Uzi Rabi

Uzi Rabi was born in 1957

Uzi Rabi was born on December 5, 1957, under the name Oscar, and changed his first name to Uzi as a child. He grew up in Ramat Gan and attended the Ohel Shem school, in its Middle East studies track.

He served in the Intelligence Corps. He then studied at Tel Aviv University, earning a first degree in Middle Eastern and African history and in political science, and later degrees in Middle Eastern history. He completed his PhD in 2000 on state formation in tribal societies in the Sultanate of Oman, supervised by Professor Joseph Kostiner.

Rabi began lecturing at Tel Aviv University in 2000 and was a visiting professor at the University of San Diego in 2004 and 2005. He joined the Center for Iranian Studies as a senior researcher in 2006, headed the Department of Middle Eastern and African History from 2008, and later headed the Moshe Dayan Center. His research covers the modern history of Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states.

He comments on the Middle East in Israeli and international media, including Arabic-language networks, and appears on i24NEWS and Channel 12. In September 2024 he made public remarks about the civilian population of northern Gaza that drew attention.