Background
Azoulay was born in Rishon Lezion in Israel.
Azoulay was born in Rishon Lezion in Israel.
She began her career in journalism during her service at the Israeli Defense Forces (Israel Defense Forces) as a reporter during the Yom Kippur war. After her service at the Israel Defense Forces she joined Yedioth Ahronoth and was correspondent in Hasharon and Netanya. During this time, she wrote many articles about crime in Netanya.
Azoulay was one of the only journalists prosecuted for judicial offenses.
In 1978, she published a favorable article about a convicted criminal two days before the verdict. Azoulay was convicted under article 41 of the law and was imposed a fine.
In 1981 the district court dismissed the appeal. In 1993, she moved to Paris as a correspondent for Yedioth Ahronoth.
In this position, she covered peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 1996, Azoulay went to Israel to cover the elections and then she went to Washington as a correspondent for a United States newspaper. She covered peace conferences including Wye agreement, the Camp David conference and Shepherdstown. She has reported on the topics of Axis of Evil from Iran, Iraq and North of Korea.
She was the first Israeli Journalist commissioned to King"s Palace in Riyadh and reported from summit of Arab league.
Saudi government at first declined to grant her visa on the basis that Saudi Arabia has no relations with Israel, but reversed the decision after direct orders from King Faisal after a phone call from Ban Ki Moon. She has covered tensions around the world including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait, Qatar and on Hezbollah in Beirut.
In March 2015 Orly Azoulay visited Iran. This was the first documented trip of an Israeli Journalist to Iran although Azoulay reports that she has visited Iran several times previously.
She visited Iranian Jewish communities and synagogues in Tehran and Isfahan.
She further visited the tomb of Queen Esther in Hamedan. In her article about the trip, Azoulay reported that she travelled to Iran with an American passport. However Iranian authorities realized that she had Israeli citizenship because she was born in Israel.
Subsequently she was only fingerprinted and was allowed to enter the country and travel freely within the duration of her visit.
She spent two weeks and Iran and posted several photos of the trip.
