Virtual Tour: Musrara, Jerusalem

If you’re missing Israel you’re certainly not alone. 

In this series of quarterly virtual tours that will see us through 2021, we will walk together through some of the most fascinating places in Israel hearing from personalities who will bring our neighbourhoods to life through an eclectic mixture of stories, interviews and music. 

Hadas Parush/ Flash90

First up is an on-the-ground tour of the Musrara neighbourhood of Jerusalem, which sits on the seam between the East and West of the city. Our tour guide is iconic Israeli social and political activist and  co-founder and former leader of the Israeli Black Panthers, Reuven Avergil. In this tour we will hear from Avergil the story behind the Black Panther movement which fought discrimination against the Mizrahi population. We’ll learn what battles were won back in the early 70s when they sat with then PM Golda Meir, and where the challenges still lie in 2021 to close the Mizrahi/Ashkenazi socioeconomic divide.

2021 is the 50th anniversary of the public housing struggle led by the Israeli Black Panthers in Musrara.