A new activist group which wants to re-arrange government priorities in favor of social issues has emerged here, calling itself “Combat ’85.” One of its first demands is the transfer of monies allocated for new settlement building on the West Bank to the needy.
The group is composed of young city dwellers and some not so young who were active in the now defunct Black Panthers movement in the 1970’s. Their immediate goal is to lead the social struggle in slum neighborhoods, inhabited mainly by Oriental Jews, which long have been considered strongholds of Likud and other rightwing parties.
Two of its leaders, Saadya Marciano of the Labor Party and MK Charlie Biton of the Hadash Communists, are both former leaders of the Black Panthers.
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