Yaniv Iczkovits

For the academic year 2021/2022, Iczkovits was appointed to serve as artist in residence at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a position previously held by poet Agi Mishol and playwright Joshua Sobol.

In 2002, after a stint of reservist service in Gaza during the Second Intifada, Iczkovits, together with social activist David Zonsheine, initiated the "Combatants' Letter," in which they declared their refusal to serve in the territories of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. An initial 51 soldiers and officers signed the letter, which was published as an advertisement in the mass-circulation daily newspaper Haaretz. This launched the movement known as Ometz LeSarev (Hebrew: "Courage to refuse"). Some six hundred Israeli soldiers affirmed their refusal to serve in the occupied territories. Iczkovits spent a month in military prison for refusing to go on additional reserve service in the territories.

In 1993 he enlisted in the IDF, volunteered for the Maglan elite commando unit and served as an officer. As a team commander he took part in the fighting in southern Lebanon. Upon his discharge from the IDF with the rank of lieutenant, he traveled to the Far East. He enrolled in the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students at Tel Aviv University for his undergraduate studies, and during his master's degree he spent a year as a Chevening fellow at Oxford University. His doctoral dissertation dealt with Ludwig Wittgenstein's thought and analyzed the interplay between ethics and language.

Yaniv Iczkovits (Hebrew: יניב איצקוביץ' born May 2, 1975) is an Israeli writer known for his novels, essays and philosophical work. His 2015 fantasy-historical adventure novel The Slaughterman's Daughter, with an unlikely assortment of Jewish characters on a quest in late 19th century Czarist Russia, has been translated into several European languages and gained critical acclaim.