Matzpen

Matzpen combined socialist politics with opposition to Zionism and a rejection of the existing political order in Israel.[1][2] Its founding principles identified its “main field of action” as “the struggle against the existing regime in Israel.”[2] The organization understood Jewish colonization and Palestinian dispossession as central causes of the Arab–Israeli conflict, and most of its members favored a binational state.[1]

Its small membership contrasted with the attention its positions attracted and the later influence of several former members in Israeli–Palestinian dialogue.[1] Before the emergence of a large Israeli peace movement in 1978, peace activity was largely confined to the Communist Party and Matzpen, whose agendas were deeply unpopular among the general Jewish-Israeli public.[4]

The newspaper Matzpen began appearing in late 1962 after Oded Pilavsky, Jeremiah Kaplan, Akiva Orr, and Moshe Machover left the Israeli Communist Party and founded the Israeli Socialist Organization.[2] The break involved opposition to the Communist Party’s acceptance of the Israeli state.[1]

In 1967, Matzpen attracted public attention by protesting Israel’s occupation of the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria.[1] Its newspaper called on the government to withdraw from occupied territories in July of that year.[2] Members subsequently developed contacts with Palestinian leftists, including through a support network formed by members who moved abroad.[1]

Contacts with Nayif Hawatma’s movement began in January 1970, with Hawatma seeking dialogue based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.[5] Matzpen members also participated in discussions at Bir Zeit University and later with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[1]

The group split over ideological affiliation in February 1972, and a competing publication appeared under the name Matzpen with “Marxist” in parentheses.[1][2] Each side maintained that the other had broken away.[2] One Matzpen publication continued until the beginning of the 1980s, while its Marxist counterpart lasted until the end of that decade.[2] The organization nearly dissolved following the 1993 Oslo Accord.[1]

Matzpen’s newspaper began as an eight-page, large-format publication and later averaged sixteen pages.[2] Its schedule was irregular: issues appeared monthly, every other month, or whenever the editors could produce them.[2] From 1972, it appeared in Hebrew and Arabic in parallel.[2]

The paper addressed education, Israeli policy, Palestinian politics, and social protest.[2] A January 1963 item criticized negative generalizations about Arabs in school textbooks; a March 1969 issue carried an interview with a Fatah member; and a March 1970 issue included an article by Nayef Hawatmeh of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.[2] In April 1971, it supported the Israeli Black Panthers’ struggle regardless of that movement’s attitude toward Matzpen, and in March 1979 it criticized the Israeli-Egyptian agreement.[2]

Print runs amounted to hundreds of copies per issue, with circulation dependent on subscriptions and direct sales at events, especially in Arab villages.[2] Editor Oded Pilavsky recalled that distribution eventually became difficult, some members moved abroad, and the group lost energy.[2] He also recalled children throwing stones at sellers in Arab streets, while adults brought the children indoors.[2]

Pilavsky described a period when the editors were required to submit all material to the military censor.[2] In his account, one issue came back with almost everything deleted, including an article about Ho Chi Minh that he believed contained nothing related to security.[2] After he challenged the decision and threatened a Supreme Court appeal and publicity, all but one sentence was approved.[2]

Beyond its newspaper, Matzpen distributed a pamphlet opposing occupation and calling for an end to steps it characterized as illegal.[6] Its international solidarity activities included a demonstration in 1981 supporting Polish workers and the Polish people.[3]

In discussions about a future Palestinian state, Matzpen members defended national rights for Jews, while their Palestinian interlocutors favored recognizing Jewish cultural and religious rights instead.[1] This disagreement accompanied the group’s broader engagement with Palestinian left-wing organizations.[1]

Moshe Machover, Akiva Orr, Haim Hanegbi, Michel Warschawski, and Leah Tsemel were among the former members whose influence grew in left-wing circles engaged in Israeli–Palestinian dialogue and opposition to human-rights abuses in the occupied territories.[1] By the 1990s, Matzpen’s interpretation of Jewish colonization as a primary cause of the conflict had become a common feature of post-Zionism.[1]

The group’s newspaper preserved its positions on issues ranging from school textbooks and territorial withdrawal to the Black Panthers and the Israeli-Egyptian agreement.[2] Its influence therefore extended beyond the organization’s very limited membership and the small circulation of its publication.[1][2]

Matzpen’s opposition to the occupation provoked accusations of treachery from people who regarded territorial control as a defensive necessity; members also experienced harassment and loss of employment.[1] In 1971, its newspaper described itself as Israel’s most hated Hebrew publication and claimed that Zionist parties and government spokespeople denounced it while most shops and distributors boycotted it.[2]

Security cases involving members and factional associates intensified controversy.[1][7] Udi Adiv was arrested in 1972 and later imprisoned for contacts with Syrian authorities; he belonged to the Red Front, a radical Matzpen faction, and traveled to Damascus for sabotage training.[1][7] Rami Livneh and Mali Lerman were imprisoned over secret contacts with senior Fatah figures, with their five-year sentences reduced on appeal to four and two years respectively.[7] These cases concerned particular individuals and a faction, rather than establishing that Matzpen as a whole directed their activities.[7]