View source for Eli Amir

{{Short description|Israeli writer}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix          =
| name                      =Eli Amir
| honorific_suffix          =
| native_name               =אלי עמיר
| native_name_lang          =
| image                     = EliAmir.JPG
| image_size                = 250px
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| birth_name                =
| birth_date                =  {{Birth date and age|1937|9|26}}
| birth_place               = [[Baghdad]], [[Iraq]]
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| citizenship               = Israeli
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| occupation                = Writer and civil servant
| years_active              =
| employer                  = The [[Jewish Agency]]
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| title                     = Director General of the [[Youth Aliyah]] Department
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}}
'''Eli Amir''' ({{langx|he|אלי עמיר}}; [[Arabic language|Arabic]]:ايلى عمير) (September 26, 1937) is an Iraqi-born [[Israel]]i writer and civil servant. He served as director general of the [[Youth Aliyah]] Department of the [[Jewish Agency]].
==Biography==
Amir was born '''Fuad Elias Nasah Halschi''' in [[Baghdad]], [[Iraq]].  He [[Aliyah|immigrated]] to Israel with his family in 1950, and went to school in [[Kibbutz]] [[Mishmar HaEmek]].  He is now living in [[Gilo]], [[Jerusalem]].<ref>[http://jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/2010/05/literary-encounter-with-eli-amir.html Point of no return<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Amir studied at the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]].
From 1964 to 1968 he served as adviser on Arab affairs to the [[Prime Minister of Israel]], and as envoy for the Minister of Immigration Absorption of Israel to the United States. In 1984, he was appointed Director General of the Youth Aliyah department of the [[Jewish Agency]].<ref name=trans>{{Cite web
| title = Eli Amir
| work = The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
| accessdate = May 4, 2008
| url = http://www.ithl.org.il/page_13182
}}</ref><ref name=jewish>{{Cite web
| last = Amir
| first = Eli
| title = Eli Amir: Jewish People's Largest Rescue Operation
| work = Jewish Agency
| accessdate = May 4, 2008
| date = January 30, 2005
| url = http://www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Israel/YouthFutures/YouthAliyah/News/2004/Eli+Amir_+Jewish+People_s+Largest+Rescue+Operation+130.htm
}}</ref>
==Literature==
''Scapegoat'' (1983) is a semi-autobiographical story of Nuri, a 13-year-old immigrant boy from Iraq who is sent to a kibbutz and his absorption into Israeli society.<ref name=scapegoat>{{Cite web
| title = Scapegoat
| work = The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
| accessdate = May 6, 2008
| url = http://www.ithl.org.il/page_13677
}}</ref> ''The Dove Flyer'' (aka ''Farewell, Baghdad'') (1992) is the story of 17-year-old Kabi Imari, an [[Iraqi Jewish]] boy growing up in a [[Zionist]] family.<ref name=farewell>{{Cite web
| title = Farewell, Baghdad
| work = The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
| accessdate = May 6, 2008
| url = http://www.ithl.org.il/page_13676
}}</ref> ''Saul's Love'' (1998) is a romance between Saul, born to a deeply rooted [[Sephardi]] family from Jerusalem, and Chaya, an [[Ashkenazi]] [[holocaust]] survivor.<ref name=saul>{{Cite web
| title = Saul's Love
| work = The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
| accessdate = May 6, 2008
| url = http://www.ithl.org.il/page_13183
}}</ref> ''Jasmine'' (2005) is also largely autobiographical. The book's protagonist, Nuri Amari, who as a child had immigrated with his family from Iraq, is appointed to a government post in [[East Jerusalem]] in the wake of the [[Six-Day War]]. He meets Jasmine, a young [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] widow from a wealthy [[Christians|Christian]] refugee family.
