Gdud Haavoda (the Labor Battalion) was formed as a decentralised commune, whose bands of construction workers sought to establish a General Commune in Palestine.

Gustav Landauer had a direct influence on members of Hashomer Hatzair (The Young Guardsman), an immigrating Zionist-socialist youth movement who founded a federation of new Kibbutzim in the third wave of immigration from 1919. Its members made explicit references to anarchism in their calls for communal independence, egalitarian relationships, direct democracy and spiritual renewal.

In the later 1920s anarchist tendencies in Palestine weakened, with the influx of private capital into the country and increasing economic and political control of the Kibbutzim by the central Jewish institutions in Palestine dominated by Ben Gurion's party Mapai.

YIDDISH ANARCHISM, 1948-1989

After the State of Israel was established, anarchist circles formed among the Yiddish-speaking survivors of Nazism who immigrated to the country. The earliest was led in Tel-Aviv by Eliezer Hirschauge (1911-1954), formerly an exponent of anarchism among Chassidic youth in Warsaw and author of a history of Polish anarchism. Activities took an upswing with the arrival in 1958 of prolific anarchist theorist, critic and translator Abba Gordin (1887-1964). Gordin was a key member of the Moscow Anarchist Federation, and from 1925 lived in New York where he published the literary-philosophical review Yiddishe Shriften (1936-1957). In Israel Gordin founded the anarchist circle ASHUACH (Agudat Shocharei Chofesh, "Freedom-Seekers Association"), who had a large meeting-hall and a library of classic anarchist works in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Polish. ASHUACH had approximately 150 members and hundreds attended the lectures it organized. Gordin edited the association's monthly review in Yiddish and Hebrew, Problemen/Problemot. The review largely played down revolutionary propaganda in favour of philosophical and literary essays, and was especially interested in the spiritual roots of anarchism and in classical Jewish and current Yiddish literature. Gordin also regularly corresponded with prominent Yiddish anarchist publications in New York (Freie Arbeiter Stimme) and Buenos Aires (Dos Freie Wort).

After Gordin's death, Problemen was edited by Shmuel Abarbanel until 1971, when Joseph Luden (1908-) assumed editorship and affiliated the review (now printed only in Yiddish) with a publishing house that released over fifteen Yiddish books and pamphlets of fiction and poetry. ASHUACH came to a halt in the 1980s as the old anarchists passed away, and the final (165th) issue of Problemen (December 1989) was the last Yiddish anarchist periodical publication in the world.

ISRAELI ANARCHISM, 1967-PRESENT

Anarchist tendencies were present in the Israeli anti-militarist and anti-capitalist Left since its emergence, following the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian Territories and parallel to the wave of radicalism in Western countries. Libertarians were active in the Israeli Socialist Organization (1967-1977), which issued the paper Matzpen and cooperated with the Israeli Black Panthers - a militant movement of second-generation Jews from North African countries. During and after 1973 war The Black Front - Trippy Anarchist Group was active from a commune in Tel Aviv, producing flyers and pamphlets including Liberation News and the anti-militarist comics Freaky. Radical student cells were active in Tel-Aviv (1975-6) and Jerusalem (1986-7). Protests against the first Lebanon war saw the release of subversive propaganda by The Committee for Public Health (1982-1987), and the founding of the Israeli chapter of War Resisters International by Hungarian-Israeli anarcho-pacifist Yeshaayahu Toma-Schick (1939-2004).

From the late 1980s, anarchism was central to the politicized section of the punk movement and to army refusal and evasion during the first Palestinian Intifada. The Israeli Anarchist Federation (1991-1993) held demonstrations against police brutality and Israel's first McDonalds outlet, put on benefit concerts, and later spawned the militant animal rights group Anonymous. Direct action and propaganda groups such as the Isra-hell Collective and the Anarchist Brigade of the Northern Galilee released photocopied political magazines including "It's All Lies" and "The War of Words". Tel Aviv's Left Bank club was founded to provide a space for radical punk shows, talks and exhibitions.

The movement grew quickly in the late 1990s with the anti-capitalist environmental group Green Action and the direct action campaign against the construction of the Cross-Israel Highway, which connected issues of pollution, open spaces, Arab land rights and government-corporate collusion. Inspired by the major anti-capitalist protests in London and Seattle at the end of 1999, Israeli activists began organizing Reclaim The Streets parties and Food Not Bombs stalls, and founded the Salon Mazal infoshop and the Israeli Independent Media Center (Indymedia).

The second Intifada reinvigorated Israeli radicals' anti-occupation and Palestinian solidarity efforts. The network Ta'ayush (Arab-Jewish Partnership), though not nominally anarchist, organized informally to break sieges and bring supplies into Palestinian towns, as well as defend farmers from settlers and soldiers as they cultivated their land. From the summer of 2001, many international anarchists arrived in Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), accompanying Palestinian non-violent actions to tear down military roadblocks and break curfews, and serving as human shields and live witnesses during the Israeli offensive of spring 2002. The ISM was weakened following the killing of its volunteers Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall in the Gaza Strip, and a repressive Israeli campaign including raids on its flats and offices, deportations and denials of entry.

