Former Czech ambassador to Israel dies at 71
Jan 24, 2012, 6:29 PM
PRAGUE (AP) – Czech diplomat Milos Pojar, who helped re-establish diplomatic ties with Israel after they had been severed by Czechoslovakia’s Communist rulers, has died. He was 71.
The Foreign Ministry announced his death Tuesday, but gave no further details. Czech public television said Pojar died Monday in a Prague hospital.
Pojar was born in 1940 in the capital Prague, and became his country’s the first ambassador to Tel Aviv in 1990. Communist Czechoslovakia had severed diplomatic ties with Israel in line with Soviet-bloc policies in 1967. Pojar served as ambassador ’till 1994.
Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said Pojar’s death was “a great loss for the Czech foreign service.”
Pojar’s son Tomas is the current Czech ambassador to Israel.
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