Yariv Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer was born on 5 December 1976 in Tel Aviv. His grandfather, Gershon Schatz (1905-1963) was one of the founding members of Betar and also a member of the National Workers' Union, Brit HaBirionim and Lehi. Oppenheimer grew up in Ramat Gan and graduated from Blich Municipal High School.

In 1995, he joined the IDF and served as a recruit commander and continued to serve in the reserves, including an operational deployment in the West Bank. He began his political career when he was 15, as an activist in the Labor Party's youth department during the elections for the Thirteenth Knesset.

After completing his military service, he returned to work as part of the Young Guard youth movement of the Israeli Labor Party and a few months later was appointed director of the youth wing of the party. In this capacity, he managed the youth activities during the election campaign of Ehud Barak. After four years, was appointed spokesperson for the Peace Now. And after a year and a half as speaker, he was appointed secretary-general of the movement. He resigned his post in April 2016.

Oppenheimer was married in November 2018 and his first child was born on 19 May 2019.

Media career and later activities

Since stepping down as director of Peace Now, Oppenheimer has a regular presenter on DemocratTV.

In May 2024, a defamation lawsuit filed by settler Yeshoua Sherman against Oppenheimer, Zehava Galon, and B'Tselem was settled. The suit, which concerned a 2019 tweet regarding a shooting incident in the West Bank, ended with a compromise where the defendants were not required to pay financial damages, though B'Tselem agreed to clarify the wording of their original report.

In 2009, he sent a photo crew to interview right-wing Knesset members, posing as students. Oppenheimer admitted that he was behind the act and that the Knesset officer filed a complaint against him against the police for impersonation. As a result, Oppenheimer was banned from entering the Knesset compound by then Speaker of the Knesset Reuven Rivlin. Oppenheimer announced that there had been a misunderstanding, and that Peace Now would not repeat such actions in the Knesset. As a result, Rivlin later renewed Oppenheimer's entry permit.

In 2011, Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an article "WikiLeaks exclusive", which revealed that Oppenheimer maintained contacts with the U.S. Embassy, where he gave them information about Israeli settlement construction in West Bank.