The Israeli cabinet approved Sunday the nomination of Eli Barnavi, a professor of history at Tel Aviv University, as ambassador to France, Barak's office told AFP.
Barnavi was hand-picked by Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben Ami for the post, sources close to Ben Ami said.
There were no further details about the nomination.
In 1992 Barnavi published an historical atlas on Jewish people.
Barnavi is to replace Eliahu Ben Elisar who died in Paris of a heart attack in mid-August, shortly after being told by Prime Minister Ehud Barak that his time as ambassador to France would soon be over.
Barak has been working to end the "Levy era" at the heart of Israeli diplomacy and recently fired Eitan Ben-Tsur, the director-general of the foreign minister, and a close ally of Ben Ami's predecessor, David Levy.
Levy switched from the rightwing Likud party, for whom he served as foreign minister under former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
From July 1999, he continued to carry out that function for the Labor leader Barak, with his close supporters, particularly Ben-Tsur and Ben-Elissar – JERUSALEM (AFP)
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