Sami Michael

Sami Michael (, ; born August 15, 1926) is an Israeli author, having migrated from Iraq to Israel at the age of 23. Since 2001, Michael has been the President of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). Michael was among the first in Israel to call for the creation of an independent Palestinian state to exist alongside Israel. In his novels, Michael writes about the aspirations and struggles of both Jews and Arabs. This new approach in modern Hebrew literature was controversial and has been widely discussed in universities and in the media. Michael was awarded the EMET Prize in 2007. Michael defines himself not as a Zionist, but as an Israeli in order to make room for the inclusion of all citizens in Israel. Background Born as Kamal Salah, Sami Michael was the firstborn of a large, secular, Jewish family in Baghdad, where his father was a merchant. Michael grew up and was educated in a mixed neighborhood of Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Baghdad. Michael completed his education in the Jewish educational system of Baghdad, in Shamash School, receiving his high school diploma in 1945. At the age of 15, two years after the outbreak of World War II, he joined and soon became a leader of a leftist (Communist) underground group acting against the oppressive regime in Iraq. Michael later wrote about this period of his life in his novel A Handful of Fog. Shortly after, aged 17, he began writing articles for the Iraqi press. His political activities led to a warrant being issued for his arrest in 1948, Michael was forced to flee and went to Iran. The Iraqi court sentenced him to death in absentia. In Iran, he joined the communist party, Tudeh. Unable to return to Iraq, Michael came to Israel in 1949.