Avner Wishnitzer

Avner Wishnitzer was born in 1976 in Kvutzat Shiller

Avner Wishnitzer was born in 1976 and grew up on Kibbutz Kvutzat Shiller. He is the son of Rafi Wishnitzer. He lives with his family in Jerusalem.

He served in Sayeret Matkal from 1994 to 1998. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in history at Tel Aviv University and his PhD there in 2009. He then held a Fulbright research fellowship at the University of Washington in 2009 and 2010.

He is a professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and African History at Tel Aviv University and has chaired it. His research deals with the social and cultural history of the late Ottoman period. His books include Reading Clocks alla Turca in 2015 and As Night Falls in 2021, and in 2024 he published a historical novel, New Order, which was shortlisted for the Sapir Prize.

After the Second Intifada began in 2000, he became active against Israeli rule in the Palestinian territories. In 2003 he was among Sayeret Matkal reservists who refused to serve there, a step that drew wide debate. He helped found Combatants for Peace in 2006, and in May 2025 he initiated Black Flag, a statement by Israeli academics on the Gaza war.