Born apparently in Damascus, Israel served as secretary of that community in which his father, R. Moses Najara, was rabbi. While acknowledging Israel's poetic ability, some of the rabbis of Damascus, e.g., R. Menahem Lonzano and R. Hayyim Vital, spoke disparagingly of his unconventional conduct and of his imitation of foreign poetic styles and melodies, acquired it seems, in Arab taverns. His conduct may also account for his many wanderings. In 1587 Israel published his books Zemirot Yisrael and Mesaheket ba-Tevel in Safed. One of his responsa is preserved in manuscript (Oxford, Mich. Add. 66). Subsequently, he served as rabbi in Gaza, where, upon his death, his son Moses succeeded him as rabbi. Though during his youth Israel also wrote secular and love poems, his chief compositions are sacred. These are distinguished by their deep religiosity, by their references to Jewish suffering, and by his yearning for redemption. He learned much from the great Jewish poets of the Spanish-Arabic period, but nevertheless frequently employed original forms and contents. His poems, numbering hundreds—the greater part still in manuscript—are outstanding in both their wealth of language and in their polished style. His poems and piyyutim achieved wide circulation among the various oriental communities and countries and are sung in those synagogues. The Ashkenazi communities also adopted his Sabbath song, written in Aramaic, Yah Ribbon Olam ve-Alemayya ("God of the world, eternity's sole Lord"). Well known, too, is his Ketubbah le-Hag ha-Shavu'ot ("Marriage Contract for Shavuot"), a poetic parody describing the wedding conditions made between Israel and God, read in many oriental communities on Shavuot. The Shabbateans and Frankists highly respected him, mistakenly regarding him as a kabbalist. They were so fond of one of his poems that they made it a hymn.

R. Israel's works are: Zemirot Yisrael (Safed, 1587), 109 poems; second edition (Salonika, 1594); third edition enlarged (Venice, 1599–1600), 346 poems and a scientific edition pointed by A. Avrunin and edited by I. Pris-Horev (1946); Mesaheket ba-Tevel (Safed, 1587), moral instruction in a rhetorical style similar to that of the Behinat Olam of Jedaiah ha-Penini Bedersi; Meimei Yisrael, rhetorical letters with secular and love poems, composed during his youth and appended to the third edition of his Zemirot Yisrael; Keli Mahazik Berakhah (Venice, 1620), laws of grace after meals; Shohatei ha-Yeladim (Amsterdam, 1718), laws of slaughtering in an easy language comprehensible even to children; Pizmonim (1858), 120 poems; She'erit Yisrael (in Mss.), a large collection of poems, many of which have been published by various scholars; Pizei Ohev (Constantinople? 1597?) a commentary on the Book of Job. Some other of his works are known but not extant: Ma'arekhot Yisrael, a commentary to the Torah; Mikveh Yisrael, homilies.