 Giladi was born Naeim Khalasch () on 18 March 1926 to an Iraqi Jewish family and later lived in Israel and the United States.Giladi describes his family as, "a large and important" family named "Haroon" who had settled in Iraq after the Babylonian exile.According to Giladi, his family had owned 50,000 acres (200 km²) devoted to rice, dates and Arabian horses.