The smooth functioning of the new Israeli Embassy in Cairo was threatened today by a dispute between Ambassador-designate Eliahu Ben-Elissar and Foreign Ministry employes over who should be the envoy’s personal secretary. Ben-Elissar insists on Fanny Ashkenazi, his private secretary for the past seven years.
But the general assembly of Foreign Ministry employes voted overwhelmingly today to demand that he select a new secretary from among qualified Ministry personnel. The employes claimed that about 15 secretaries at the Ministry are about to be dismissed for economy reasons and therefore every job opening is important. They rejected a compromise proposal to send Ms. Ashkenazi to Cairo as a staff member of the Prime Minister’s Office to which she was credited when Ben-Elissar was Director General of that bureau. They also insisted that the Ambassador’s private chauffeur in Cairo must be a Foreign Ministry worker. Ben-Elissar, who will go to Cairo next week, has yet to name the economic and press attaches for the Cairo legation. (By Gil Sedan)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
