Shlomo Ben-Ami is the former foreign minister of Israel. He also served as the minister of public security, as Israel’s first ambassador to Spain, on Israel’s delegation to the Madrid Peace Conference and on the Israeli delegation at the Multilateral Talks on Refugees in the Middle East held in Ottawa, Canada. Prior to his career in government, Ben-Ami created the Curiel Center for International Studies at Tel Aviv University, which he headed until 1996. In the same year he was elected to the Knesset, where he served as a member of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. He taught at the History Department of Tel Aviv University, and in 1982-1986 he headed the Graduate School of History at Tel Aviv University. In 1986 he became a full Professor and assumed The Elias Sourasky Chair for Spanish and Latin American Studies.