Akiva Nof

Akiva Nof was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv

Akiva Nof was born Akiva Naparstek in Tel Aviv in 1936. He attended Ahad Ha'am school and Ironi Alef high school in Tel Aviv and was a member of the Scouts. He served in the IDF in the Nahal and was a member of Kibbutz Tel Katzir.

He studied international relations and law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and qualified as a lawyer. He earned a master's degree in law at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. While in the Netherlands he interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono during their Bed-In for Kol Israel.

He began in Herut, chairing its youth wing, and left in 1965 for the Free Centre. He entered the Knesset on the Likud list and later moved between the Free Centre, Dash, the Democratic Movement and Ahva before rejoining Likud in 1981. In the Knesset he initiated private bills on social issues, such as a ban on smoking in public places, and lost his seat in 1984.

As a lawyer he represented a disabled man against a nightclub that tried to bar disabled people. During the Gulf War he petitioned the High Court over gas masks for bearded non-religious men, and the court ordered the Defense Ministry to supply them. He also wrote and composed songs, including Izevel, which reached number one in 1972.