(July 23, 2026 / JNS)
Haim Yavin, the pioneering Hebrew broadcaster who anchored Israeli television’s flagship evening news program “Mabat” for nearly four decades before provoking a national uproar with a documentary targeting the “settlement” enterprise, died on July 22 at the age of 93.
Known to generations of Israelis as “Mr. Television,” Yavin was among the founders of Israel’s state television station, Channel 1, becoming one of the country’s most recognizable and trusted public figures.
His authoritative voice led Israelis through wars, elections, peace agreements, terrorist attacks and national tragedies. One of the highlights of his career was when he declared, “Ladies and gentlemen—mahapach—a revolution!” as the results of the 1977 election showed that Menachem Begin’s Likud would end nearly three decades of Labor Party rule.
Yet Yavin’s status as the seemingly impartial face of public broadcasting was shaken in 2005 by “The Land of the Settlers,” a five-part documentary series that presented a deeply critical view of Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip.
The documentary aired as then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to uproot all Jewish communities in Gaza and four in northern Samaria under his unilateral Disengagement Plan.
In the documentary, Yavin argued that the settlement enterprise endangered Israel and called for a withdrawal from the territories liberated in the 1967 Six-Day War.
“Since 1967, [the Israelis] have been brutal conquerors, occupiers, suppressing another people,” he said.
The series, filmed by Yavin with a handheld camera over more than two years, marked a sharp departure from the restraint associated with his work as a news anchor. Its strongly personal conclusions led critics to accuse him of using the authority he had accumulated over decades at the public broadcaster to advance a partisan political position.
His own Channel 1 network did not broadcast the series, which aired instead on the commercial Channel 2 beginning in May 2005.
More than 100 complaints were submitted to the Second Authority for Television and Radio. Leaders of Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza accused Yavin of producing propaganda in support of Sharon’s disengagement plan, and the chairman of the Yesha Council called for his dismissal from the Israel Broadcasting Authority. The IBA instead extended Yavin’s contract for another year.
The controversy highlighted the unusual influence Yavin wielded. For decades, his leftist political opinions had largely remained outside his nightly broadcasts, leading many Israelis across the political spectrum to regard him as a national authority rather than an ideological commentator.
That perception made his condemnation of the settlement movement particularly consequential. Supporters praised him for using his stature to confront what they viewed as the moral consequences of Israeli control over the Palestinians, while critics said the documentary revealed the political bias behind the supposedly neutral image of Israel’s most prominent public broadcaster.
The birth of ‘Israel Television’
Yavin was born Heinz Kluger on Sept. 10, 1932, in Beuthen, Germany, today Bytom, Poland. His family immigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1933 and settled in the Haifa area.
He began his broadcasting career at the state-run Kol Yisrael (Voice of Israel) radio station in 1956, presenting news, music and entertainment programs before joining its documentary department as an editor, producer and presenter.
Yavin was a key member of the team that established the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s Israel Television news broadcast in 1968. The IBA launched public transmissions on May 2, 1968, as Israel celebrated its 20th Independence Day. On July 23 of that year, Yavin presented the first edition of “Mabat LaHadashot” (“A Glance at the News”), often shortened to “Mabat,” whose top story was the hijacking of an El Al airliner to Algeria.
He subsequently served as the IBA’s correspondent in the United States, covering the White House and the United Nations. After returning to Israel, Yavin held several senior positions at the public broadcaster, including editor of “Mabat,” director of the news department and presenter of the current-affairs program “Mabat Sheni.”
He served as director of Israel Television’s Channel 1 from 1986 to 1990, expanding broadcasting hours and overseeing the introduction of several programs that became fixtures of Israeli television.
Yavin briefly left Channel 1 in 1997 to present an investigative program on Channel 2 before returning to “Mabat” the following year.
He announced his retirement in August 2007 and anchored his final “Mabat” broadcast on Feb. 5, 2008, ending an association with the program that had begun with the birth of Israeli television.
‘Mr. Television’
Yavin’s calm delivery became intertwined with some of the most consequential moments in Israeli history. His declaration of “mahapach” on election night in May 1977 entered the national lexicon as Begin’s victory ended the left’s uninterrupted rule since the state’s establishment.
Nearly two decades later, Yavin delivered one of the most painful announcements in Israeli broadcasting history when he informed viewers of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination on Nov. 4, 1995.
Alongside his anchoring work, Yavin produced documentaries examining Israeli politics and society. They included films about a bitter 1981 election campaign, Soviet Jewry during the collapse of the Soviet Union, Israel’s Arab minority, and the changing relationship between the Israel Defense Forces and Israeli society.
His final documentary, “Jerusalem: A City of Broken Dreams,” aired in 2016 and examined relations between Jewish and Arab residents of the Israeli capital.
Yavin received the Israel Prize for communications in 1997, the Israeli Academy of Film and Television’s lifetime achievement award in 2003 and a lifetime achievement award from the Jerusalem Journalists Association in 2008.
Often portrayed as Israel’s Walter Cronkite, he voiced discomfort with the “Mr. Television” designation that followed him throughout his career. “I didn’t give myself that nickname. I regard it with an indulgent smile. You could say it is embarrassing, but flattering,” he said in a 2010 interview with Ynet.
In a 2012 interview with The Jerusalem Report, Yavin reflected on his memorable 1977 election-night “mahapach” declaration, saying it was spontaneous, born from his recognition that Israel was witnessing a historic political turning point.
He also summarized the philosophy that guided his decades-long career, insisting that television’s role was to chronicle events rather than shape them. “Television didn’t make history—it documented history,” he said.
President Isaac Herzog said Yavin accompanied Israelis through defining national moments “with professionalism, responsibility and statesmanship.”
“His voice and face were identified with central chapters in the history of the state,” Herzog said. “He left a profound mark on Israeli journalism and public culture.”
The Jerusalem Journalists Association expressed its “deep sorrow” to the Yavin family, saying “Yavin will be remembered as one of the pillars of Israeli journalism and as someone who left a profound mark on public broadcasting. His image and work will remain engraved in the history of Israeli media.”
Yavin is survived by his wife, Yosefa, his sons Yonatan, Michael and Hagai; and grandchildren. His daughter, Dafna Yavin-Reches, died in 2025.
“It is with deep sorrow that we bid farewell to our husband, father and grandfather, who reached a ripe old age,” the family said in a statement.
Yavin’s funeral is scheduled for Friday morning at the Givat Hashlosha Cemetery.
