Know Your History: Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver – From Israel-Hater To Zionist

With the Black Lives Matters movement being co-opted by Israel haters and antisemites, now seems like a good time to look at Eldridge Cleaver, a prominent activist of the Black Panther Party, who began as a rabid Israel hater.

For instance, this from the New York Times, July 23, 1969:

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Click on image to enlarge

We’ve heard this all before, and certainly echoes the kinds of things we are hearing now – from within the Black Lives Matters movements, and from without.

There’s also this photo of Cleaver (right) holding hands with arch terrorist Yasser Arafat.

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But then something interesting happened. During his trip to Algeria, he saw how the Arabs enslaved Africans, and had an epiphany. From then on, he became an ardent Zionist.

The following articles give insight into this part of his transformation.

The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh, January 29, 1976

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The Free Lance-Star May 8, 1976

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The New York Times Jan 16, 1977

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Thanks to Dumisani Washington for bringing Eldridge Cleaver and his fascinating transformation to my attention.

4 thoughts on “Know Your History: Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver – From Israel-Hater To Zionist”

  1. Cleaver, unlike many of his fellow travelers, came face to face with the reality of the world and it changed him.

  2. Those words from the 1970s are still true four decades later. In fact ever since Islam was founded by a slave owner / trader Mohammed in the 7th century… Islam has had a legacy of slavery that continues in many Muslim countries to this day.

    Today in many Islamic nations- including wealthy ones that claim to be “modern” there is a slave trade. I am NOT referring to the brutal and inhumane servitude of “guest workers”… I am meaning actual SLAVES that are owned, bought, sold and are inherited as property. Most of them being black Africans.

    The Western world began to dismantle slavery with the British Empire shutting down the practice in the 1820s…. America in the 1860s and the last “hold-out” was Brazil in the 1880s.

    All this time though enslavement of blacks continued in many Islamic nations… and still exists today. Yet way to many people- including some black Americans forget this and embrace these Islamic regimes and slam Israel. Israel the only free nation in the Middle East.

  3. I would suggest you also read about the Israeli Black Panther Party. Eldridge Cleaver went from one extreme to another and back again. His views were a reflection of the times but he was also disillusioned by the mid 1970s. His focus on being a born again Christian and being a right winged Reagan supporter was full of contradictions. His views on Israel changed by the 1990s something you don’t include in your article.

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