ISRAELI PEACE activist Ezra Nawi will be sentenced in the Jerusalem magistrate’s court this morning and is expected to receive a prison term after he was found guilty of attacking two police officers during a protest against the destruction of Palestinian homes two years ago.
Mr Nawi (57), who has maintained his innocence throughout, told The Irish Timesyesterday that only a campaign by supporters abroad would be able to save him.
He said he had a soft spot for Ireland and had been back many times after first visiting here in 1975. Mr Nawi and Senator David Norris were in a relationship which lasted more than 30 years.
The peace activist, a resident of Jerusalem, spent the last day before the court sentencing, as he spends most of his time, travelling in his jeep around the southern West Bank, organizing local Palestinians in campaigns against Israeli land confiscations and house demolitions.
Yesterday he returned to the Palestinian Bedouin village of Um El Hir in the southern Hebron hills region, the site of the clash with Israeli security forces in 2007 which resulted in a court conviction in March for participation in a riot and assaulting two police officers.
Um El Hir has more than 300 residents living in the most basic ramshackle dwellings.
The village does not have a single toilet and Mr Nawi’s latest project involves plans for building toilets during a summer camp with the help of about 80 peace activists from Spain.
Mr Nawi does not fit the bill of the typical Israeli peace activist, who tend to be predominantly intellectuals and Ashkenazi (Jews of European descent).
He is a plumber by trade and his parents came to Israel from Iraq. He speaks fluent Arabic, which partly explains the close rapport he has built up with the Palestinian residents of the Hebron hills.Some of the most militant Jewish settlers live in the area and altercations, often violent, are an almost daily occurrence.
Mr Nawi also had a Palestinian partner for a number of years, which could be problematic in this Muslim and deeply conservative area of the West Bank.
“Because of my success, the Israeli security forces outed me, hoping to turn the Palestinian villagers against me,” he explained. “But they failed. The villagers appreciate the work I do . I’m here for humanitarian reasons, not to find a boyfriend.”
According to Mr Nawi his presence on the ground in the southern Hebron hills was a constant irritant to occupation forces, who decided to frame him with trumped up charges.
The incident took place when villagers and peace activists tried to prevent the bulldozing of illegally erected Bedouin huts.
The Jerusalem magistrates’ court judge opted for the word of the police officer over Mr Nawi’s denial.
Mr Nawi said he would appeal any prison term and would resume his political activism the day he leaves jail.