Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday tapped fellow Likud Party lawmaker May Golan for the position of consul general in New York.
Golan was slated to become a minister in charge of advancing women’s rights, but a Knesset vote on Wednesday to approve the move was postponed at the last minute.
The post in New York is widely considered Israel’s third-most senior diplomatic position in the United States after the ambassadorships to Washington and the United Nations.
The previous consul general in New York, Asaf Zamir, a member of opposition leader Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party, resigned in March, citing opposition to the government’s judicial reform initiative.
Golan first entered the public eye as a campaigner against African asylum-seekers and is known for her firebrand rhetoric and staunchly right-wing ideology.
This week, Golan visited New York, touring the United Nations and making a pilgrimage to the Ohel in Queens, N.Y.—the gravesite of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.