Veteran peace activist Abie Nathan died last night at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, 11 years after suffering a stroke that left him confined to a wheelchair. He was famous for the messages of peace he broadcast for 20 years on his pirate radio station, the "Voice of Peace."
President Shimon Peres paid tribute to Nathan. "Abie was a special and unique individual, a tireless campaigner against war, poverty and injustice. He dedicated his life to helping other people and working for a better world," said Peres.
Nathan was born in 1927 in the town of Abadan in Iran. At the age of 12, his family moved to India, where he served in the RAF during World War Two. He joined the Israel Air Force as a volunteer when the War of Independence broke out, and served for three years.
Nathan settled down in Tel Aviv where he ran an art gallery and restaurant that became the center of Tel Aviv's bohemian life. He began voicing his political views in the years that followed, and in 1965 he founded the Nes party, which ran for Knesset on a platform of reaching peace agreements with Arab countries. He was short of just 2,000 votes to pass the threshold and enter Knesset.
Nathan's spirit remained unbroken by his failure at the ballot box. The following year, on February 28, he kept the promise he made and flew to Port Said in Egypt in his private plane "Shalom One." Despite being arrested on arrival and having his peace message rejected, Nathan's flight to Egypt was a defining event in the efforts to achieve peace. He became famous worldwide, continuing his campaign for peace later that year with trips to Europe and the US.
In early 1973, he purchased a freighter and turned it into the "peace ship" from which he broadcast his message of peace between nations. The ship was anchored off the Tel Aviv shoreline, outside Israel's territorial waters. The radio station was on the air for the next twenty years until Nathan was forced to close in 1993 because of financial difficulties.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 28, 2008
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