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  Jewish Pacifist Facing Jail for Aiding Arabs
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ContributorPenguin 
Last EditedPenguin  Aug 15, 2009 11:08pm
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CategoryGeneral
AuthorTim McGirk
MediaWeekly News Magazine - TIME Magazine
News DateSunday, August 16, 2009 05:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionA plumber by trade, Ezra Nawi is a Jewish member of a small band of Israeli peace activists who put themselves on the line week in and week out by traveling to the stony hills outside Hebron to help Palestinians defend their land against right-wing Jewish settlers. And he has the lumps to show for it. Four years back, some settlers at Susya had tried to drive a Palestinian family off their land by tossing a dead dog into their well in order to poison the family's water. The following day, Palestinians hauled the dog out of the well and were trying to draw water under the protection of Nawi and some other volunteers from an Jewish-Arab peace group known as Ta'ayush. Masked settlers appeared, smashed one activist with the butt of a gun and broke a long wooden stick over Nawi's head.

Nawi reacted as he always has — by holding his ground — without resorting to violence. In his many confrontations over the years with Israeli police, soldiers and settlers, Nawi has never struck back, say his colleagues at Ta'ayush. "Non-violence is Ezra's natural affinity," says David Shulman, a Ta-ayush member and professor of Sanskrit who has on multiples occasions witnessed Nawi's encounters with settlers and police. "He is amazingly gentle and empathetic. He's not capable of violence."

That's not how Israel's police and courts see Nawi.
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