‘black Panther’ Group Emerges in Israel; Stage Rally Protesting Poverty, Arrests

Israeli authorities are discovering that they have a “Black Panther” problem on their hands. A group adopting the name and style of the militant Negro extremist organization in the United States, has been staging disorderly demonstrations. They claim to fight for the rights of the under-privileged. But their main support comes from Matzpen, a tiny but highly articulate extreme Left group which is bitterly anti-Zionist and anti-Israel. Twelve self-styled “Black Panthers” were arrested here yesterday for unlawful demonstrations. This afternoon, after securing a police permit, about 200 members of Matzpen and “Black Panther” members staged an orderly demonstration in front of City Hall then moved on to the Jerusalem District Police Headquarters. They shouted slogans protesting their poverty and demanded the release of their 12 members. A delegation of demonstrators, including the writers Dan Ben Amotz and Amos Kenan, were received by the District police commander who told them that the 12 were being questioned and would not be held longer than necessary and permitted under the law. The backing by Matzpen of the “Black Panthers,” indicates political aims. Matzpen subscribes to the philosophy of Nayet Hawatmeh, head of the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the most extreme of all Arab terrorist groups, which demands the dismemberment of Israel in favor of a Palestinian state based on Maoist-Marxist principles. Matzpen is believed to have little more than 100 members. Its main support is found among high school and university students.

The “Panther” problem surfaced as charges were made in the Knesset and by Mayor Teddy Kollek yesterday that television teams were paying slum quarter youths to stage “violent demonstrations” for the benefit of tv cameras. Mayor Kollek informed the Police Ministry and Director General Shmuel Almog of the Israel Broadcasting Authority that he had signed statements proving that tv teams making a documentary film on juvenile delinquency had paid youngsters $2.45 an hour for taking part in staged demonstrations. He said the youths were transported in Broadcast Authority vehicles to the demonstration sites. The Authority has started an investigation. Kollek claimed further that a tv team entered the Remez Youth Club in the Musrara quarter, a Jerusalem slum, to try to get the members to stage disorders that were to be attributed to the “Black Panthers.” Similar accusations in the Knesset were made by Rabbi Menachem Porush of the ultra-Orthodox Agudat Israel faction. Police Minister Shlomo Hillel told a Knesset committee that Israel need not fear the emergence of organized crime on Mafia lines, and warned that the dangers of juvenile delinquency could not be solved by police action alone.