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Semitic Action

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Semitic Action
הפעולה השמית
Leader
Founded
  • 1956 (original)
  • 2011 (refounded)
Preceded byLehi
Ideology
Political positionCentre-left to Left-wing
Website
www.semiticaction.org.il/home/

Semitic Action (Hebrew: הפעולה השמית, HaPeulah Hashemit) was a small Israeli political group of the 1950s and 1960s which sought the creation of a regional federation encompassing Israel and its Arab neighbors.[1][2]

The same name is used by a new group formed in 2011 with broadly similar goals.

Original group

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Created in 1956,[2] the group's key members were Uri Avnery, Natan Yellin-Mor, and Boaz Evron,[3] with other members including Maxim Ghilan, Shalom Cohen, and Amos Kenan.[4] Joel Beinin describes the group as "a political expression of the Canaanite movement" which "advocated that Hebrew-speaking Israelis cut their ties with the Jewish diaspora and integrate into the Middle East as natives of the region on the basis of an anticolonialist alliance with its indigenous Arab inhabitants."[5]

In 1958 the group published a platform, titled "The Hebrew Manifesto." It described the "Hebrew nation" in Israel as a new entity, albeit one linked to the Jewish diaspora, and called for moving beyond outmoded Zionist ideas that were now holding back the nation's development.[citation needed] It put forward a program of secularism, complete civic equality between Jews and Arabs, support for anti-colonial movements, and a relationship with the diaspora based on national interest rather than ethnic, religious, or cultural ties.[6][7] Jacob Shavit writes that the manifesto emerged from the meeting of three groups: former Canaanites, former Lehi members who had moved to the Left, and Avnery and his associates, who Shavit describes as "neither Left nor Right."[citation needed]

The group published a journal, Etgar (Hebrew: אתגר, "Challenge"), edited by Yellin-Mor, weekly or biweekly from April 1960 until March 1967.[2][8] It also attempted to run for the Knesset.[9] One of its founders, Yaakov Yeredor (a former Lehi member), represented the Arab nationalist group al-Ard in three of its trials.[10][11]

In December 1960 several members of Semitic Action (Avnery, Yellin-Mor, Ghilan, Cohen, and Kenan) created the Israeli Committee for a Free Algeria, a group supportive of the FLN in the Algerian War, in opposition to Israel's official policy.[4][5][12] The impetus for this decision came from Henri Curiel, who had introduced Avnery to members of the FLN and suggested to him that an independent Algeria would repay Israeli support by becoming Israel's first friend in the region.[4][5]

2011 group

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Semitic Action was revived in early 2011 as a grassroots peace movement by activists seeking what they call "a revolutionary alternative to foreign-backed organizations that only exacerbate local frictions and bring the peoples of our region further from genuine peace."[13]

The new Semitic Action describes itself as "an Israel-based movement seeking to unite the indigenous peoples of the Middle East against the devastating influence of foreign powers in our region and the local conflicts created by the pursuit of their interests.[13] Since its resurrection, the movement has organized meetings between Palestinians and Israeli settlers in the West Bank,[14] initiated campaigns to raise support for an independent Kurdistan[15][16] and promoted a unified front of indigenous peoples against foreign political influences in the Middle East. The movement has also been vocal against westernization,[17] globalization,[18] pro-Israel support from the American Christian right,[19] Islamophobia in Israeli society,[20] capitalism[21] and the funding of local political organizations by foreign governments.[22][23]

Notes

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  1. ^ Diamond, James S. (1990). "We Are Not One: A Post-Zionist Perspective". Tikkun. 5 (2): 107.
  2. ^ a b c Hattis Rolef, Susan. "YELLIN-MOR (Friedman), NATHAN". Encyclopaedia Judaica.
  3. ^ Fiedler, Lutz (2020). "From Hebrew Nation to Semitic Action". Matzpen. A History of Israeli Dissidence. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 180–188. ISBN 978-1-4744-5117-8.
  4. ^ a b c Beinin, Joel (1990). Was the Red Flag Flying There? Marxist Politics and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in Egypt and Israel 1948-1965. University of California Press. p. 151.
  5. ^ a b c Beinin, Joel (1998). The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry: Culture, Politics, and the Formation of a Modern Diaspora. University of California Press. pp. 166
  6. ^ Shatz, Adam (2004). Prophets Outcast: a Century of Dissident Jewish Writing About Zionism and Israel. NationBooks. p. 209. ISBN 978-1-56025-509-3.
  7. ^ Bligh, Alexander (2003). The Israeli Palestinians: an Arab minority in the Jewish State. Routledge. p. 234. ISBN 978-0-7146-8345-4.
  8. ^ Shavit 150, 164
  9. ^ Shavit 150
  10. ^ Harris, Ron. "A Case Study in the Banning of Political Parties: The Pan-Arab Movement El Ard and the Israeli Supreme Court" (August 22, 2004). bepress Legal Series. Working Paper 349. p. 48.
  11. ^ Lahav, Pnina. Judgment in Jerusalem: Chief Justice Simon Agranat and the Zionist Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
  12. ^ Laskier, Michael M. (Summer 2001). "Israel and Algeria amid French Colonialism and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1954-1978". Israel Studies. 6 (2): 4. doi:10.1353/is.2001.0017.
  13. ^ a b "Homepage". Semitic Action. Retrieved 20 August 2018.
  14. ^ "Israeli & Palestinian Activists Meet in Hizme| Indy News Israel". 2012-04-25. Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  15. ^ "Activists Launch Campaign for Free Kurdistan". Israel National News. 23 November 2011.
  16. ^ "US, Turkey to Cooperate Against Kurds| Indy News Israel". 2012-04-25. Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  17. ^ "Arab-Jewish Unity Against Shortened Workweek| Indy News Israel". 2013-01-28. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  18. ^ "Activists Organizing Against McDonald's at Masada| Indy News Israel". 2013-01-28. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  19. ^ "Activists Oppose Beck's Jerusalem Rally| Indy News Israel". 2013-01-28. Archived from the original on 2013-01-28. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  20. ^ "Peace Activists Slam MK for Attempts to Silence Muezzin". Israel National News. 22 November 2011.
  21. ^ "Leef Group Calls for Peoples Strike| Indy News Israel". 2012-04-25. Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  22. ^ "Report Details British Funding for Local Anti-Zionists| Indy News Israel". 2012-05-03. Archived from the original on 2012-05-03. Retrieved 2019-07-07.
  23. ^ "Security Forces Raid Migron Heights| Indy News Israel". 2014-03-30. Archived from the original on 2014-03-30. Retrieved 2019-07-07.

References

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  • Fiedler, Lutz (2020), "From Hebrew Nation to Semitic Action", in: Matzpen. A History of Israeli Dissidence, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 180-180.
  • Shavit, Jacob (1987). The New Hebrew Nation: a Study in Israeli Heresy and Fantasy. Routledge.
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