Sami Michael

Sami Michael
Sami Michael
סמי מיכאל
	Michael in 2007
Born	Kamal Salah; 15 August 1926; Baghdad, Iraq
Died	1 April 2024 (aged 97); Haifa, Israel
Citizenship	Israeli; Iraqi (till 1950)
Occupation(s)	Author; was President of The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
Spouse	Rachel Yonah Michael
Partner(s)	Malka ; Rachel Yona
Children	Dikla ; Amir
Awards	1992 Hans Christian Andersen Award; 2001 special prize by Society for International Development (SID), United Nations and Italian Association for the Promotion of Peace in the Middle East (AISI), Italy; 2004 Brenner Prize; 2005 The President and The Hebrew University Prize; 2007 EMET Prize; 2012 ACUM Lifetime Achievement Award for literature; Honorary doctorates from The Hebrew University, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Tel Aviv University, University of Haifa;

Sami Michael (Hebrew: סמי מיכאל, Arabic: سامي ميخائيل; 15 August 1926 – 1 April 2024) was an Israeli Iraqi author, having migrated from Iraq to Israel at the age of 23. From 2001, Michael was 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 the state of 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 academia and in the media. Michael was awarded the EMET Prize in 2007. Michael defined himself not as a Zionist, but as an Israeli in order to make room for the inclusion of all citizens in Israel.