Uri Avnery
From Wikinfo
Uri Avnery also spelled Uri Avneri (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי), born September 10, 1923 in Beckum (Westphalia, Germany) as Helmut Ostermann, is an Israeli journalist and left wing peace activist. He was a member of the Knesset from 1965 to 1973 and again from 1979 to 1981. 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 1950's and the 1960's he was the publisher and chief-editor of 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 later turned to left-wing activism and founded the Gush Shalom (Hebrew: גוש שלום, "the Peace Bloc") movement, which he leads up to this day.
He is a devout secularist and strongly opposed to the Orthodox influence in religious and political life.
In 2002, a documentary directed by Yair Lev was made about Avnery's life entitled Uri Avnery: Warrior for Peace.
Avnery is a contributor to the news and opinion sites Counterpunch and LewRockwell.com.
External links
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Uri_Avnery" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
