In 1971, the Mizrahi Black Panther movement was founded in Israel, an organization created to fight for the rights of Israeli citizens of North African and Middle Eastern descent, against the discrimination they suffered at that time. The name was a tribute to the American organization.
Charlie Biton was one of its founders and also the first Israeli to meet with Arafat. Born in 1947, in Casablanca, Morocco, he immigrated to Israel with his family in 1949. They lived in the Musrara neighborhood of Jerusalem, almost exclusively surrounded by other Moroccan families.
Like many of his neighbors, as a child Biton was regularly arrested for minor charges, such as theft or “loitering.”
Years later, along with some friends from the neighborhood and other Jerusalem gangs, they began calling themselves the “Black Panthers,” and planning demonstrations against the racism and poverty faced by Mizrahi Jews in the country.
On March 14, 1972, Biton led Operation Milk, in which bottles of milk were stolen from luxurious homes in the Rehavia neighborhood, leaving notes that said: “we thank you for giving your milk to hungry children, instead of to dogs and cats in their homes.”
In 1975, while in Europe, he and two other Panthers met with representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). In 1980, BIton was the first Israeli politician to meet with Yasser Arafat.
In an interview at the age of 23, Biton explained the reasons behind the struggle that accompanied him all his life: “Wherever we go, in every government office we enter, we are treated totally differently. That is why we decided to organize, so that other young people do not turn out like us: screwed, depraved and bitter.”
Biton died last Saturday, aged 76, after a 15-year career in the Israeli parliament.