<ref name=jasmine>{{Cite web
| title = Jasmine
| work = The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature
| accessdate = March 22, 2015
| url = http://www.ithl.org.il/page_13289
}}</ref>
<ref name=stern/>
''Scapegoat'' is included in the Israeli secondary school syllabus,<ref name=stanford>{{Cite web
| title = Amir, Eli
| work = Hebrew at Stanford
| accessdate = May 4, 2008
| url = http://www.stanford.edu/class/hebrew/books/amir.html
}}</ref> and was adapted into a play and television series.<ref name=trans/>
==Awards==
Amir received Youth Aliyah's Jubilee Prize (1983), the Jewish Literature Prize (in Mexico, 1985), the Ahi Award (1994), Am Oved's Jubilee Prize (1994), the [[Yigal Allon]] Prize for Outstanding Service to Society (1997), the Book Publishers Association's Platinum Prize (1998), and the Prime Minister's Prize (2002).<ref name=trans/>
==Political activism==
Amir has frequently called for social justice and denounced what he has described as the deterioration of the Israeli welfare state.<ref name=sderot>{{Cite news
| last = עמיר
| first = אלי
| script-title=he:זעקה משדרות
| work = nrg
| accessdate = May 6, 2008
| date = November 11, 2007
| url = http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/657/309.html
|language=he}}</ref> In 2007, when his book ''Jasmine'' was published in [[Arabic]] in Egypt, he expressed hope that more Israeli books be spread in the [[Arab world]], saying "How can there be peace without us knowing each other?".<ref name=egypt>{{Cite news
| title = Israeli novel published in Egypt
| work = Ynetnews
| accessdate = May 4, 2008
| date = November 12, 2007
| url = http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3481213,00.html
}}</ref> He repeated that statement in a literary soiree held by the Israeli Embassy in [[Cairo]].<ref name=stern>{{Cite news
| last = Stern
| first = Yoav
| title = Eli Amir's love story brings Israelis and Egyptians closer
| work = Haaretz
| accessdate = May 4, 2008
| url = http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=597639&contrassID=2&subContrassID=4&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
}}</ref> He also signed a petition calling for [[Prime Minister of Israel]] [[Ehud Olmert]] to negotiate a cease-fire with [[Hamas]].<ref name=lev-ari>{{Cite news
|last=Lev-Ari
|first=Shiri
|author2=Mazal Mualem
|title=Leading Israeli authors, intellectuals call for truce with Hamas
|work=Haaretz
|accessdate=May 4, 2008
|date=September 24, 2007
|url=https://www.haaretz.co.il/hasen/pages/ShArtStEng.jhtml?itemNo=906706&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1&title='Leading%20Israeli%20authors,%20intellectuals%20call%20for%20truce%20with%20Hamas'&dyn_server=172.20.5.5
}}{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 2006, his name came up as a successor to [[President of Israel]] [[Moshe Katsav]] and Amir said he would consider it.<ref name=nrg>{{Cite news
| last = שטרן
| first = איתי
| script-title=he:כבוד הנשיא?
| work = nrg
| accessdate = May 6, 2008
| date = August 30, 2006
| url = http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/472/152.html
|language=he}}</ref>
==Published works==
===In Hebrew===
* ''Tarnegol Kaparot'' ("Scapegoat"), Am Oved, 1984
* ''Mafriah Ha-Yonim'' ("The Dove Flyer") Am Oved, 1992
* ''Ahavat Shaul'' ("Saul's Love"), Am Oved, 1998
* ''Yasmin'' ("Jasmine"), Am Oved, 2005
*  ''Na'ar Ha-Ofnayim'' ("The Bicycle Boy"), Am Oved (2019)
===Translated into English===
*{{Cite book
| publisher = Weidenfeld and Nicolson
| pages = 218
| last = Amir
| first = Eli
| title = Scapegoat: A Novel
| year = 1987
}}
*{{Cite book
| publisher = Halban Publishers
| pages = 544
| last = Amir
| first = Eli
| title = The Dove Flyer
| year = 2010
}}
*{{Cite book
| publisher = Halban Publishers
| pages = 436
| last = Amir
| first = Eli
| title = Yasmine
| year = 2012}}
==See also==
*[[History of the Jews in Iraq]]
*[[Israeli literature]]
==References==
{{reflist|2}}
==External links==
*{{Cite video
| people =
| title = I am an Arab Jew
| accessdate = May 6, 2008
| date = January 3, 2008
| time = 383 seconds
| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GECBrshPxyU
}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amir, Eli}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Iraqi emigrants to Israel]]
[[Category:Writers from Baghdad]]
[[Category:Iraqi Jews]]
[[Category:Israeli novelists]]
[[Category:Hebrew-language writers]]
[[Category:Arab Jews]]