Dr. Uri Davis, who has often termed Israel an "apartheid state" and refused to serve in the IDF, has converted to Islam and married a Fatah activist in Ramallah. The conversion ceremony involved two oaths in which Davis recognized Allah and the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Davis said he plans to follow the laws of Islam, but not devoutly.
The conversion took place in a Moslem religious court in Baka el-Garbiye, an Israeli-Arab town just outside northwestern Samaria (Shomron).
Davis's lawyer explained that the Arabs of the Palestinian Authority know him for his great sacrifices on behalf of the "Palestinian problem" and the "realization of their rights." He noted that the consent of the Arab woman and her family to the marriage to a Jewish activist is an "admirable social development."
Just two months ago, David took part in an Arab-sponsored "Haifa Conference," billed as "defend[ing] a secular democratic state in historic Palestine." A summary of the conference written by Yoav Bar states that the Conference "was our moment to raise our heads from the exhausting daily struggle and promise ourselves and the world that the suffering of the Palestinian people may be brought to an end and there can be a bright future for everybody in Palestine after we get rid of the racist Zionist disorder."
Bar himself, an initiator of the Haifa Conference, is an Israeli member of the political bureau of Abnaa el-Balad - Sons of the Land, a secular movement that seeks the return of all Arab refugees, the abolishment of Israel as a Jewish state and the establishment of a Palestinian state in its place.
Dr. Davis gave one of the three Hebrew speeches at the Conference; the others were delivered by Yehuda Kupferman of the "Committee for a Secular and Democratic state in the Whole of Palestine," and Dr. Anat Matar, a leading supporter of the rights of Palestinian prisoners and the rights of Israeli youth to refuse to serve in the IDF.
Davis, who has described himself as an "anti-Zionist Palestinian Hebrew," has been advocating support for Palestinian issues for over 40 years, and was arrested more than once on charges of illegal activities in this connection. He is a founding member of the Movement Against Israeli Apartheid in Palestine, is a former member of the Executive Committee of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding, and is actually an Observer Member of the Palestine National Council.