Yoav Gelber

Yoav Gelber was born in 1943 in Mandatory Palestine

Yoav Gelber was born on September 25, 1943, in Mandatory Palestine. His father, Emanuel Gelber, headed the IDF Supply Corps as a colonel and later served as an ambassador. His grandfather was the historian Nathan Michael Gelber.

His family settled in Ramat Gan in 1952, and he finished high school in Tel Aviv in 1961. He studied history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He submitted his doctorate in 1977 on volunteering for the British army in Zionist policy.

He joined the IDF in 1961 and served in the paratroopers as an officer until July 1974. He fought in the War of Attrition and the Yom Kippur War. After the war he was the scientific assistant of the Agranat Commission.

In 1982 he joined the inquiry into the 1933 murder of Haim Arlosoroff, then resigned in protest over the government's refusal to probe Sabra and Shatila. He became a professor at the University of Haifa and headed the Herzl Institute for the Study of Zionism. He wrote 4 books on Yishuv volunteers in the British army and has criticized the New Historians, especially Ilan Pappé.

He married Ruth in 1968, and they had 4 children. The family moved to Haifa in 1986 and to Nesher in 2010. In 2021 he received the Golda Meir Prime Minister's Prize.