Background and career
Uri Avnery (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי; 10 September 1923 – 20 August 2018) was an Israeli writer, journalist, politician, and activist, who founded the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the Irgun as a teenager and a veteran of the 1948 Palestine war, Avnery was a member of the Knesset for two spells from 1965 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1981. He was also the owner and editor of the news magazine HaOlam HaZeh from 1950 until its closure in 1993.
He became known for crossing the lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yasser Arafat on 3 July 1982, the first time the Palestinian leader met with an Israeli. Avnery was the author of several books about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, including 1948: A Soldier's Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem (2008); Israel's Vicious Circle (2008); and My Friend, the Enemy (1986).
He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award (better known informally as the Alternative Nobel Prize) in 2001 and the Carl von Ossietzky Medal in 2008.
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