AMBASSADOR-DESIGNATE Ilan Fluss presented his credentials as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Israel to the Philippines to President Duterte at Malacañang Palace on October 20.
Fluss formerly served as deputy chief of mission at the Israeli Embassy in Manila from 1995 to 1998.
“I am honored to be back…this time as the ambassador of the State of Israel,” Fluss shared. “I am excited to take on this new role in the Philippines as my first assignment in this capacity.”
He noted the very warm and friendly relations between Israel and the Philippines, which was strengthened further by the historic visit of Duterte to Israel in 2018. Since then significant developments have been achieved in the fields of economy, agriculture and tourism, among others.
“Mr. President, innovation and technologies are not the future: they are the present, and the development of more cooperation in this field is one of my main goals for the years ahead,” the ambassador explained. “The goal of our partnership is to create sustainable development, improve lives, create jobs, generate income, [as well as] enable the transfer of relevant know-how and technologies.”
Fluss hopes to make substantial contributions to the furthering of the countries’ friendship and partnership—including to the continued work toward the prosperity of the two nations.
The ambassador was born in December 1965 in Haifa, Israel. After serving in the Israeli navy for five years, he graduated from the University of Haifa with a degree in psychology and Israel studies, as well as a Masters of Business Administration title from the University of Derby. Fluss joined the foreign service in 1994 where, since then, he represented Israel in a variety of capacities.
He had served successively as spokesperson and Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Israel in the Hague, Netherlands (1998 to 2000), served in the Ministry’s Asian Division (2000 to 2004), acting envoy and later on, as deputy chief of mission in Pretoria, South Africa. (While being there, he was also responsible for Israel’s diplomatic relations with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Swaziland.)
Fluss was counselor at the Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN (2006), director for Policy Planning and External Relations, then later on as deputy head of MASHAV (Israel’s development agency, from 2009 to 2016), special envoy for the Bureau of the Director-General (2016 to 2018), and eventually as the deputy head of the Economic Division at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2018 to 2021).
He and his wife Gila have four children.