Ambassador Gideon Rafael, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, is stated to take on the top Israel Foreign Ministry post of director-general, it is reported here today. He will succeed Arieh Levavi, who was appointed yesterday as Ambassador to Switzerland.
Mr. Levavi, after seven years as director-general, reportedly asked for the less strenuous post in Bern. The present Ambassador to Switzerland, Schmuel Bentzur, is returning to Jerusalem to become the deputy director-general in the Foreign Ministry.
It was also reported today that the Cabinet decided to appoint Katriel Katz as head of the Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial in Jerusalem depicting the Nazi holocaust. Mr. Katz, one-time Consul General in New York, was Israel’s Ambassador to Moscow when the Soviet Union ousted him in June, after breaking diplomatic relations with Israel.
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