From spring 2003, Israeli anarchists began to organize autonomously to cooperate with Palestinians and internationals, particularly in the campaign against the construction of the Segregation Barrier in the West Bank. Invited by farmers from the village of Mas'ha, the group built a protest and outreach camp on their land, about to be confiscated for the fence. The camp lasted four months and led to the founding of the group Anarchists Against the Wall. Anarchists remain active in the West Bank and inside Israel, and took part in the opposition to the second Lebanon War in August 2006 and the Gaza War in January 2009.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Goncharok, Moshe (2002), Ashes from our Fires: A Historical Survey of the Yiddish Anarchist Movement (Jerusalem: Problemen).
Horrox, James (2008), A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement (Oakland: AK Press)
Massey, David (ed., 2002), It's All Lies: Leaflets, Underground Press and Posters The Fusion of Resistance and Creativity in Israel (Tel Aviv: APICC)

See: http://awalls.org

jamesieboy · Helping with the Count Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 327

Anarcho-communism. Now there is the oxymoron to end all oxymorons.

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 2809

The interesting thing about Uri Gordon's history of anarchism in Palestine and Israel is that it is an aspect of history generally ignored. But Jewish immigrant anarchists did play an important part in such things as the early kibbutzim, and it is interesting to note that they were NOT seeking the establishment of a specifically Jewish state, but of a libertarian socialist society in which Jews and Palestinians could live in harmony. And today, despite facing quite severe repression by the Israeli state, Israeli anarchists are one of the firmest sections of the anti-war movement in Israel.

Rinty · Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:50 pm Post subject:

How is anarcho-communism an oxymoron? Personally I dont think it is all that useful a term, like many such terms, but used in the right context it serves a purpose. But it isnt an oxymoron as both anarchism and communism are theories based on removing 'the state' from society. The 'anarcho' prefix to communism refers to how they plan to get there, in my opinion.

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 2809

Rinty · Posted: Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:12 pm Post subject:

Reluctant Hero · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:10 am Post subject:

I agree with Dave and Rinty, anarcho-communism is not an oxymoron. What I take from it is that everybody would live in a stateless society where they would share the means of production between themselves. Now this an overly simplistic summary, but illustrates that it is possible.

But as Rinty alluded to, people get carried away with labels. For instance there are about ten different strands of anarchism. The thing that gets over-looked is the common feature that all of them have.

A society without government.
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agentmancuso · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:40 pm Post subject:

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 2809

agentmancuso · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 5:32 pm Post subject:

jamesieboy · Helping with the Count Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 327

Any form of anarchism as a few of the previous comments have described is basically naive, ignores human nature and would never work.

Name a place where this form of government has worked, in modern times?

Too many people are basically selfish. Thatcherism proved that. The grasping me me me consumer greed that characterised the 80's, 90's and right up to the present illustrates that mentality perfectly. It's sad but it's reality.

Think of all the times you've been in a company where the subject of how much someone's made out of their house! For me, the figure would run into the hundreds.

Communism is not remotely near Anarchism. Exact opposites in fact. One advocates no state control, the other total state control over ever aspect of life.

I spent some time in Albania a few years ago. They went from one extreme to another in a few years. Very few countries have experienced that.

Questions which arises when we think of anarchism:

What if, in this perfect society, you get people who don't pull their weight?
Drug addicts, alcoholics, malingerers for example. Who pays for their keep if there is no state? Do we all just chip in for their vodka or their methodone?

Who pays for the police of someone robs your house? The fire brigade if it's on fire? The doctors if you have an illness?

Those who advocate a system that has never, ever worked have to think of the practicalities of how individuals within that system would survive.

Rinty · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 11:59 pm Post subject:

"Communism is not remotely near Anarchism. Exact opposites in fact. One advocates no state control, the other total state control over ever aspect of life."

No, you are mistaking the theory of communism with communist parties who have been authoritarian.

Thats like using Gerry Adams as an example to describe the USA Republican Party.

Essentially you would be right if you were saying that Communist parties, when in power have shown little enthuusiasm for advancing communism, preferring to remain at ethe place wher state controls a planned economy and/or society.

But an 'anarcho-communist' would not be a supporter of these sort of parties or their methods so it a wrong comparison.

jamesieboy · Helping with the Count Joined: 15 Feb 2009 Posts: 327

Where would be an example of anarcho-communism, then?

Rinty · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:06 am Post subject:

Dave has given you some excellent sources to read about it. But you can distract all you like, you were mistaken in saying that anarcho-comunism is an oxymoron. Anarcho-Stalinism would be, or anarcho-authoritarian even but you were wrong, basically because you dont know much.

Dave Coull · Independentista Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Posts: 2809

I have a firmer record of principled opposition to so-called "Communist" dictatorship than members of the Conservatives, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats, or, indeed, the SNP. When the leaders of the Conservative Party (then in opposition) entertained the leaders of the Soviet Union to lunch at the Carlton Club in London, I was an active participant in the very lively picket/demonstration outside, shouting slogans (in Russian and in English) about freeing all political prisoners. When workers at the Gdansk shipyard in Poland occupied their place of work, I took part in the very first act of SOLIDARITY with them to be held anywhere in the world. Long before hypocrites like Thatcher and Reagan jumped on our bandwaggon, I was one of just three people who formed the campaign for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest against the lack of freedoms in the USSR. I plastered our boycott posters all over the London Underground. One of my two colleagues was arrested at Moscow airport trying to enter the USSR with a rucksack full of our anti-regime leaflets. But Jamesie thinks he can teach me a thing or two.

Reluctant Hero · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:39 pm Post subject:

agentmancuso · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:21 pm Post subject:

agentmancuso · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject:

Rinty · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:28 pm Post subject:

And cynicism is just frustration dressed up as sophistication Smile

agentmancuso · Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:12 pm Post subject:

Sophisticated? Moi? Cool

I don't think I'm all that cynical. As a liberal, government from my point of view is a necessary evil, to be resisted and kept firmly in its place. But to get from that to believing that government is the root of all evil is, well, jumping the shark.

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