uri avnery

Uri Avnery (Yossi Gurvitz)

The Israeli peace activist who crossed enemy lines and shaped generations

Adam Keller, who spent 50 years working alongside Uri Avnery, remembers the man who hoped for a warm embrace between an Israeli and a Palestinian president. By Adam Keller How to sum up in a few words 50 years of political partnership, which was also an intimate friendship, with the person who, I believe, had the most…

By +972 Magazine August 22, 2018

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat being interviewed by Uri Avnery in west Beirut. (Photo by Anat Saragusti, courtesy of Uri Avnery)

Veteran left-wing journalist and peace activist Uri Avnery dies at 94

Avnery, who helped expose some of the darkest chapters in Israeli history and was a fervent opponent of the occupation, inspired generations of Israeli journalists. By +972 Magazine Staff Uri Avnery, one of Israel’s most prominent journalists and a seminal peace activist who was among the first Israelis to advocate for a sovereign Palestinian state, died…

By +972 Magazine August 20, 2018

Laila Abdel Meguid Tafesh, 78, from Rafah refugee camp, holds up a key from her house in Jaffa, May 15, 2009. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Yes, the right of return is feasible. Here’s how

Seventy years after the violent displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, it is time to undo the injustice and to enable whoever desires to return as equal citizens to do so, while respecting the rights and identities of all who live in Israel-Palestine. By Tom Pessah (translated by Yoni Molad) For millions of Palestinians worldwide, the right…

By Haokets November 7, 2017

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Activists hold a mock separation wall during a protest against the occupation on the West Bank's main Jerusalem-Hebron highway in full view of Israeli settlers, Beit Jala, West Bank, February 5, 2016. (Activestills)

Fifty years of opposition

Each decade of the occupation has brought changing fortunes to prospects for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and varying levels of opposition to Israel’s military rule. After half a century, could there finally be a proposal that stands a chance? Fifty-fever marking the anniversary since the 1967 war has swept both the Israeli Left…

By Dahlia Scheindlin June 6, 2017

Portraits of the Arab boys who were beaten, tortured, and shot to death before being returned to their families. (Courtesy of Al-Jalil)

The gruesome murder of five Arab boys refuses to disappear — 55 years on

Beaten, tortured, and shot to death: this is the story of five Arab boys who met a gruesome fate at the hands of Israel’s security forces in September 1961. Ben Gurion’s government refused to tell the truth of what really happened. By Makbula Nassar Last week marked 60 years since the Kafr Qasim massacre. Although the event…

By +972 Magazine November 5, 2016

Israelis board at plane departing Ben-Gurion Airport. (Illustrative photo by Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Emigration as a political act

The Israeli government has guaranteed the non-viability of a two-state solution and apartheid has already arrived. I will not sacrifice my children’s future for a hopeless struggle. By Na’aman Hirschfeld The immigration of young Israelis to Berlin is troubling “because it is precisely these young women and men who are needed in Israel,” explains veteran…

By +972 Magazine August 5, 2016

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat being interviewed by Uri Avnery in west Beirut. (Photo by Anat Saragusti, courtesy of Uri Avnery)

How three Israeli journalists brought Arafat into Israeli homes

Fifty years after the founding of the PLO, journalist Anat Saragusti talks about the first interview Yasser Arafat gave to an Israeli media outlet, looking for the real story in Beirut under siege, and the importance of pushing the limits of society’s comfort zone. By Anat Saragusti This story can go in a number of directions.…

By +972 Magazine June 7, 2014

Panel of the Israeli Supreme Court (file photo, Activestills.org)

Boycott goes on trial in Israel’s High Court

Civil rights organizations argue the ‘anti-boycott law’ has created a chilling effect, stifling debate on one of the most divisive issues facing Israeli society. If that’s the case, the state counters, then how has BDS grown so much in recent years? In a hearing that felt at times like the political boycott itself was on…

By Dahlia Scheindlin February 16, 2014

Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (US Gov't Work)

His finest hours: On Sharon’s murderous legacy

From the Qibya massacre, to Sabra and Shatila and the dirty tricks, lies and deceptions that made the West Bank settlements what they are today, Ariel Sharon has caused unimaginable damage to Israel, its army, morality, and political life. (Translated by Sol Salbe) On Saturday night, as soon as Ariel Sharon’s death became known, our hyperactive education…

By Yossi Gurvitz January 13, 2014

Avigdor Lieberman (photo: Yotam Ronen / activestills)

The Russians came, the Russians stayed: A response to Uri Avnery

In a recent article, seasoned veteran of the Zionist Left Uri Avnery claimed that the influx of Russian-speaking immigrants to Israel, living in self-imposed ghettos, is what pushed the country to the right politically. Lia Tarachansky counters that the Russian-speaking community never ‘mingled’ with other Israelis because it was never invited to do so, and that…

By +972 Magazine May 3, 2013

Are Israelis living in a ‘fear society,’ or a ‘free society’?

As much as left-wing protesters have to fear Israeli cops, they have to fear even more the Israeli “street” the cops are shielding them from. In his 2004 book The Case for Democracy, Natan Sharansky (with co-author Ron Dermer, head of Bibi Netanyahu’s brain trust) popularized his “town square test,” which he called the threshold…

By Larry Derfner April 27, 2012

Response to Joseph Dana: A case for liberal Zionism

Yes, Zionism is at odds with liberal values. But it’s less at odds than the alternative; moreover, it has the capacity to be liberalized almost without limit. I want to take issue with Joseph Dana’s claim that liberal Zionism is a “dishonest system of thought.” I don’t, however, want to take issue with his statement that “the…

By Larry Derfner November 29, 2011

Peace activist Rachel Avnery passes away

Rachel Avnery, journalist, educator, photographer, peace activist, wife of Uri Avnery, passed away this weekend. Haaretz carried this short obituary notice by Uri: RACHEL AVNERY The one and only, partner in life and struggle laureate of the alternative Nobel peace prize IS GONE She passed away peacefully, painlessly, after a prolonged illness. In accordance to…

By Dimi Reider May 22, 2011