Arik Bender

Arik Bender was born in 1952 in Rishon LeZion

Arie (Arik) Bender was born on July 9, 1952, in Rishon LeZion. He attended the Haviv school there.

He joined the IDF in 1970 and served in the Armored Corps, where he trained as a fighter and a tank commander. In the Yom Kippur War he fought with the 7th Brigade in the Valley of Tears. He later earned a degree in international relations and political science from the Hebrew University.

From 1975 to 1978 he edited the Hebrew University student paper Pi HaAton and produced a morning show on Galei Tzahal. He then worked as deputy spokesman of the Jewish National Fund and wrote for Davar and the 7 Yamim supplement of Yedioth Ahronoth. There he revealed the prison diaries of Adolf Eichmann.

He joined Maariv in 1980 and held many reporting roles, including covering Jerusalem, the President's Residence and immigration. In July 1989 he first reported Mikhail Gorbachev's plan to open emigration for Jews. He also revealed the KGB files of Natan Sharansky and was the first Western journalist to interview Ethiopian president Meles Zenawi after the fall of Mengistu.

From 1994 he was the parliamentary correspondent of Maariv, and he retired in October 2022. He is married to Leah Bender, has 2 sons, and lives in the Malha neighborhood of Jerusalem.