Dr. Yuli Tamir has been Minister of Education since 2006 and served as acting Minister of Science, Culture and Sports from November 2006 until March 2007. She has been a member of Knesset on behalf of the Labor Party since 2003, serving on the Finance Committee, Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, among others. She also served as Minister of Immigration Absorption in 1999-2001. She is a Professor of Political Philosophy at Tel-Aviv University and served as a Research Fellow at Princeton and Harvard universities as well as the Hartman Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. Tamir She served as a member of the board of directors of the Jerusalem Foundation and the Israel Institute of Democracy. She was one of the founders of the Peace Now movement and is a member of the Women's Lobby. In 1998-1999 she served as Chairperson of the Civil Rights Organization.

Tamir received a B.A. cum laude in Biology from the Hebrew University, an M.A. in Political Science in 1985, and a Ph.D. in Political Philosophy from Oxford University in England. She has authored several books and articles on liberalism, nationalism, feminism, and the theory of rights.