A president, passports and an anthem: the astonishing story of the strange "state" established inside Israel

In Israel, there was a place where, at least from the owner's perspective, one could enter another country without passing through Ben Gurion Airport. It had a flag, an anthem, a president, passports, an entry stamp, and even a constitution, and it hosted people from all over the world. Only one thing was missing: official recognition.

Meet the State of Achziv, a micronation founded by an Israeli citizen named Eli Avivi on a beach in the western Galilee.

The man who came to an abandoned village and decided to stay

Eli Avivi was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel in his childhood. After his service in the Palmach and Palyam, and travels around the world, he returned to Israel in 1952. He arrived in the Achziv area, which was then completely different from the place familiar to travelers today, and began living in buildings that remained from the Arab village of al-Zeeb.

Avivi renovated one of the buildings and made it his home. In August 1966, Eli Avivi married Rina, and the two chose to live together in Achziv.

Gradually, their home was no longer just a place to live. Avivi established a museum there dedicated to the history of Achziv, collected and displayed archaeological findings from the area, and the two began hosting visitors.

Later on, a guesthouse was also opened, and Achziv started attracting young people, artists, bohemians, and tourists. At that time, Avivi wasn’t looking to establish a state; he simply wanted to live by the sea, but the government’s plans for the area were different.

The state wanted to evict Avivi, so he established his own state

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the area began to undergo change, with plans for tourism development and the establishment of a national park. In 1970, bulldozers arrived at the place where Avivi lived, and the structure in which he lived was demolished. For him, this was the breaking point. Instead of giving up the place, he decided to take a step that sounded as if it was taken from a movie, and in 1971 he declared the establishment of the "State of Achziv."

The establishment of the state was a protest, but one that came with all the features of a real state. There was a president who was, of course, Eli Avivi. The "state" had a flag, an anthem, and even a constitution. Visitors received a passport with a stamp, and the idea was that Achziv was no longer part of the State of Israel around it, but rather a completely separate entity. The passport issued by Achziv humorously stated that the president was "unanimously elected, by his own mouth." It was all half joke, half protest, but as time passed, people started coming there seriously.

And then the police arrived

The declaration of independence was not met with enthusiasm by the authorities. Avivi was arrested after proclaiming the establishment of the state but was released after the judge ruled that there was no offense of "establishing a state without permission."

Later, Avivi reached a legal settlement with the state, and his rights to use the land where he lived were regulated for a long period, but "The State of Achziv" was never given official recognition as an independent state.

And this is where the story becomes even more interesting, because instead of the idea fading away, it began to gain momentum.

From a protest against the state to a paradise for flower children

Achziv quickly became a meeting place for the Israeli and international bohemia. The place attracted artists, intellectuals, young people, and tourists, and turned into a sort of alternative resort village—very different from the hotels and organized vacations that were developing in Israel.

It was precisely this non-establishment character that made Achziv a place people wanted to visit. In 1972, a large Woodstock-style rock concert was held there, attracting thousands of people.

Paul Newman, Sophia Loren, and Shimon Peres came to visit.

Over the years, the place gained a reputation that crossed the borders of Israel. Among the visitors and guests who became attached to the place were well-known names such as Paul Newman, Sophia Loren, and Shimon Peres. Achziv was no longer just a story about a man who refused to leave his home. And this is perhaps one of the most surprising things about the story: a state that was not really a state managed to become a destination people wanted to visit.

An unusual incident in the pastoral country

One of the most unusual events in the history of the place occurred shortly after the establishment of the State of Akhziv. In 1971, a cell of six terrorists infiltrated Israel from Lebanon by sea, with the aim of capturing Avivi.

One of them managed to enter the house. There he encountered Rina Avivi. Rina was armed, and during the confrontation she apprehended the infiltrator. According to historical documentation, he threw down his weapon and a bag containing grenades. Two members of the cell were caught near the boat, and three others were captured later.

Thus, within a few short months, Eli Avivi went from being a man conducting a strange protest against the state to a person who was involved in one of the unusual security incidents that occurred in the area.

The anthem and the official language - in the spirit of nature

Instead of a grand national anthem, the State of Achziv adopted “the murmur of the sea waves.” The official language, in the spirit of the place, was “the language of nature.” For a country with almost no permanent residents, there was hardly any need for a healthcare system. After all, as the local story went: “There are no sick people in the country.” This was precisely the spirit of the place, to take all the serious symbols of a state and turn them into a private joke with a touch of ideology.

So was it really a state?

No. Legally and internationally, the State of Achziv was not an independent state. Israel also never recognized it as a sovereign entity. The accepted term to describe such places is "microstate," an entity that declares itself a state but is not recognized as such by the international community.

And yet, Achziv managed to be something that may be more interesting than a real country, a place whose story became much greater than the land on which it existed.

The country survived even after the president

Eli Avivi passed away in 2018 at the age of 88, but the State of Achziv did not disappear with him. The place continues to exist as a museum and has been managed since then by Eli's widow, Rina Avivi.

Even today, the place is still associated with the same bohemian and unusual world that Avivi created over decades. The gate still reminds visitors that they are entering a different "state," only now, unlike in the 1970s, there is no longer any need to explain to people that it's a joke.

Because after more than five decades, the State of Akhziv has already become part of the Israeli story.

Eli Avivi did not establish a state in the sense that we know. There was no army, no independent economy, and no international recognition, but he did manage to do something much rarer: take a stretch of coastline, declare it a state, and get people, for decades, to treat it as if it truly existed.