Arna Mer-Khamis

Arna Mer-Khamis was born in 1929 in Rosh Pinna

Arna Mer-Khamis was born in 1929 in Rosh Pinna. Her father, Gideon Mer, was a scientist who studied malaria. She went to high school in Tiberias and to Ben Shemen Youth Village, and she was active in the Gordonia youth movement.

She joined the Palmach as a young woman. In the War of Independence she drove a jeep in a scouting unit led by Rafi Eitan. After the war she studied for a year at a teachers' seminary in Jerusalem.

She joined the Communist party and married Saliba Khamis, a Christian Arab party member, in 1953. They moved to Nazareth, where she was jailed for 2 weeks for entering without a permit. The couple had 3 sons, among them the actor Juliano Mer-Khamis.

In 1968 the family moved to Prague, and she later left the Communist party. They returned to Haifa in 1971. During the First Intifada she supported alternative education for children in the West Bank and set up a children's theatre in the Jenin refugee camp.

She received the Right Livelihood Award in 1993 and died of cancer in 1995. Her son Juliano made the film Arna's Children about her work.