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Uri Avnery - Writing my autobiography from memory (313/315)

65 views · Published 11 July 2017 · 1:58 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · News & Politics

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Uri Avnery (1923-2018) was an Israeli writer, journalist and peace activist. He was editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine "HaOlam HaZeh" and founded the Gush Shalom peace movement. [Listener: Anat Saragusti; date recorded: 2017]

TRANSCRIPT: [AS] You want to talk about the book? The autobiography?

There is not much to say about the autobiography. All my life I knew that one day I will write an autobiography and I kept postponing it. I was always asked, both in Israel and abroad, and I said: 'I'm not ready yet, I'm too young' – I was only 70 or 80. One day, I decided that I would write, I don't know what caused it, what prompted me? Maybe the realization dawned on me that I was not going to last forever, I don't know, and I began to write. And I began to write as I am now speaking. I decided in advance − I will not change anything, I'm not going to beautify anything, I will talk about the good things and about the bad, things that I regret and things that I am proud of − I will write a truthful biography. What is the truth? This must immediately be qualified; human memory is deceptive. Sometimes you remember things, simply remember things that didn't happen, and then sometimes you forget things that did happen. But I decided not to do any research. I will not burrow into the university library in order to check things. I am writing things as I remember them.

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