Ezra Nawi

Nawi was born in Jerusalem’s Kiryat Yovel neighborhood to a poor, traditional family of immigrants from Iraq.[1] He had three brothers and three sisters; his father, a construction worker, died of an illness when Nawi was 14.[1] He attended a secondary school for workers’ children and participated in the youth movement of the Communist Party of Israel, Maki.[1]

During the 1970s, Nawi was in a romantic relationship with Irish politician David Norris.[1] He worked as a plumber for most of his life before devoting most of his time to political activity.[1]

Nawi’s activity in the southern Hebron Hills developed during the Second Intifada through his relationship with a Palestinian man, Musa Fuad, who took him to the area.[1] He joined Ta’ayush, whose activists traveled from Jerusalem on Saturdays to assist local Palestinian residents.[1] He subsequently made frequent visits independently and built relationships with the local community.[1] Residents and others interviewed about his work credited his presence with helping people assert their rights and obtain legal assistance.[1]

Around four years before January 2016, Nawi closed his plumbing business to concentrate on political activity.[1] He also earned money by driving journalists, activists, tourists, and lawyers to the West Bank.[1] His work centered on assisting Palestinian residents in the southern Hebron Hills.[1]

In 2009, Nawi was convicted of rioting and assaulting police officers during the July 2007 demolition of structures near South Mount Hebron.[1][6] He received a one-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay compensation of 1,000 shekels to two Border Police officers.[1] At an appeal hearing in 2010, his lawyer argued that protest could be expressed through action as well as words.[6] Nawi said he had rejected a plea bargain, declaring: “If they consider me a criminal, then they should rule accordingly. If not – then I should be acquitted.”[6]

Other encounters with police ended in rulings in his favor.[1] In a separate case involving Nawi and another Ta’ayush activist who had documented construction in the West Bank, a court ordered police to apologize and pay them 12,000 shekels in compensation.[1] In 2013, he was stopped after overtaking a slow-moving military vehicle and crossing a solid line.[1] A traffic court acquitted him and restored his license after reviewing video recorded by a fellow Ta’ayush activist traveling with him.[1] The judge found the police officer’s testimony “tainted by a lack of objectivity and personal involvement” and concluded that the military vehicle’s driver had played a substantial part in the traffic violation.[1]

In January 2016, Channel 2’s investigative program Uvda aired undercover footage gathered by an operative from Ad Kan in which Nawi discussed passing information about Palestinians seeking to sell land to Jews to Palestinian security services.[1][2] Nawi was arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport later that month.[7] Police attributed suspicions including attempted murder, contact with a foreign agent, and conspiracy to commit a crime to him; he was barred from meeting a lawyer for five days.[7]

On January 24, Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge David Shaul Gabai Richter ordered Nawi’s release, temporarily delaying the order to allow a police appeal.[2] The judge found that the material presented did not strengthen the suspicions and that Nawi posed no genuine risk of obstruction or danger.[2] He also criticized investigators’ failure, after more than two weeks, to establish the circumstances of the death of Abu Khalil, the Palestinian man whose death had become part of the investigation.[8] Police appealed, and the release order provided for Nawi to be placed under house arrest.[8]

In May 2018, prosecutors announced their intention to indict Nawi under section 7A(b) of the law implementing the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement concerning the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[9] Prosecutors also decided not to indict members of Ad Kan, whose activities had prompted a separate investigation.[9]

The indictment filed in July 2018 accused Nawi of conveying information about Palestinians involved in land sales to Jews to Palestinian Authority security forces on multiple occasions.[4] It alleged that he maintained contact with Palestinian security and intelligence officials, shared information about land agreements and cultivation in the South Hebron Hills in 2013, and passed recordings and land documents from a meeting with a purported land broker to Palestinian agents in 2014.[4] The charge concerned the prohibition on Israeli citizens or residents acting in the service of Palestinian Authority intelligence or security forces.[4]

The eventual indictment omitted the initial suspicions of attempted murder, contact with a foreign agent, and conspiracy to commit a crime.[10] Jerusalem District Attorney Danny Witman said prosecutors had reviewed substantial evidence and held extensive discussions before deciding to bring the narrower charge.[10]

Nawi remained a polarizing figure. People interviewed about his work in the southern Hebron Hills credited him with helping Palestinian residents assert their rights and obtain legal assistance, while his criminal convictions and the 2016 recordings drew intense criticism.[1] When he died on January 9, 2021, at age 69, he was reported to be in the midst of the trial arising from the land-sale information case; he had been diagnosed with cancer a few months earlier.[5]

The 2016 broadcast centered on undercover footage of Nawi discussing Palestinians who sought to sell land to Jews. In one excerpt, he said he passed their names to Palestinian security services and, when asked what happened to them, answered that the services caught and killed them.[2]

Nawi said the purported broker had approached him and that he suspected an attempt to discredit him among Palestinians.[3] He maintained that he reported the approach so Palestinian authorities would not regard him as a land buyer, denied setting a trap, and said the broadcast sought to disrupt his work.[3] His lawyers later described the 2018 indictment as the product of political pressure and asserted that he was innocent.[4]

The detention proceedings did not establish that Nawi had contributed to Abu Khalil’s death. At the January 24, 2016, release hearing, the judge said the materials did not strengthen the suspicions and that investigators still lacked essential information about the circumstances of Abu Khalil’s death.[2][8]

Nawi also had earlier criminal convictions.[1] In 1992, he was convicted of an offense involving sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old and served time in prison.[1] In an interview later quoted in a profile, he described the relationship as consensual while acknowledging that his conduct was unlawful.[1] His record also included convictions for unlawful weapons use, entering a closed area, threats, obstructing a public servant, transporting Palestinians without permits, and growing or possessing drugs.[1]