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Biography
Reuven Abergel (Hebrew: ראובן אברג'ל; born December 26, 1943) is an Israeli social and political activist, and a co-founder and former leader of the Israeli Black Panthers.
Reuven Abergel emigrated to Israel with his parents and nine siblings from Rabat, Morocco. The family was placed in an immigrant camp in Pardes Hana from which they fled to the seam-line Jerusalem neighborhood of Musrara. As a child Abergel was a victim of radiation experiments carried out by the government as part of an American-sponsored medical experiment. His first political action was to hand out leaflets in Musrara during the popular uprising of Moroccan immigrants in Wadi Salib, Haifa.
Abergel became involved in the Israeli Black Panthers following the arrest of his friends, and his house soon became headquarters for the movement. He went on to become one of the key figures in the Israeli Black Panthers movement, and as such was present at the group's infamous meeting with then-Prime Minister Golda Meir. Since then Abergel has been active in the struggle for social justice and peace in Israel/Palestine as a member of various groups and movements. He currently serves on the board of the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition and was also recently elected to the leadership of Tarabut ("connection"), a joint Jewish-Palestinian political party for peace and equality in Israel.