Former Italian MP and author Fiamma Nirenstein is Israel’s new ambassador to Italy. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Fiamma Nirenstein, a former member of the Italian parliament, as Israel’s next ambassador to Italy.

Nirenstein, an Italian Jew born in Florence, is a journalist who was elected to the Italian parliament in 2008 as a member of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom party. She headed the parliament’s Committee for the Inquiry into antisemitism.

Considered to be one of the leading European pro-Israel voices, Nirenstein was elected as head of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians in 2011 and made aliyah in 2013. She has published 10 books in Italian and two in English.

“I am happy to accept this mission that the prime minister has set before me, to strengthen relations between Israel and Italy. I promised the prime minister that I would do everything in my ability to strengthen the brave links between the two countries,” Nirenstein said.