It may sound like a remote province of Siberia, or a Central Asian republic. However, this self-declared, independent state lies on the unspoilt, northern coastline of Israel, with the Mediterranean Sea lapping at its shore. Welcome to Akhzivland, the personal fiefdom of Eli Avivi.

Just off the highway, a sign reading “Eli Avivi” points to a pair of blue, iron gates amid a mass of green vegetation. Avivi first set foot here in 1952. “I came to this area to visit my sister, who was living in a village a few miles inland. I walked to the coast and came across this place known as Akhziv. I fell in love with it and decided to make my home here,” Avivi says. “Apart from an old, abandoned Arab house there was nothing else for miles along this coast. It was empty.”

It’s still quiet today and the setting is certainly dramatic. The hills of Lebanon rise to the north, the mountains of the Galilee to the east and, 10 miles (16 km) to the south, the town of Acre, one of the oldest ports in the world. To the west, nothing but the clear, blue Mediterranean.

A roadsign directs travelers to Eli Avivi's personal fiefdom.

Regarded by many Israelis as a colorful, rather eccentric character, Avivi nevertheless embodies a non-conformist, free-spirited attitude to life. An attitude increasingly frowned upon in our modern world of rules, regulations and government diktat. But then little about Avivi’s life has been conventional.

Born in Iran in 1930 to Jewish parents, his family moved the following year to Tel Aviv in what was then part of British-ruled Palestine. “I was a bad boy and with some other children I used to try and sabotage the British trains by placing obstacles on the railway line,” he says. This was a time of upheaval in Palestine as various Jewish groups, seeking to establish a Jewish state, tried to force the British to give up their Mandate. “Many times we were caught by the British soldiers and brought before a court,” Avivi continues, “but my father knew the judge and we were only fined.”

In 1946, Avivi joined the “Jewish Underground Navy,” which illegally smuggled Jewish immigrants by sea from Europe to Palestine. When the British left the country in 1947 the resulting war between the Arabs and Jews led to the formation of the State of Israel. But Avivi wasn’t ready to give up the sea life just yet. “After the war I decided to see something more of the world and I worked on fishing boats in the Mediterranean and then in the North Sea. Later I sailed on bigger ships to Iceland, Greenland and Norway. It was terribly cold up there and the conditions were very hard,” Avivi explains.

Polite, softly spoken and dressed in a flowing, white robe, Avivi’s quiet demeanor is at odds with his notorious, adventurous past. He looks younger than his 74 years and there is little evidence of the rather gruff, hard-edged manner of the stereotypical Israeli. Seated in his shady courtyard with a cooling breeze wafting in off the sea he continues, “On one fishing trip in Northern Europe we were hit by a tremendous storm and our ship was badly damaged. We managed to sail to a repair yard near London, which gave me the chance to spend some time in that great city while the ship was being fixed.”