Reuven Merhav
Reuven Merhav (born February 9, 1936 in Tel Aviv ) is a former Israeli diplomat.
Life
He was born shortly after his parents immigrated to Palestine from Germany . Merhav studied Islamic Studies and Arabic and has worked in the secret service and the foreign service abroad for 20 years since 1967, including in Ethiopia , Kenya , Iran , Lebanon and Hong Kong . In 1988 he was appointed Director General (State Secretary) of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, where he negotiated the Taba Agreement with Egypt for Israel's Clearance of the Sinai Peninsula for Peace (1989), the political basis for Operation Solomon to save the Jewish community in Ethiopia and promoted the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China to completion. From 1991-1993 he was Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Admission, focusing on admitting the Ethiopian Jewish community. Since 2005 he has been active in the Association of Israelis of Central European Origin, where he is Chairman of the Presidium.
He is Vice President of the Claims Conference and a member of the Negotiating Committee. In addition to other public and academic functions, Merhav has been a Fellow of the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies since 1991 . In this capacity he was co-author of the text "The Role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in a Future Permanent Status Settlement in Jerusalem" and was brought in in July 2000 by the then Prime Minister Barak as an advisor to the Camp David negotiations .
Julius Josef HaCohen Markowitz, Merhav's grandfather, was deported from Breslau to Theresienstadt in April 1942 and was killed there in November of the same year. In August 1991, Merhav held a symbolic funeral for him from the block in the camp leading to the mass grave. In November 2012 Merhav laid three Stolpersteine in Berlin, in memory of his grandmother Elsa Adler (Elias) and her two siblings, Gertrud and Alfred. Elsa was deported from Berlin to Auschwitz and died there. Other relatives, including Julius' daughter and son-in-law, two of his grandchildren, his sisters and some of their relatives were sent to Auschwitz and were also killed there.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://www.claimscon.org/2014/07/claims-conference-board-of-directors-charts-future-course-at-annual-meeting/
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merhav, Reuven |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Israeli diplomat, Islamic scholar |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 9, 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tel Aviv |