Uri Avnery was one of the most legendary peace activists, journalists, and political dissidents in Israeli history. Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Germany, he immigrated to Palestine with his parents to flee the Nazis. Avnery’s identity evolution was dramatic: in his youth, he joined the Jewish paramilitary organization Irgun and was wounded as a commando during the 1948 war. This transformation from “warrior” to “peacemaker” made him one of the few thinkers in Israel who possessed both a decorated military background and a commitment to the most thorough critique of state policy.
Avnery’s contributions to Israeli public life were multi-dimensional. He founded and edited the provocative anti-establishment weekly “HaOlam HaZeh,” renowned for challenging official narratives and exposing corruption. He was twice elected to the Knesset and, in 1993, founded the prominent peace organization “Gush Shalom.” Throughout his life, he authored thousands of columns and numerous books; his sharp insights earned him recognition as a pioneer for Israel’s “New Historians,” and his career serves as an evolutionary history of Israeli leftist thought.
Avnery was one of the earliest and most steadfast advocates for a “Two-State Solution.” During the 1982 Lebanon War, he shocked the world by crossing enemy lines into besieged Beirut to secretly meet with Yasser Arafat, becoming the first Israeli to speak face-to-face with the Palestinian leader. He insisted that Palestinians are a nation with national rights, not merely “terrorists” or “refugees.” He publicly supported the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, arguing that the occupation was destroying not only Palestine but also Israel’s own democracy and morality. Until his death in 2018 at the age of 94, he maintained that peace must be built on the foundation of equal national self-determination for both peoples.