JERUSALEM: Prominent Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan, who consistently defied Israeli law and served jail cycle within his life-long campaign, died on Wednesday aged 81, a hospital spokeswoman said.
"Abie Nathan died a good amount of hours ago in hospital. He was hospitalised various days ago in a truly bad condition," Aviv Shemer of the Ichilov Medical Centre in Tel Aviv informed media.
Born to a Jewish family in Iran, Nathan served as a British air impel fighter pilot in World War II before immigrating to Israel shortly following its independence in 1948.
In 1966, Nathan defiantly flew a single-engined plane referred to as "Shalom One" of Israel to Egypt -- Israel's chief enemy at the long period of time -- in how was branded a "peace flight."
After making arrested by Egyptian systems and paid off to Israel, Nathan attempted a minute flight in 1967, was once again discontinued by the Egyptian institutions and consequently jailed in Israel.
The indefatigable campaigner been heard performing high-profile activities to promote peace, along with the generation in 1973 of the Voice of Peace radio station that broadcast on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
He sank the boat in 1993 ensuing the launch of the Oslo peace approach between Israel and the Palestinians.
Nathan was an outspoken opponent of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and in the late 1980s he taken out a string of meetings investing in next Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The meetings, that Israel thought to be illegal, attained Nathan heavy criticism in Israel as favorably as two terms in jail.