Alon Hilu

Alon Hilu was born in 1972 in Jaffa

Alon Hilu was born on June 21, 1972, in Jaffa. His parents came to Israel from Damascus, Syria.

He studied dramatic writing at Tel Aviv University. He also holds a law degree and works as an intellectual property lawyer.

From 1987 to 1988 he wrote radio plays, and his stage plays were shown at theater festivals in Israel. In the 1990s two of his short stories appeared in literary magazines.

His first novel, Death of a Monk, came out in 2004 and is based on a blood libel against the Jews of Damascus. His second novel, The House of Rajani, was published in 2008 and first received the 2009 Sapir Prize, which was later withdrawn over a claimed conflict of interest among the judges. In 2018 he published Murder in the Red House, about the 1921 murder of Yosef Haim Brenner in Jaffa.

In 2018 he signed an open letter calling to repeal the Nation-State Law and to open surrogacy to same-sex couples. He came out as gay, is divorced and has 2 daughters.