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Uri Avnery (Hebrew: אורי אבנרי‎, also transliterated Uri Avneri, born September 10, 1923 in Beckum, Germany as Helmut Ostermann), is a German-born Israeli journalist, left-wing^[1] peace activist, and former Knesset member, who during his teens was a member of the right-wing Revisionist Zionist movement.

Biography

Avnery made aliyah (emigrated to the region that would become the State of Israel) in 1933.^[2] He abandoned school after the 7th grade (age 14) in order to work and help his parents starting out as a clerk for a lawyer, a job he held for 5–6 years.

He also joined the Revisionist Zionist paramilitary group, the Irgun, at age 15 and was writing for an inside journal. He started writing for outside papers at the age of 17 and left the Irgun at the age of 19 after becoming disenchanted with their tactics, stating in a 2003 interview that "I didn't like the methods of terror applied by the Irgun at the time", noting he did not back killing people in retaliation for similar acts by the Arabs.^[3]

Uri Avnery at a Hadash rally against the 2006 Lebanon War.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Avnery was a fighter in the Samson's Foxes commando 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 1950s and the 1960s Avnery was, with Shalom Cohen, co-publisher and editor of the HaOlam HaZeh weekly magazine, an anti-establishment tabloid known for many sensational scoops and for featuring nudes on its back cover. The formula seemed to work, as for many years it was Israel's leading alternative-media publication.

In 1965 Avnery created a political party bearing the name of his and Cohen's magazine, HaOlam HaZeh – Koah Hadash, and was elected to the Knesset in the 1965 election. Although he retained his seat in the 1969 election, the party disintegrated and Avnery founded a new party, Meri, though it failed to win any seats in the 1973 elections. He returned to the Knesset as a member of the Left Camp of Israel after the 1977 election, but did not retain his seat in the 1981 election. He was later involved in the Progressive List for Peace.

Yasser Arafat and Uri Avnery.

Avnery famously met Yasser Arafat on July 3, 1982, during the Siege of Beirut — said to have been the first time an Israeli met personally with Arafat.^[4]

He later turned to left-wing activism and founded the Gush Shalom (Hebrew: גוש שלום‎, Peace Bloc) movement in 1993, which he continues to lead as of 2009. He is a devout secularist

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Avnery

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Dina Jadallah-Taschler is an Arab-American of Palestinian and Egyptian descent, a political science graduate, an artist and a writer.  She can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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• Born in the Palestinian city of El-Bireh ( presently under Israeli Military Occupation, Armed Jewish thugs and settlers). Immigrated to the US in 62. After graduating from high school in Gary, Indiana was drafted into the US Army ( 66-68) received the Leadership Award from the US 6th Army NCO Academy in Ft. Lewis, Washington.Sami Jamil Jadallah is an international legal and business consultant and is the founder and director of Palestine Agency and Palestine Documentation Center www.palestineagency.com. The Author is a regular contributor to RamallahOnline.com
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Nima Shirazi is an independent author and musician. He is a contributing writer for Foreign Policy Journal, Palestine Think Tank, The Rag Blog, and RamallahOnline.com. His analysis of United States policy and Middle East issues, particularly with reference to current events in Palestine and Iran, can be found in numerous other online publications, such as Palestine Chronicle, Information Clearing House, OpEdNews, World Can’t Wait, CASMII, Kenya Imagine, What Really Happened, andInfoWars, as well as his own website Wide Asleep in America. During the aftermath of the recent Iranian elections, Nima was interviewed by Dr. Wilmer Leon on the XM radio program “On With Leon.” He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife and books.  Contact him at wideasleepinamerica @ gmail dot com

Angie Tibbs is a writer/activist living in Canada. She can be reached at angie4justice @ nl.rogers.com

John "Juan" Ricardo I. Cole (born October 1952 in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is an American scholar, public intellectual, and historian of the modern Middle East and South Asia.^[1][2][3] He is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. As a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, he has appeared in print and on television, and testified before the United States Senate. He has published several peer-reviewed books on the modern Middle East and is a translator of both Arabic and Persian. Since 2002, he has written aweblog, Informed Comment.

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart, or visit Stuart's website