Matania Ben-Artzi

Matania Ben-Artzi was born in 1948 in Mahanayim

Ben-Artzi was born in 1948 in Mahanayim and later moved with his family to Kfar Hittim and Kiryat Tivon. He is the son of the writer Shmuel Ben-Artzi and Hava, and the brother of Sara Netanyahu, Hagai Ben-Artzi and Amatzia Ben-Artzi. He grew up in a family that stressed Bible study, and at 10 he took second place in the children's Bible Quiz.

He skipped several grades, finished high school at 15 and began studying mathematics and physics at the Hebrew University. He earned a master's degree at the Technion and a doctorate at the Hebrew University under Shmuel Agmon, completed in 1976. He did postdoctoral work in mathematical physics at Northwestern University.

After his studies he joined the IDF, started a pilots course, left it and moved to the Golani reconnaissance unit. He then worked at Rafael for about 12 years. In 1980 he was tried for refusing to serve in the territories and was posted to the Kirya.

After the Six-Day War he took a position opposed to the Movement for Greater Israel, and he supports a movement seeking public debate on Israel's weapons of mass destruction. In 2008 a 3-day conference on fluid mechanics equations was held in his honor at the Henri Poincaré Institute. He is married to Ofra, has 3 children and lives in Jerusalem.