I was born in Wolfson Hospital in the city of Holon on 22 June 1988.  My name is derived from the Arabic word for “my life.” 

I started playing basketball in the second grade, at the school associated with the Elitzur Yavne basketball team.  In fourth grade, I played in the little league of Elitzur Yavne; our team won the championships in 1999. 

In eighth grade, I started playing for Maccabi Rishon Lezion, which was managed professionally by Ziv Erez.  Ziv took me under his wing.  He changed my position in the game, and I became an outside player.   He also gave me personal training, and I made a lot of progress. 

When I was fourteen I joined the junior squad of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and also began playing for Gimnasia Realit in Rishon Lezion, in the premier league for high school students.

- Also at age fourteen, I was selected for the first time for the Boys U-18 National Team, which was coached by Roni Bosani.  We made it to the European championships after surviving the preliminary round.  My best game was against Germany; I scored 25 points and took 8 rebounds.  We made it to the finals, which were held in Spain.  In the finals, we drew to a tough group, and in our first game I was injured in the back.  We finished in tenth place.

- In the Champion of Champions tournament, we played against Hapoel Jerusalem in the semi-final and defeated them 81 – 78.  I scored 19 points and made 10 rebounds in that game.  In the final, we beat Maccabi Kiryat Motzkin 86 – 65.

- In the finals of the youth league, we played against Galil Elyon in the first game of the series, and defeated them 99 – 88.  I scored 29 points in that game.  In the second game of the series, I scored 19 points in our 97 – 84 victory, and we won the championship.