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Ezra Nawi (born 1952) is an Israeli human rights activist who came to international prominence after being convicted of participating in a riot and assaulting a police officer in connection with a 2007 demolition of an Arab home in the West Bank by soldiers sent by the government of Israel. Nawi, a plumber by trade, had been active in the south Hebron region of the West Bank, where Palestinian residents, have for years, been frequently attacked by right-wing Israeli settlers.

In his youth Nawi was active in a communist youth movement and he became politically active after the outbreak of the first intifada in the 1980s. After meeting and dating Fuad Mussa, a Palestinian man, Nawi joined the Jewish-Arab human rights organization Ta'ayush, where his fluency in both Hebrew and Arabic allowed him to serve as a liaison between local Palestinians in the Hebron area and outside activists. In this role he elicited scorn from both the military authorities, who have detained him on numerous occasions, and local settlers who have previously assaulted him and are suspected by the police of attempting to assassinate him. In 2007 a film about Nawi's life and work directed by Nissim Mossek and produced by Sharon Schaveet premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival where it was received with a standing ovation and a Special Mention by the jury.

During the incident for which Nawi was charged, which was filmed and broadcast on Israel's Channel 1, he can be seen non-violently resisting the demolition of the home before being taken into custody by members of the border police. Despite the video, which does not show Nawi violently resisting the police, he was found guilty on March 19, 2009 by an Israeli court of assaulting a police officer and participating in a riot, which scheduled sentencing for July 1.

Nawi's case elicited the attention of several prominent international figures, including Eliot Weinberger, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, Charles Grass, David Norris, Sheldon Pollock, and Neve Gordon, who organized a campaign to protest what they view as his politically motivated arrest, conviction, and pending imprisonment.

References

1. ^ Citizen Nawi-Biblical Productions. Retrieved on 2009-6-14
2. Haaretz, September 25, 2005. Retrieved on 2009-6-14
3. Haaretz, April 6 2005. Retrieved on 2009-6-14
4. The Guardian, May 6 2009. Retrieved on 2009-6-14
5. Translation of the court procedings. Retrieved on 2009-6-14
6. Help Israel Human Rights Activist Ezra Nawi. Retrieved on 2009-6-14

External links

• Israel's Man of Conscience by Ezra Nawi, The Nation, June 29 2009

• Human rights activists
• Israeli human rights activists
• Jewish human rights activists
• Plumbers
• Mizrahi Jews