Misplaced Pages

Ezra Nawi

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Numismatist18 (talk | contribs) at 03:01, 14 June 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 03:01, 14 June 2009 by Numismatist18 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

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 office in connection to a 2007 home demolition in the West Bank. Nawi, a plumber by trade, had been active in the south Hebron region of the West Bank, were Palestinian residents are frequently attacked by right-wing Israeli settlers, for years.

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 1980's. 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 liason 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 assasinate him. In 2007 a film about Nawi's life and work directed by Nissim Mossek and produced by Sharon Schaveet premeired 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. [http://www.citizennawi.com/synopsis.htm Citizen Nawi-Biblical Productions. Retrieved on 2009-6-14]
  2. [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=628616 Haaretz, September 25, 2005. Retrieved on 2009-6-14]
  3. [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=584293 Haaretz, April 6 2005. Retrieved on 2009-6-14]
  4. [http://www.citizennawi.com/synopsis.htm Citizen Nawi-Biblical Productions. Retrieved on 2009-6-14]
  5. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/06/israel-human-rights-police The Guardian, May 6 2009. Retrieved on 2009-6-14]
  6. [http://www.supportezra.net/EzraNawiVerdictEnglish.pdf Translation of the court procedings. Retrieved on 2009-6-14]
  7. [http://www.supportezra.net/ Help Israel Human Rights Activist Ezra Nawi. Retrieved on 2009-6-14]
Categories: