Akiva Orr, an activist and writer, who helped form the Israeli anti-Zionist socialist party 'Matzpen,' passed away this week. His ideas, which can be viewed in the documentary on the history of Matzpen (below), challenged Israeli society and influenced generations of activists.  This post has been updated and expanded. Akiva Orr, author, co-founder of the Israeli anti-Zionist socialist political party, ‘Matzpen,’ and one of the most well-known figures in Israel's radical left, passed away this weekend. Matzpen was a radical and controversial political party that opposed Zionism as a colonialist movement and called for an alliance between Israelis and Palestinians. The…

This weekend, Yossi Gurvitz accused former MK Muhammad Naffa, secretary-general of the Communist Party of Israel of backing the suppression of the Syrian uprising. Uri Weltmann, a member of the Communist Party of Israel, denies these allegations and clarifies the party position below. Yossi Gurvitz replies to Uri Weltmann, here. By Uri Weltmann Reading Yossi Gurvitz's article, which aims to “expose” the position of the Communist Party of Israel (CPI) on the developments in Syria, one is attacked by an eerie feeling of déjà vu. Suddenly, we are thrown back to the old days of the Cold War era, where facts…

The secretary-general of the ICP published an article denouncing the Syrian uprising. The piece did not appear in the Hebrew publications of the party Veteran journalist Yossef Elgazi (and former Israeli Communist Party member and activist) exposed (Hebrew) the fact that the ICP has taken a double stand on the suppression of the Syrian uprising. In the beginning of May, the party secretary general, former MK Muhammad Naffa, published an article in a well-known Arabic site, Al Khuwar Al Mathmadan, in which he denounced the uprising. The article drew criticism from many readers, as well as communists in Arab countries. On 2.6.11,…