A journalist and peace activist who was one of the first to advocate talks with the PLO passed away at the age of 94.
By: AP
Uri Avnery, a trailblazing Israeli journalist and peace activist and one of the first to openly advocate for a Palestinian state, has died. He was 94.
Avnery passed away on Monday at a Tel Aviv hospital after suffering a stroke.
For decades, he was a symbol of the Israeli peace camp, easily recognized by his thick white beard and white hair. A member of Israel’s founding generation, he fought in its War of Independence before becoming a publisher, member of parliament, author and activist.
In the 1982 Lebanon War, he famously sneaked into besieged Beirut to interview Israel’s then-nemesis, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.
Avnery challenged successive Israeli governments in arguing that a Palestinian state was the only way to secure peace for a democratic Israel with a Jewish majority.