The Activist Who Admits He Snitches Palestinians Out to the PA

Quite a story about the left wing activist who got exposed by the Israeli 60 minutes for allegedly ratting out Palestinians who are trying to sell their land to Jews. Palestinian Authority law dictates the death penalty for such an act — although it appears that no one has actually officially been put to death. It’s turned into a bit of a left-right, he said-she said (as it always does). The TV journalists assert that the activist worked with another prominent left-leaning rights group in a “sting” operation to catch a Palestinian trying to sell land. At the same time, recordings and footage of this effort were collected by right wing activists, who turned it over to Israeli’s Channel 2.

The activist in question is the somewhat notorious Ezra Nawi, who is no stranger to the media. A documentary about him was released in 2007 (Citizen Nawi): the film depicts his struggles for Palestinian rights and also for LGBT issues. Nawi also figures into the film Wild West Hebron — you can watch the whole film on Vimeo. I thought I’d heard of Nawi somewhere before, and it turns out that the hugely talented Tal Pesses, DP on Holy Land, also did some of the photography on WWH.

According to the the most recent Israeli press reports of a couple of days ago, Nawi was “remanded” at Ben Gurion airport and detained, on charges of contacting an enemy agent and conspiracy to commit a crime.