Uri Avnery

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Uri Avnery
Date of birth September 10, 1923 (1923-09-10) (age 85)
Place of birth Beckum, Germany
Year of aliyah 1933
Knesset(s) 6th, 7th, 9th
Party Left Camp of Israel
Former parties HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash, Meri

Uri Avnery (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי‎, also transliterated Uri Avneri, born September 10, 1923) is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965-74 and 1979-81.[1] He was the owner of HaOlam HaZeh, an Israeli news magazine, from 1950 until it closed in 1993.

Avnery is the author of several books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including 1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem (2008); Israel’s Vicious Circle (2008); and My Friend, the Enemy (1986).

Contents

[edit] Biography

Born in Beckum, Germany as Helmut Ostermann, Avnery emigrated in 1933 with this family to Palestine, the region that became the State of Israel.[2] He attended Ahad Ha’Am elementary school in Tel Aviv, leaving after 7th grade, at age 14, in order to help his parents. He started work as a clerk for a lawyer, a job he held for five years or so.

He joined the Irgun, a Revisionist Zionist paramilitary group, at age 15, and wrote for some of their internal publications. He started writing for independent publications at the age of 17. He left the Irgun at the age of 19 after becoming disenchanted with their tactics, stating in a 2003 interview that, "I didn't like the methods of terror applied by the Irgun at the time", noting he did not back killing people in retaliation for similar acts by the Arabs.[3]

Uri Avnery at a Hadash rally against the 2006 Lebanon War.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Avnery was a fighter in the Samson's Foxes commando unit (and also wrote its anthem). Afterwards, he wrote a book about the war, called In the Fields of Philistia (Hebrew: בשדות פלשת‎, Bi-Sdot Pleshet).

During the 1950s and the 1960s Avnery was, with Shalom Cohen, co-publisher and editor of the HaOlam HaZeh weekly magazine, an anti-establishment tabloid known for many sensational scoops and for featuring nudes on its back cover. The formula seemed to work, as for many years it was Israel's leading alternative-media publication.

In 1965 Avnery created a political party bearing the name of his and Cohen's magazine, HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash, and was elected to the Knesset in the 1965 election. Although he retained his seat in the 1969 election, the party disintegrated and Avnery founded a new party, Meri, though it failed to win any seats in the 1973 elections. He returned to the Knesset as a member of the Left Camp of Israel after the 1977 election, but did not retain his seat in the 1981 election. He was later involved in the Progressive List for Peace.

Avnery famously met Yasser Arafat on July 3, 1982, during the Siege of Beirut — said to have been the first time an Israeli met personally with Arafat.[4]

He later turned to left-wing activism and founded the Gush Shalom (Hebrew: גוש שלום‎, Peace Bloc) movement in 1993, which he continues to lead as of 2009. He is a secularist and strongly opposed to the Orthodox influence in religious and political life.

In 1975, Avnery was seriously injured in a knife attack; the attempted assassin was later officially declared insane.[5]

In 2001, Avnery and his wife Rachel Avnery were honoured with the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the "Alternative Nobel Prize", "… for their unwavering conviction, in the midst of violence, that peace can only be achieved through justice and reconciliation".[6]

In 2002, a documentary directed by Yair Lev was made about Avnery's life entitled Uri Avnery: Warrior for Peace.

In 2006, settler activist Baruch Marzel called on the Israeli military to carry out "a targeted killing" against Avnery.[7]

Avnery is a contributor to the news and opinion sites CounterPunch, Information Clearing House, LewRockwell.com and The Exception Magazine.

[edit] Quotes

"You can’t talk to me about terrorism, I was a terrorist."[8]
"I myself am a 100% atheist. And I am increasingly worried that the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, which dominates our entire life, is assuming a more and more religious character." [9]

[edit] Bibliography (partial list)

  • Avnery, Uri (1968): Israel Without Zionists: A Plea for Peace in the Middle East, MacMillan Co., New York, Hardbound (1st Edition in 1968; many reprints)
  • Avnery, Uri (1986): My Friend, the Enemy, Zed Books; Paperback. 1986 ISBN 0862322154 Paperback; Lawrence Hill & Co, 1987 ISBN 0882082132 Hard cover; Lawrence Hill Books (1987) ISBN 0882082124
  • Avnery, Uri (2008): 1948: A Soldier's Tale - The Bloody Road to Jerusalem, Oneworld Publications; Paperback. 2008 ISBN 978-1-85168-629-2 (English edition of two books originally published in Hebrew in 1949 and '50)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Uri Avnery Knesset activities, Knesset website, accessed June 4, 2009.
  2. ^ Uri Avnery biography, Knesset website.
  3. ^ Jon Elmer (14 September 2003). "Violence is a symptom; the occupation is the disease". http://www.fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node/764. 
  4. ^ Uri Avnery - Biographical Notes, Uri Avnery's website.
  5. ^ Uri Avnery - Biographical Notes
  6. ^ "MThe Right Livelihood Award - Gush Shalom / Uri and Rachel Avnery (Israel)". http://www.rightlivelihood.org/gush_shalom.html. Retrieved on 2009-02-10. 
  7. ^ "Marzel to cabinet: Kill left-wing leader". http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3230185,00.html. Retrieved on 2006-05-07. 
  8. ^ Uri Avnery and Richard Swift, Blunt Talk 'New Internationalist', Issue 348, August 2002
  9. ^ A War of Religions? God Forbid!Uri Avnery, 19 February 2006
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery"
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