Amnon Kapeliouk

Amnon Kapeliouk was born in 1930 in Jerusalem

Kapeliouk was born in Jerusalem on 22 December 1930, the eldest of 3 children. His father, Menachem Kapeliouk, was an orientalist and journalist at Davar who translated Arabic literature. His mother, Yocheved, worked as a secretary for the Israeli Medical Association.

He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He earned a doctorate in Oriental Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, writing on the Christian Arab community in Israel.

He started at Davar in 1953 and moved to Al HaMishmar 2 years later, covering the Arab world. In 1982, during the First Lebanon War, he interviewed Arafat in Beirut. When Al HaMishmar refused to print it, he joined Yedioth Ahronoth, and in 1985 he was convicted of 2 counts of entering Jordan without a permit.

From 1988 to 1993 he reported from the Soviet Union for Yedioth Ahronoth, the first Israeli journalist in Moscow. He also wrote for Le Monde and Le Monde Diplomatique, helped found B'Tselem, and wrote books on Israeli politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

He was married to Olga Kapeliouk, a scholar of Semitic languages, and they had 2 daughters. He died on 26 June 2009 after surgery complications and was buried at Har HaMenuchot in Jerusalem.