Ezra Nawi
Ezra NawiUvda, Keshet Broadcasting

Nationalist MKs issued strong reactions on Thursday night to the investigative report which aired on Channel 2’s “Uvda” program, hosted by journalist Ilana Dayan, and which revealed that extreme leftist activist Ezra Nawi passes information on Palestinian Arabs interested in selling land to Jews and essentially sentencing them to death, as the Palestinian Authority (PA) outlaws the sale of land to Jews in Judea and Samaria, and punishes sellers to death by execution.

Science Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) said that the report is "another dangerous expression of the escalation of the extreme left. This is further proof of the processes of radicalization and anti-Israel activity among leftist organizations."

"These actions against ‘settlements’ and ‘settlers’, the IDF and the security forces, are not for purposes of 'human rights' - the opposite is true. The report reveals that in the name of the struggle against Israel, there are those among the lunatic left who are willing to sacrifice the lives of innocent Palestinians," added Akunis.

Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) expressed shock at the material exposed in the report and said, "Once again it is proven that some human rights organizations actually trample human rights. I urge the legal authorities to prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law."

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) said, "What we saw this evening was a loss of values, a betrayal of the State of Israel and harming a life under the false cover of protection of human rights. This phenomenon is not an invention of Ezra Nawi, unfortunately it is typical of many extreme leftist organizations that hide an extreme political agenda under the cover of human rights.”

"Ezra Nawi is a leftist anarchist who for years has been operating in different violent methods against Arab and Jewish populations alike. Nawi’s injustices are known to the authorities but for some reason, they have not lifted a finger," said Smotrich, who added that ''a long time ago, even before I was elected to the Knesset, I contacted the authorities and the IDF demanding his removal from the area due to the unrest and the provocation he causes. Unfortunately nothing has been done."

MK Smotrich stressed that “Ilana Dayan’s important investigation also exposes the hypocrisy behind the claims against the reliability of purchases by Jews in the region. In a reality in which an Arab selling land to Jews is executed, every seller must deny the sale to save his life. The attempt to cling to these false complaints and cast aspersions on the settlement enterprise through them is a great hypocrisy.”

MK Shuli Muallem Refaeli (Jewish Home) said, "The extreme leftist organizations create their own delegitimization and they should not accuse anyone."

"They do not work in the Palestinians’ favor, but rather to undermine the state and, under the guise of humanitarianism, hurt the Arabs themselves. The investigation proves how important the transparency is in these organizations and is further proof of why legislation against extreme leftist organizations is justified," she added.

Smotrich and MK Yoav Kish (Likud), who together head the Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset, issued a joint statement saying that "the extreme leftist organizations crossed the boundaries of law and morality together. The lobby will work to ensure that the legal and security authorities in Israel will deal with these organizations and their associates to the fullest extent of the law."

Nawi, for his part, responded to the expose and said, "The broadcast is part of the effort to sabotage my and my friends’ operations alongside the Palestinians in Har Hevron. I did not trick the land seller. On the contrary."

Nawi, who is mostly active in the southern Har Hevron region of Judea, was born in Jerusalem to Jewish immigrants from Iraq, and is a fluent Arabic speaker.

He was arrested several times in the past, including for assaulting police officers, and also served half a year in jail for statutory rape over his sexual relations with a 15-year-old Palestinian boy in the early 1990s. He has also been revealed to be a supporter of Hamas.