Yakobson immigrated to Israel with his family (mother, father, and grandmother) at age 13.

[1] In 1995, Yakobson was appointed assistant professor of History at the University of Haifa through 1997.

In 2000, he was appointed as a senior lecturer in history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Yakobson is a former Meretz activist and Peace Now member with a regular op-ed column in the newspaper Haaretz.

He co-wrote Israel and the Family of Nations: The Jewish Nation State and Human Rights with former Israeli minister Amnon Rubinstein, which seeks to assert Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state.