Avi Shlaim

Avi Shlaim was born in 1945 in Baghdad

Shlaim was born in Baghdad in 1945 to a wealthy Jewish family that spoke Arabic at home. In 1951 the family emigrated to Israel during Operation Ezra and Nehemiah and lost all its property. He grew up in Ramat Gan.

At 16 he went to England to study and finished high school there. After army service he studied history at Jesus College, Cambridge, and earned his BA in 1969. He received an MSc in international relations from the London School of Economics in 1970 and a PhD from the University of Reading.

He returned to Israel in 1964 and served two years in the IDF as a communications instructor.

He taught politics at the University of Reading from 1970 to 1987. His research on Israel began in 1982, when Israeli archives on the 1948 war were opened. From 1987 he taught international relations at Oxford, and his books include The Iron Wall and Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew.

His work has drawn both praise and criticism from other historians. He has lived in the United Kingdom since 1966 and holds British and Israeli citizenship. He is married to a great-granddaughter of David Lloyd George.