Abie Nathan

The Israeli who was a one-man peace movement

Abie Nathan

1927–2008

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On Feb. 28, 1966, an old biplane rattled to a stop in Port Said, Egypt. Out stepped Abie Nathan, a former Israeli air force pilot, who said he wanted to talk with President Gamal Abdel Nasser about making peace with his country. Egyptian authorities sent him back the next day. But Nathan’s quixotic gesture won the hearts of his countrymen, and he came to represent the Middle East peace movement that culminated in the 1978 Camp David agreement and 1993 Oslo accords.

Born in Iran and educated in India, Nathan flew in Britain’s Royal Air Force, “emigrated to the new state of Israel, and volunteered as a combat pilot in the 1948 war,” said The New York Times. A natural entrepreneur, he opened an American-style diner that helped popularize the hamburger in his new land. But his heart was set on more serious matters. After a failed run for the Knesset in 1965, he lobbied world leaders to bring Israel and the Arab world together. In 1973, following several unsuccessful peace flights, Nathan bought a 188-foot freighter that he anchored off Tel Aviv. Turning it into a pirate radio station, he broadcast music and messages of reconciliation. “The Peace Ship is a project of the people,” he declared. “We hope through this station we will help relieve the pain and heal the wounds of many years of suffering.”

“Nathan was called a crackpot and a prophet,” said the Associated Press. He went on repeated hunger strikes, and his government jailed him several times for illegally meeting with Yasser Arafat and other leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization. But his sincerity was so quirky and appealing that he became a national treasure. “During one prison furlough, he was honored with a banquet by the cream of the Israeli establishment.” When Israel and the PLO signed their peace agreement in 1993, Nathan, who was having financial difficulties at the time, celebrated by sinking the Peace Ship, which had been a financial drain.

Nathan died after being left partly paralyzed by two strokes. Asked what he wanted carved on his tombstone, he replied, “Nissiti”—the Hebrew word for “I tried.”