RAPHAEL, GIDEON

RAPHAEL, GIDEON (1913– ), Israeli civil servant. Raphael was born in Berlin and immigrated to Ereẓ Israel in 1934. Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel he served in the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, and after its establishment he joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and was a member of its Israeli delegation to the United Nations until 1953. In September of that year he returned to Jerusalem on his appointment as head of the Department of the Middle East and of United Nations Affairs in the Foreign Ministry. In 1957 he was appointed ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, and from 1960 to 1965 was a deputy director-general of the Foreign Office. From September 1965 to April 1966, Raphael served as Israel's representative to the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva, and in February 1967 was appointed permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations. In 1968 he was appointed director-general of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1972 until January 1974   he served as senior adviser to the foreign minister, when he was appointed ambassador to England and Israel's first non-resident ambassador to Ireland. Upon his return to Israel in 1977 he was appointed political adviser to the foreign minister, retiring in 1978. In 1981 he published his memoirs Destination Peace.