Ambassador To The United Nations
On June 24, 2008, Shalev was nominated by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as Israel's new ambassador to the United Nations, replacing Dan Gillerman. Livni's associates said: "The UN is an arena that requires other skills in addition to diplomatic know-how. The fact that she is a woman, and a jurist respected throughout the world, with a great deal of public experience, makes her the best candidate". Livni was criticized for the pick, but responded, "It was important to me to appoint a woman to represent Israel in such an important place.... Professor Shalev is internationally respected; she has fulfilled many public positions in Israel".
On September 8, she presented her diplomatic credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and became the first woman to serve as Israel's ambassador to the UN. She said that: "as a woman, a professor and above all as a proud Israeli, I am happy for the opportunity given me to contribute to the state in the complex international arena of the United Nations".
Shalev was Israel's Ambassador to the UN until October 2010. She is now president of Ono Academic College.
Read more about this topic: Gabriela Shalev
Famous quotes containing the words ambassador to the, ambassador to, ambassador, united and/or nations:
“I would like to be the first ambassador to the United States from the United States.”
—Barbara Mikulski (b. 1936)
“I would like to be the first ambassador to the United States from the United States.”
—Barbara Mikulski (b. 1936)
“An ambassador is not simply an agent; he is also a spectacle.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“There was no speculation so promising, or at the same time so praisworthy, as the United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“The customs of some savage nations might, perchance, be profitably imitated by us, for they at least go through the semblance of casting their slough annually; they have the idea of the thing, whether they have the reality or not.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)