Achsivland

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Flag of Achsivland

Achsivland ( Hebrew מדינת אכזיב, Akhzivland ) is a micronation in Israel . This was proclaimed by Eli Avivi in 1971 and is nowadays promoted as a tourist attraction by the Israeli government, although it is not recognized internationally and operates in legal gray areas.

location

Achsivland is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coast between Nahariya and the border with Lebanon . The eponymous ruins of Achsiv , an ancient settlement, are about 5 km north of Nahariya. A national park, an agricultural school and the ruins of the Palestinian settlement Az-Zeeb , which was captured in the Palestine War of 1948, are located near the area, which is just over one hectare in size .

history

As many finds and burial sites show, the ancient port city of Achsiv was apparently already frequented as an important trading center during the Iron Age . In the biblical book of Joshua , Achsiv is mentioned as one of the nine cities of the Kingdom of Judah . At the time of the Crusades , the city was given as a gift to a knight, and later it was recaptured by the Mameluk general Baibars I. The settlement of Az-Zeeb, founded by Baibars as a fishing village, which was abandoned by its residents as part of Operation Ben-Ami during the Palestine War in 1948, also dates from this time . Part of this coastal region was leased by the government to the French company Club Med for 50 years in 1961 .

founding

The Achsivland Museum (2015)

Eli Avivi, a seaman born in Iran and a former member of the Palmach , moved into a house on the settlement in 1952. It is reported that Avivi was hired by fishermen there and moved to the home of his employers' family in 1955. After the Israeli government bulldozed the house of Avivi in ​​1970 because the latter had built his house without government approval, the latter declared the state of Achsivland in protest in 1971 and built a hostel and a museum in the former house of the former village head ( Muhtar ) of Az -Zeeb. From the photos of naked visitors, one of the largest archives of nudes in Israel was created over the decades with over 2 million photos . The micronation developed into a popular meeting place for tourists, artists, authors and other people from the countercultural scene.

After the founding, Avivi was arrested but released ten days after a court ruled that the charge of “establishing a land without authorization” was not a criminal offense under current law. In return, Avivi sued the State of Israel and the verdict was that Israel had to lease the area to Avivi for 99 years. However, the legal status of Achsivland was not clarified in this context.

El Avivi died on May 16, 2018 at the age of 88. Avivi acted as the president of the micronation and was "democratically elected by himself". He lived there with his wife Rina, who acts as first wife and foreign minister. Achsivland has its own flag and national anthem, and also has its own passports, which were even stamped with a special stamp on entry for a certain period of time. Today the area houses a guest house, a campsite on the beach and a curiosity museum. Achsivland is publicly accessible in its entirety.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Colin Miller: A World of His Own: Eli Avivi . Ed .: Go World Travel. ( goworldtravel.com ).
  2. ^ John Ryan: Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations . Ed .: Lonely Planet . 2006, ISBN 1-74104-730-7 , pp. 48-50 .
  3. ↑ a b Agnes Fazekas: Achzivland: I am the state . In: Die Zeit , No. 4/2016
  4. ↑ a b Peter Lagerquist: Vacation from History: Ethnic Cleansing as the Club Med Experience. (PDF) Journal of Palestine Studies , 2006, pp. 43–53 , accessed on December 19, 2017 .
  5. ↑ a b Amelia Thomas: Finding Akhzivland . Ed .: Lonely Planet . November 5, 2009 ( online ). Finding Akhzivland ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lonelyplanet.com
  6. ↑ Michael Borgstede: The King of Achsivland . In: Die Welt , December 12, 2011
  7. ^ A b Raffi Berg: One-man rule in Israel's hippy micro-state . BBC News , March 10, 2015
  8. ↑ Hannes Vollmuth: The eccentric dictator of Israel - mini-state survived. In: n-tv . March 5, 2011, accessed December 19, 2017 .
  9. ^ Founder of the “most peaceful country in the Middle East” is dead. In: Jüdische Allgemeine . May 17, 2018, accessed September 3, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Leesha McKenny: The despot concierge. In: Traveler. September 13, 2009, accessed September 3, 2018 .

Coordinates: 33 ° 2 ′ 55.1 ″  N , 35 ° 6 ′ 6.4 ″  E