Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery,Peace Activist, Journalist, Writer

Uri Avnery is a peace activist, journalist, writer. He was born in 1923 in Beckum, Germany and immigrated to Palestine with his family in 1933. He was member of the Irgun from 1938 till 1942. In 1946 Avnery founded the Eretz Yisrael Hatzira ("Young Palestine") movement, also known as the "Bamaavak (Struggle) group". At the outbreak of the war 1948, Avnery joined the army. Throughout the war, Avnery reported on the fighting and life in the combat unit. These reports appeared in the Haaretz evening paper and were published after the war as a book"In the Fields of the Philistines, 1948", which immediately became a runaway bestseller. After one year working for Haaretz, Avnery quit, protesting that he was not allowed to express his opinions freely. So in 1950, he was co-founder of the alternative israelí magazine "Haolam Hazeh" and served as its Editor-in-Chief until 1990. In 1956 he created, together with ex-Stern Group chief Natan Yellin-Mor, a movement called "Semitic Action", some years later he set up the "Israeli Committee for a Free Algeria". In 1965 Avinery created a new political party "Haolam Hazeh - New Force Movement". He was elected for the Knesset in 1965, -69 and 1977. In late 1975 Avnery was among the founders of the "Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace". Avnery famously crossed the front lines and met Yasser Arafat in 1982.

He founded the peaceful "Gush Shalom" movement in 1993, which he continues to lead as of 2009. In 2001, Avnery and his wife Rachel Avnery were honoured with the "Right Livelihood Award".