(1948) is a poet, playwright, novelist and journalist. He lectures at the film academy and writes contributions for the daily HaAretz. In 1980 he got noticed for his sharp, agressive poems in which he condemned the war in Libanon. Israel censorship prevented the staging of his play Ephraim Returns to the Arms in 1985 `as it is disparaging to the military rule in Judea and Samaria.' In 1990 he came into the public eye again when the then minister-president Yithzak Shamir refused to sign the Prime Minister's Prize for Poetry which was awarded to Laor. But he did receive the Bernstein Poetry Prize for his collection A Night in a Foreign Hotel (1992) and the Literary Award of Israel for his novel Food Fit for a King (1994).

Laor is considered a very critical poet, both for his themes and for his form and style. The Israel critic Gabriel Levin wrote that Baudelaire's remark `life is a hospital' might serve as a motto for the poems in A Night in a Foreign Hotel in which illness, death and estrangement are continuously present like low-hanging cloud over a deserted landscape. Laor became reputed for the gloomy outlook on mankind in his poetry. His poems make him to be a kind of wanderer, somewhat restless and lonely, but also showing a strong personality. A certain intimacy is present when he describes the ageing of his parents or a young woman's death after a long illness, for example. His poetry evokes associations with painting and films, but one can feel its power - also when he expresses his pain and anger.