One of the first advocates of a two-state solution in Israel, he was shunned by the establishment whose unreason he was never afraid to call out. Avnery was a dominant and divisive figure in Israel, where he called for secularism in the country’s politics, negotiations with the Islamist group Hamas, recognition of the right of Palestinians to establish their own state and shared control of Jerusalem.
Once dubbed “Government Enemy No 1” by the chief of Israel’s internal security service, he spent four decades as editor in chief of the news magazine Haolam Hazeh (This World), a now-defunct weekly that published exposés of government corruption alongside left-wing political columns and, on its back cover, photos of scantily clad women. Keep reading [.......]