Draft:Daniel Meron

Daniel Meron (Hebrew: דניאל מרון; born 13 July 1960) is Deputy Director General for Europe at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as Israel's Ambassador to Czechia between (2017–2021). In December 2023 he was appointed the next Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva.

Biography
Meron was born in 1960 in Melbourne, Australia, as Daniel Miller. His grandfather David Miller was a halutz (pioneer) who emigrated to Israel during the Third Aliyah and was one of the founders of Karkur. His second grandfather, Alexander Sacks, was a Lawyer in Melbourne who, on the eve of the Holocaust, helped Jews escape from Europe and immigrate to Australia. Daniel's parents, Amram and Jacqueline, decided in 1968 to immigrate to Israel with their children, Daniel and Jonathan, and settled in Jerusalem. Daniel studied at Maimon Elementary School and Himmelfarb High School. In his youth, he was active in the Zionist Youth Council for the Soviet Union Jews and in helping new immigrants settle in Jerusalem. In 1978, he enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and served in the Herev Battalion (the "Druze Battalion") whose task was to secure the western section of the border with Lebanon. Daniel was one of the first Officers in the "Raful Boys" program which integrates economically disadvantaged youth into the IDF. After his discharge from the Army, Meron was recruited by Brigadier General Dov Shion as one of the first officers in the IDF Liaison Office to the Egyptian Armed Forces and served in the reserves for 25 years as a Liaison Officer, first on the Egyptian border and then on the Jordanian border. Daniel was released from reserve service with the rank of Major.

Meron graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Law from Bar-Ilan University in 1986 and was admitted to the Israel Bar Association in 1987. He did his legal internship at the District Court of Tel Aviv with Judge Shoshana Berman and at the Beinisch-Adiel law firm in Jerusalem. He received a Master's degree in International law from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2006. Meron participated in the NESA Senior Executive Seminar program of the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. (2013).

Diplomatic career
Meron joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and began the Diplomatic Cadet course in 1987. At the end of the course, he was sent to a three-month internship in the Israeli embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, where he also studied Spanish. Meron served in several positions abroad: Deputy Ambassador of Israel to Cyprus (1990–1993); Deputy Ambassador of Israel to Norway (1993–1995); Counselor for Congressional Affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. (2000–2003); Minister of Congressional Affairs in Washington (2007–2011) and the Israeli Ambassador in the Czech Republic (2017–2021). As the Minister of Congressional Affairs in Washington, he served as the liaison to the United States Congress and was responsible for following political developments in the United States. Between 1997-2000, Meron was seconded from the MFA to the Office of the President of Israel, where he served as a Foreign Policy Advisor to President Ezer Weizman. In this capacity, he assisted in the President's meetings with foreign leaders and state visits overseas, including coordinating the first state visit of an Israeli President to China and the visit of Pope John Paul II to Israel in March 2000.

During his role as Israel's ambassador in Prague, Meron worked to promote relations with Czechia, one of Israel's closest allies in Europe, in the fields of economy, agriculture, medicine, and security. A major political goal for him as ambassador was bringing about Czechia recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. On May 24, 2017, the Israeli Embassy in Prague, with the support of the President of the Czech Republic, held a special event at the Prague Castle in honor of the anniversary of the unification of Jerusalem, and on that same day, a resolution was passed in the Czech Parliament recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. During the almost five years that he served in Prague, Ambassador Meron visited all Regions of the Czech Republic. He also received an Honorary Doctorate in Security Management and Criminalistics from the Police Academy of the Czech Republic (2018).

Meron's positions in the MFA headquarters include: associate legal counsel in the Legal Division (1995–1997); Director of the Department of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (2003–2007); Coordinater for Sustainable Development (2011–2012); Coordinator for the issue of Kidnapped and Missing Persons (2011–2013), Head of the UN and International Organizations Bureau (2013–2017), the MFA's COVID-19 Project Manager (2021–2022), and Deputy Director General for Europe (2022–2024). In March 2022, he initiated the establishment of MFA's MATAT Donation and Coordination Center for Israeli humanitarian aid initiatives to Ukraine.

In December 2023, Meron was appointed as the upcoming head of Israel's permanent delegation to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva (starting Summer 2024).