Matzpen: Anti-Zionists in Israel (screening & discussion)

In our third and final screening of Eran Torbiner’s works with Amir Locker-Biletzki, IJV Canada invites you to view and discuss Matzpen: Anti-Zionists in Israel. This 2003 documentary offers a uniquely non-diasporic perspective of the Jewish Internationalist Left of the 1960’s.

Join us on October 26th from 7 – 9 pm ET!

In contrast to Bunda’im and Madrid Before Hanita, Jewish Internationalism in Matzpen was embedded in the context of Palestine/Israel. More so, it was rooted in a strong sense of Israeli-Jewish identity, a Hebrew identity detached from the diasporic Jewish people and Zionist Jewish nationalism. As true Socialists, Matzpen members were involved in the movement against the war in Vietnam, national liberation in Africa and Latin America, as well as the European New Left of the late 1960’s.At the core of their internationalism stood the uncompromising struggle against the 1967 Occupation and their identification with the plight of the Palestinian people. At the same time, the struggle of Matzpen resembles that of the Bundists who attached to the plight of the Yiddish Jewish people of Eastern Europe, and Poland a distinct Jewish identity and to also the Brigadistas who went to fight Fascism as Jews fighting the worse enemy of their people, Nazism.