Israel will have an ambassador to Turkey for the first time since 2018, after the cabinet on Sunday authorized Irit Lilian to fill the position.
The move comes as Israel and Turkey have been moving toward full normalization.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the appointment “an important step in mending relations with Turkey, which we have been working on over the past year.”
“Last week in New York, I met with President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan,” he said. “We instructed our teams to continue working on upgrading our diplomatic, economic and tourism ties.”
The meeting between the Israeli and Turkish leaders took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month and was the first of its kind since 2008. Lapid asked Erdogan to help secure the release of Israeli civilians held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, as well as the bodies of two soldiers. Israeli sources also said Erdogan plans to visit Israel.
הממשלה אישרה היום את מינויה של השגרירה החדשה בטורקיה, אירית ליליאן. זהו עוד צעד חשוב בתיקון היחסים עם טורקיה שעליו אנחנו עובדים בשנה האחרונה. בשבוע שעבר נפגשתי בניו יורק עם הנשיא ארדואן, הנחינו את הצוותים שלנו להמשיך לעבוד על שידרוג היחסים המדיניים, הכלכליים והתיירותיים.
— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) October 2, 2022
The new title for Lilian, who was chargé d’affaires in Ankara, was announced last month.
Israel-Turkey relations reached their lowest point in 2010 in the wake of the Mavi Marmara raid, in which IDF commandos boarded a ship aiming to break the blockade on Gaza. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, the commandos killed nine armed activists from an organization affiliated with Erdogan.
In recent years, Ankara made overtures to Jerusalem, which President Isaac Herzog accepted, followed by Lapid as foreign minister, rebuilding ties between the countries.
Lapid's EU-Israel effort
Lapid plans to participate in the first EU-Israel Association Council in a decade in Brussels on Monday, via video link. Intelligence Minister Elazar Stern will represent Israel in person.
“We have been working all year to relaunch it,” Lapid said at the cabinet meeting. “The council will produce economic agreements and cooperation in technology, trade, and research and development that will jump-start the Israeli economy and lower the cost of living.”
“The Council will produce economic agreements and cooperation in technology, trade, and research & development that will jumpstart the Israeli economy and lower the cost of living.”
Yair Lapid
The high-level dialogue between Israel and the EU has not convened since 2012. The EU announced the meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council in July.
The joint statement for the council is still in the works, as it must be reached by consensus among EU member states. Ireland, Sweden and Belgium, among others, have long been resistant to holding a council meeting because of the conflict with the Palestinians and would be likely to want language referring to those issues, while Hungary, the Czech Republic and others may be more reluctant to do so.
Israel canceled the 2013 EU-Israel Association Council to protest the EU’s decision to differentiate between settlements and the rest of Israel in all agreements, and that remains a sore point between Jerusalem and Brussels.
In recent years, several EU states blocked further council meetings from being held, first due to Operation Protective Edge in 2014 and then to protest Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. Some states tried to dangle a council meeting before Israel as a reason to make progress toward a two-state solution.
Earlier this year, EU High Commissioner for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said a council meeting “is a good occasion to engage with Israel” about the Palestinians.