Israel appoints its first female ambassador to Egypt

Amira Oron, who heads Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Economic Relations ‎Department, will take up the position next summer

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday announced that Amira Oron has been selected to serve as Israel’s ambassador to Egypt, the first woman to hold the position.

Oron, a senior member of the ministry, has previously served in Cairo and Ankara, and headed the Foreign Ministry’s Egypt division. She currently heads the ministry’s Middle East Economic Relations ‎Department.

If the government approves her appointment, she will replace the current ambassador to Egypt, David Govrin, next summer.

In 2017, Govrin and his staff returned to Israel for eight months due to unspecified security threats. Upon their return to Egypt, they resumed work from the envoy’s suburban Cairo home.

This Sept. 9, 2015 image released on the official Facebook page of the Israeli embassy in Egypt shows the sign posted outside during the re-opening of the embassy in Cairo, Egypt, four years after an Egyptian mob ransacked the site where the mission was previously located (Israeli embassy in Egypt official Facebook page via AP)

On September 9, 2011, several thousand protesters forcibly entered the Israeli embassy in Giza, Cairo, after breaking down a perimeter wall to the compound.

The protests began in response to the inadvertent killing of five Egyptian security guards by IDF soldiers during an attempt to catch terrorists who had ambushed and killed eight Israelis along the Israel-Egypt border.

Following the intervention of the White House, Egypt sent commando forces into the embassy complex to rescue the Israeli staff. The attack prompted nearly the entire embassy staff to evacuate in one of the worst crises to hit the two countries’ relations.

Egyptian protesters demolish a concrete wall protecting the Israeli embassy in Cairo, September 9, 2011 (photo credit: AP/Amr Nabil) — Egyptian protesters demolish a concrete wall protecting the Israeli embassy in Cairo, September 9, 2011. ( AP/Amr Nabil)

Egypt was the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, in 1979, but relations have always been frosty due to popular Egyptian support for Palestinians.

In recent years the two countries have enjoyed closer intelligence and security ties over their shared enmity toward Islamist terror groups and other common regional concerns.

Egypt is playing a key role in attempts to bring an end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas, as well as Palestinian reconciliation talks.