Persona Grata: A Podcast on Israeli Diplomacy

On this episode of Persona Grata, we’ll meet the people behind Israel's humanitarian missions which have come to the aid of more than 140 countries and thousands of people since Israel's founding.

From a devastating typhoon in the Philippines, to an earthquake in Haiti which killed over 200,000, to assisting Syrian refugees on the Greek Island of Lesbos, here's how Israel is making sure that no matter, how far, no one is left behind.

On this World Humanitarian Day, we salute the thousands of men and women around the world continue to place themselves in harm's way to create a better and safer world for all.

From the Arab Spring in 2011, to the US Presidential election in 2016, to clap backs on Twitter between countries like Israel and Iran in 2018, world leaders, MFAs and diplomats have realized that what they share online can shape events offline.

According to Twiplomacy, 93% of all UN member states have an official presence on the platform and between May 2017 and May 2018, world leaders sent more than 250,000 original tweets. It takes a lot less than 280 characters to realize that digital diplomacy is here to stay.

This special episode of Persona Grata features Yiftah Curiel who heads the Israel MFA's Digital Diplomacy department which manages more than 30 social media channels in 5 languages including English, Arabic, Farsi, Spanish, Russian and Hebrew and Ilan Manor, a PHD student at Oxford University specializing in Digital Diplomacy.

Ilan and Yiftach sat down to discuss the challenges and opportunities for diplomacy in the digital age and what the future holds for the ever evolving field that is digital diplomacy.

Israel's relationship with the African continent began in the years following Israel's independence. When many African countries including Rwanda established independence in the early 1960s, Israel which was a young country at the time, viewed these countries as partners and was eager to share its experiences in development and capacity building.

More than six decades later, ties between Israel and the African continent continue to reach new heights.

Earlier this week (Monday, April 1), Israel and Rwanda made history with the inauguration of a new Israeli embassy in Rwanda. While Israel and Rwanda re-established diplomatic ties in 1994, the inauguration of the embassy marks the first time that Israel will maintain a resident ambassador in Kigali, Rwanda's capital.

The inauguration of the Israeli embassy in Kigali, brings the total number of Israeli embassies in Sub-Saharan Africa to eleven.

We sat down with Israel's new ambassador to Rwanda, Ron Adam, to discuss the historic milestone and the potential for Israel-Rwanda ties.

On this episode of Persona Grata, we'll hear from the trailblazing women at the center of Israel's diplomacy efforts, who are challenging stereotypes, combating violence against women, and creating the conditions for a more equal world.

While women in Israel and around the world continue to break glass ceilings, there is still a lot of work to be done. If we wish to bring about true and genuine gender equality, we have to start at the source by educating the next generation of men and women.

This episode features Avivit Bar Ilan, Head of Bureau at the International Organizations Division at the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Shelly Hugler Livne, Director of the Israel MFA's cadet program, and Shuly Kurzon Van Gelder, the director of Planning, Evaluation, and Partnerships at Mashav, Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation.

With 88 foreign embassies in Israel, a diplomatic community which numbers 5,000, and hundreds of diplomatic visits to Israel by prime ministers, presidents, and ministers annually, there's no such thing as a quiet day for the Israel MFA's Protocol and Official Guest Bureau.

The Bureau handles everything from hotel bookings, to official ceremonies for the world's most powerful leaders, to catering to foreign diplomats daily needs. The man behind the MFA's one stop shop for diplomats and dignitaries? Ambassador Meron Reuben, the Chief of State Protocol for the State of Israel.

So what happens when a foreign diplomat's staff are caught smuggling weapons and how can cultural etiquette prevent diplomatic faux pas? All this and more on this week's episode of Persona Grata.

You know that saying big things come in small packages? That is definitely the case when it comes to Israel and Singapore, two relatively small countries with a lot to offer. So what do two countries with very different cultures, languages, and geography have in common? A lot more than you might think. 

As Israel and Singapore gear up to celebrate 50 years of Independence, we sat down with Simona Halperin, Israel's ambassador to Singapore to discuss the historic and growing cooperation between the two countries.