Abie Nathan

Abie Nathan was born in 1927 in Abadan

Abie Nathan was born in 1927 in Abadan, Persia, to a Jewish family. He spent his youth in Bombay, India, where he studied at a Jesuit boarding school and later at a Jewish Zionist school.

He joined the British forces in 1943 and trained as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. In 1948 he came to Israel as a volunteer pilot and stayed. He later flew for El Al and opened a cafe in Tel Aviv.

After running for the Knesset in 1965 without success, he flew his plane Shalom 1 to Port Said in 1966 with a peace petition for President Nasser. He was deported and arrested in Israel. He flew to Egypt again in 1967 and was later convicted and jailed for 40 days.

In 1973 he began broadcasting the Voice of Peace from a ship off Tel Aviv. He also took part in disaster relief abroad and held hunger strikes. He met PLO officials despite a law banning such meetings and was sentenced to prison.

He closed the station in 1993 because of economic and legal difficulties. A stroke in 1997 left him partially paralyzed. He died in Tel Aviv in 2008.