Raja Eghbaria (

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

: رجا إغبارية, born 1952) is a Palestinian-Israeli activist. He is known for his leadership of Abnaa el-Balad, and for his prosecution by the government of Israel. Eghbaria supports a one-state-solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Early life

Eghbaria was born in 1952 in

Umm al-Fahm Umm al-Fahm ( , ''Umm al-Faḥm''; ''Um el-Faḥem'') is a city located northwest of Jenin in the Haifa District of Israel. In its population was , nearly all of whom are Palestinian citizens of Israel. The city is situated on the Umm al-Fahm ...

to a land owning family. His family land were confiscated by the government of Israel forcing his father to become a construction worker. He moved to Nazareth to study due to Umm al-Fahm not having a school. One of his classmates was one of the founders of the secular Abnaa el-Balad.

Career

Eghbaria participated in protests on

Land Day Land Day (; ), recurring on March 30, is a day of commemoration for Palestinians, both Arab citizens of Israel and those in the Israeli-occupied territories of the events of that date in 1976 in Israel. In 1976, the Israeli government's anno ...

against the government of Israel's plan to expropriate land owned by Arabs in Galilee. In 1987, Eghbaria was placed in

administrative detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...

, the first Palestinian-Israeli to be placed in one. Administrative detention allows the Israeli government to detain people, usually Palestinians, indefinitely without charges. He was terminated by the Ministry of Education but reinstated following a lawsuit. He was transferred to Hadera to teach Jewish students away from Palestinians. His newspaper, Al-Raya, was shut down in 1988. Eghbaria founded another newspaper, Al-Midan, which was similarly closed down. He spoke in the Israeli TV show Popolitika after which the Ministry of Education stopped giving him any duties as it could not fire him. In 2018, Eghbaria was the subject of an Israeli probe for posts on Facebook which allegedly incited terrorism. He was arrested in September 11, 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eghbaria, Raja People from Umm al-Fahm 1952 births Anti-Zionism in Israel Arab citizens of Israel Living people