Ezra Nawi

Who is Ezra Nawi?

Ezra Itzhak Nawi is an Israeli human rights activist and pacifist. He is particularly active among the Bedouin herders and farmers of the South Hebron Hills. He has been charged for numerous infractions of the law, convicted for a number of offences, and served several short stints in prison as a consequence of his activism. He has been described as a "Ta'ayush nudnik", and "a working-class, liberal gay version of Joe the Plumber". Some regard him as an extreme leftist activist and troublemaker. According to David Shulman, he is an Israeli exponent of Gandhian civil disobedience.

He came to international attention after being convicted in 2007 of participating in a riot and assaulting two police officers in connection with the demolition of Bedouin homes in the West Bank by Israeli border policemen. In 2008, Nissim Mossek produced a film on his life, private and public, which has had mixed reviews.