Israeli journalist and peace activist Uri Avnery dies at 94

Uri Avnery, a trailblazing Israeli journalist and peace activist and one of the first to openly advocate for a Palestinian state, has died. He was 94.

Avnery passed away on Monday at a Tel Aviv hospital after suffering a stroke.

For decades, he was a symbol of the Israeli peace camp, easily recognised by his thick white beard and white hair. A member of Israel's founding generation, he fought in its war of independence before becoming a publisher, member of parliament, author and activist.

In the 1982 Lebanon War, he famously sneaked into besieged Beirut to talk to Israel's then-nemesis, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.

Avnery challenged successive Israeli governments in arguing that a Palestinian state was the only way to secure peace for a democratic Israel with a Jewish majority.

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