Israeli peace activist who met Arafat dies
TEL AVIV: Israeli journalist and peace activist Uri Avnery, who pushed for the creation of a Palestinian state and stoked controversy by meeting Yasser Arafat, has died aged 94, a hospital spokesman said on Monday.
Seen by many as the backbone of Israel’s peace movement, Avnery never lost hope an agreement could be reached with the Palestinians.
But before becoming a prominent peace activist, he was a soldier and even part of a right-wing militia.
A spokesman for Ichilov Hospital here said Avnery died overnight.
He had been admitted to Ichilov more than a week ago after suffering from a stroke, he added.
Born in September 1923 in Beckum, Germany as Helmut Ostermann, Avnery emigrated to British-mandate Palestine with his family at the age of 10, fleeing Nazism.
In 1950, he founded an independent weekly magazine, Haolam Hazeh, which he edited for 40 years.
The anti-establishment journal, the only one at that time not run by a political party, had a considerable influence on the Israeli press.
He founded a political movement in 1965 and was elected to Israel’s Parliament where he served eight years.
In 1979 he was voted in as part of a different movement and spent two more years as a lawmaker before resigning.
Avnery had pushed since the end of the first Arab-Israeli war, which began in 1948 for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as a means to bring peace.
In July 1982, he caused a firestorm by becoming one of the first Israelis to meet Palestinian leader Arafat in Beirut, then under siege by the Israeli army.
A prolific writer, he published over 10 books including his 2014 autobiography titled Optimistic.
While prospects for peace seemed to be dwindle in recent years under right-wing Israeli governments, Avnery remained firm in his belief the public could be swayed to support a Palestinian state.
“I remain optimistic because I believe in the ability of the (Israeli) people to change course,” Avnery told AFP in a 2011 interview.