Yazbak was born in Nazareth into a Muslim family; her father Mahmoud is a historian at the University of Haifa focusing on Middle Eastern history.

[1] She attended the Salvatorian Sisters Catholic High School and earned a BA in social work at the University of Haifa.

Her cousin, Wissam Hamdan Yazbak, was killed while taking part in the October 2000 riots in Nazareth.

She studied for a MA in social work and was a PhD student at Tel Aviv University,[1] where she also worked as a researcher and lecturer on sociology, focussing on Palestinian society and gender issues.

Prior to the March 2020 elections, several parties requested that Yazbak be banned from contesting the elections under the electoral law banning candidates who had openly supported armed conflict against Israel, as she had referred to Lebanese militant Samir Kuntar as a martyr in a post on Facebook.