Amiel Vardi (Hebrew: עמיאל ורדי) is an Israeli classical scholar, an authority on Latin literature, and an activist on behalf of Palestinian rights.
He has a particular research focus on the Noctes Atticae of the Latin writer Aulus Gellius, and, in the estimation of Leofranc Holford-Strevens, is one of the foremost contributors to the subject in recent times.
He has analysed the development of the notion of a literary canon, and the concept of "the arts" which ancient languages had no precise term for defining in the modern sense.
He has been present in many areas where conflict is endemic, from Yanun in the north to Susya to the far south, from Jayyus in the west near the Israeli West Bank barrier and the Green Line,[9][10] to areas in East Jerusalem affected by the policy of the Judaization of Jerusalem, such as the tiny hamlet of Nuaman and Sheikh Jarrah, and in particular in the South Hebron Hills.
He has throughout, Shulman adds, proved selfless, persistent and cool, displaying a legal expertise that has reportedly earned him the respect of the Israeli officers who interrogate him.
Part of Ta'ayush's work is to clean pastoral terrain of poisonous pellets seeded by settlers into them to damage Palestinian flocks grazing on them and in this area Vardi has reportedly also acquired an extensive knowledge of toxins.
[16][a] In the South Hebron hills, Vardi, together with other Ta'ayush volunteers, often accompanies the Palestinian shepherds as they take their flocks to slowly graze over the pastures.
"[18] Amiel Vardi, together with Guy Butavia and Ezra Nawi, was detained for questioning after filming illegal construction at the settlement of Avigayil on 30 March 2013, work done despite a stop-work order issued by the Israeli military administration of the West Bank.
[14][21] The incident took place outside Yanun where some weeks earlier, on 6 October, Hani Yusaf (24) of the sister village of Aqraba had been shot dead by a settler in similar circumstances.
The incident was unusual – it was in his experience the first time Israeli activists had been subjected to brutal assault- and Vardi likened the police behavior to what occurs in Iran when the authorities intervene against demonstrating groups.
Simultaneously with the beatings, residents from the settlement of Bat Ayin set the villagers' olive groves alight a few hundred yards off, and were left undisturbed by the police.
[25] His daughter, Sahar Vardi (b.1991) is also active in Human Rights causes in Israel and the Palestinian territories, having begun at the early age of 14, against her father's objections, to join protests at the weekly demonstration marches of the villagers of Bil'in.