Yoni Ben-Menachem

Yoni Ben-Menachem was born in 1957 in Jerusalem

Ben-Menachem was born on November 16, 1957, in Jerusalem, to a family of Bukharan origin. He was born Yehonatan Bachayev, and his father later changed the family name to Ben-Menachem. He grew up in the Baka neighborhood.

He joined the IDF in 1975 and served in the Intelligence Corps, leaving with the rank of captain. He then studied Arabic language and literature and East Asian studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, finishing in 1986.

In 1981 he began work as a producer at the Israeli branch of Japan's state television. After a correspondents course at the Israel Broadcasting Authority in 1983, he covered the territories and Palestinian affairs for Channel One and Kol Israel. He says that in 1993 he reported from Tunis and was the first Israeli journalist to interview Yasser Arafat before the Oslo Accords.

From 2003 to 2008 he was director and chief editor of Kol Israel radio. He later hosted a Middle East program on Reshet Bet and was chosen as director general of the Israel Broadcasting Authority in September 2011.

From 2014 he has been a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Since 2024 he has been a regular panelist on a program on i24NEWS.