Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery is a longtime Israeli peace activist. Since 1948 he has advocated the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. In 1974, Uri Avnery was the first Israeli to establish contact with the PLO leadership. In 1982 he was the first Israeli ever to meet Yasser Arafat, after crossing the lines in besieged Beirut. He served three terms in the Israeli Knesset and is the founder of Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc). Visit his Web site.

Eyeless in Gaza: On Israeli Troops Cheering Over Shooting an Unarmed Palestinian

“I, Uri Avnery, soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, hereby dissociate myself from the army sharpshooters who murder unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza Strip, and from their commanders, who give them the orders, up to the commander in chief.”

Uri Avnery
By Uri Avnery
Protesters wave Palestinians flags in front of Israeli solders on Gaza's border with Israel, east of Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. A leading Israel human rights group urged Israeli forces in a rare step Wednesday to disobey open-fire orders unless Gaza protesters pose an imminent threat to soldiers' lives. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Write down: I, Uri Avnery, soldier number 44410 of the Israel army, hereby dissociate myself from the army sharpshooters who murder unarmed demonstrators along the Gaza Strip, and from their commanders, who give them the orders, up to the commander in chief. We don’t belong to the same army, or to the same state. We hardly belong to the same

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Mahmoud Abbas’s Strategy of Patience

“Arabs have a long, unbroken history, with many ups and downs. They are used to waiting. Patience is a mighty instrument.”

Uri Avnery
By Uri Avnery
occupation of Palestine

When I first met Yasser Arafat in besieged Beirut, in the summer of 1982, Abu Mazen was not present. But when I met him again in Tunis, a few months later, he asked me to meet Abu Mazen, too. Abu Mazen, it transpired, was the Fatah leader in charge of Israeli matters. My first impression of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) was that he was the exact

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The Netanyahu Family’s Corruption

“This entire atmosphere of public and private corruption at the top of the state is very much removed from our past. It is something new, reflecting the Netanyahu era.”

Uri Avnery
By Uri Avnery
An Israeli settler sleeps under a banner of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in the Jewish settlement of Beit El after a night stand off with police, near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Wednesday, July 29, 2015. The Israeli Prime Minister's office said Wednesday it has approved the "immediate construction" of 300 housing units in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. The announcement came amid a standoff, where Israeli settlers clashed with Israeli forces as authorities began to dismantle the contested West Bank settlement housing complex after Israel's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that it must be demolished. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

Opinion -- No, I don’t want to write about the affair of Ya’ir Netanyahu. I refuse adamantly. No force in the world will compel me to do so. Yet here I am, writing about Ya’ir, damn it. Can’t resist. And perhaps it is really more than a matter of gossip. Perhaps it is something that we cannot ignore. It is all about a conversation between

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Ehud Barak’s Disappointing Peace Plan

Ehud Barak has published an article in The New York Times attacking prime minister Netanyahu, he also used the article to publish his disappointing Peace Plan.

Uri Avnery
By Uri Avnery
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during a lecture at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 21, 2016. (AP/Charles Krupa)

Ehud Barak has "broken the silence". He has published an article in The New York Times attacking our prime minister in the most abrasive terms. In other words, he has done exactly the same as the group of ex-soldiers who call themselves "Breaking the Silence", who are accused of washing our dirty linen abroad. They expose war crimes to which they

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Yes, Israel Can Accept The Right Of Return

When the British withdrew from Palestine in 1948, there were in the country between the Mediterranean and the Jordan about 1.2 million Arabs and 635,000 Jews. By the end of the war that ensued, some 700,000 Arabs had fled and/or were driven out

Uri Avnery
By Uri Avnery
Palestinian refugee Mahmoud Al-Amer, 78, walks past a mural in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin , Monday, May 13, 2013. Arabic on the mural reads, '"we must never forget, the return is a sacred right." (AP/Mohammed Ballas)

Ze’ev Begin, the son of Menachem Begin, is a very nice human being. It is impossible not to like him. He is well brought up, polite and modest, the kind of person one would like to have as a friend. Unfortunately, his political views are far less likable. They are much more extreme than even the acts of his father. The father, after leading the

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