Yona was born in the
ma'abara of
Kiryat Ata. His parents Salman and Sabrina had
immigrated from
Iraq and he was one of six children. He attended the
Nahum Sokolow high school in Kiryat Ata. In 1971 he started his
IDF national service and fought in
Sinai during the
Yom Kippur War. After leaving the army in 1974, he obtained a
Bagrut matriculation certificate and attended the
University of Haifa, studying philosophy, history and art. Whilst at university he joined the
Left Camp of Israel party. After graduating in 1979, he began studying for a PhD, graduating from the
University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. He subsequently joined the Education Department at
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He went on to become a Professor of
philosophy of education at Ben-Gurion University, and a senior research fellow at the
Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. He was amongst the founders of the
Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition, and one of the leaders of the
Geneva Initiative. In 2012 he joined the
Labor Party, and was placed 20th on the party's list for the
2013 Knesset elections. However, the party won only 15 seats and he did not become a Knesset member. He was placed 23rd on the
Zionist Union list (an alliance of Labor and
Hatnuah) for the
2015 Knesset elections, and was elected to the Knesset as the alliance won 24 seats. He did not contest the
April 2019 elections. After leaving the Knesset, he published three books; two novels and a non-fiction book about politics in art. One of the novels was translated into English and was published in 2021 under the title
Tel Aviv Ramallah. ==References==