Yossi Yonah

Prof. MK Yossi Yonah, Avoda (Labor Party)

Yoseph "Yossi" Yonah was born in 1953 in Kiryat Ata, Israel. Before joining the parliament, he was a professor of philosophy at Ben Gurion University of the Negev with a research focus on socio-economic aspects of Israeli society, including multiculturalism and equality of opportunities in education.

Prof. Yossi Yonah worked as a senior research fellow at Van Leer Jerusalem Institute and contributed to the Geneva Initiative, which promotes the two-state solution. He also served as a board member of the Adva Center, which is a non-partisan policy analysis institute focussing on equality and social justice in the Israeli Society.

During the 2011 Israeli social justice protests, Prof. Yossi Yonah chaired the Spivak-Yonah committee of experts together with Prof. Avia Spivak. The team advised the movement and delivered an alternative to the Trajtenberg Committee that was commissioned by Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the last elections in March 2015, he was elected as Member of the Knesset for the Avoda (Labor Party), where he participates e.g. in the Economic Affairs Committee and the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee. Furthermore, he chairs the Lobbies for Distributive Justice and for Strengthening Public Education and thus aims to translate his ideas and teaching into political action.

Recommended Literature:

Yonah, Y., Alexander, H. and Pinson, H. Citizenship, Education and Social Conflict. London: Routledg, 2011.