Look Who it Was Random video

Uri Avnery - Rachel, the lioness (300/315)

112 views · Published 12 July 2017 · 3:47 · Indexed 8 November 2026

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

Watch on YouTube

To listen to more of Uri Avnery’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFw4EQRLZvAoreWVLWLJDNaI

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: Sirhan and I were real soul mates. When I received the Peace Prize of the city of Aachen in Germany, we were told that we needed to bring an Arab friend with us because the beauty of the award ceremony was that Palestinian Arabs would also be present, and of course we immediately chose Sirhan. He came with us and attended all the ceremonies and everyone liked him. He is a very affable person and very pleasant. He had diabetes, I have diabetes. I have a little sugar, he has a lot of sugar. After the ceremony we were walking along the street, Sirhan, Rachel and I, and we passed a German bakery. The Germans are famous for their cakes. Germany is the world capital of cakes. Sirhan saw the bakery, ran into the store and returned with a huge cream cake and began to eat it. And Rachel, like a lioness, jumped on him and took the cake out of his mouth. I don't think that in the history of the Arab nation it had ever happened that a woman had dared to do that. But he gave in – he really loved her.

This plate is a plate from the municipality of al-Ramm that was given to me at the memorial service for Rachel. We went to all the al-Ramm demonstrations against the barrier wall. We saw the wall being built slowly before our eyes. We met Sirhan's family. Rachel became very friendly with Sirhan's mother. After all, when you visit an Arab friend you always get the same picture: the living room is where the Arab friend sits with his friends and with us, and our women and the Arab women are in the other room where a man is not allowed to enter. When we visited Sirhan's house in al-Ramm, Rachel would go into the next room. They really liked her. There were also demonstrations when the women came, Arab women. Sirhan's mother was an elderly woman, but she was at all the demonstrations, she was a real fighter.

More from this channel