Uri Avnery
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Uri Avnery also spelled Uri Avneri (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי), born September 10, 1923 in Beckum (Westphalia, Germany) as Helmut Ostermann, is an Israeli journalist, left wing peace activist, Knesset member, who was originally a member of the right wing Revisionist Zionist movement.
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[edit] Career
Uri made aliyah in 1933.[1] As a youth, he was a member of the Revisionist Zionist paramilitary group, Irgun. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War he was a fighter in the Samson's Foxes jeep 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 he was the publisher and chief editor of the Haolam Hazeh weekly magazine, an anti-establishment tabloid known for many sensational scoops. The formula seemed to work, as for many years it was Israel's leading alternative-media publication.
He was a member of the Knesset from 1965 to 1973 and again from 1979 to 1981.
Uri Avnery famously met Yassir Arafat on July 3, 1982 during the "battle of Beirut" -- which it is claimed is the first time an Israeli met personally with Yassir Arafat.[2]
He later turned to left-wing activism and founded the Gush Shalom (Hebrew: גוש שלום, The Peace Bloc) movement in 1993, which he leads up to this day. He is now a devout secularist and strongly opposed to the Orthodox influence in religious and political life.
[edit] Views
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Avnery is a contributor to the news and opinion sites CounterPunch, Information Clearing House and LewRockwell.com.
[edit] Commentary
In 2002, a documentary directed by Yair Lev was made about Avnery's life entitled Uri Avnery: Warrior for Peace.
