About the Australian Embassy in Israel 

Ambassador Paul Griffiths

Ambassador Paul Griffiths commenced as Australian Ambassador to Israel in September 2020. Mr Griffiths is a senior career officer of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). He has most recently worked in the private sector for US tech firm Palantir Technologies in London. Prior to that, from 2016-2019, he was Minister-Counsellor and head of the Political Branch at the Australian Embassy Washington.

Mr Griffiths has also worked overseas as head of the Political team in Jakarta (Australia’s largest embassy; 2009-2012), and in trade and economic positions in Manila (2002-2005) and Seoul (1996-1999).

In Canberra, Mr Griffiths’s other senior roles at DFAT have included head of Budget Branch and head of Secretariat of the Functional and Efficiency Review, and a number of South-East Asia policy roles, in particular Indonesia political and trade positions. He was the head of the Multilateral Development Branch at AusAID where he managed Australia’s commitments to multilateral development banks and UN organisations, and was Senior Advisor to the G20 and APEC Secretariat at The Treasury.

Mr Griffiths holds a Bachelor of Arts/Law from the University of Tasmania, a Masters in International Trade and Finance from Deakin University, and has completed executive leadership courses, including at Harvard University. He has achieved professional competency in Indonesian and Korean.

Mr Griffiths is keen to further build the Australia-Israel bilateral relationship during his term in Israel. He sees great scope to do more to link Australia to Israel's world-class start-up ecosystem – including through the Australian Government's Landing Pad, located in Tel Aviv's SOSA innovation hub.

 

Contact information

Address: 

Discount Bank Tower  (28th Floor)

23 Yehuda Halevi St   (Corner Herzl St)                       

Tel Aviv 6513601

Postal address: PO Box 29108 Tel Aviv 6129001

Tel:  +972 3 6935000. 

Email: [email protected]  

Opening hours

Mon -Thurs: 08:00 -12:30 and 13:00 -16:30 

Fri: 08:00 to 13:00 

Visa Section

Telephone (for genuine emergencies only):  (03) 6935025

Inquiries/information:  Please refer to the visa/citizenship information on our website and the website of the Department of Home Affairs.  You may also contact our Global Service Centre in Australia on +61 2 61960196.

Email: [email protected]. When your email is received by our office, you will receive an autoreply.   Please read it carefully.   We will send a manual/human reply only where we believe it is appropriate to do so, such as genuine emergencies.  Usually within two work days.

Entry to the Visa, Immigration and Citizenship Section is by appointment only.   Appointments are given in exeptional circumstances.  In most cases we may be able to provide the requested information or assistance through our websites or by email if we believe it is apppropriate to do so.   

 

Public Holidays 2022 -  The Embassy will be closed on:

 

• Friday 15 April                         Good Friday

• Monday 18 April                      Easter Monday      

• Friday 22 April                         Second day of Passover                                                    

• Thursday 5 May                       Independence Day                          

• Monday 26 September        1st Day of Rosh Hashana                   

• Tuesday 27 September        2nd Day of Rosh Hashana                                                         

• Wednesday  5 October          Yom Kippur                     

• Monday 10 October                Succot

• Monday 17 October                Succot (Last Day)         

• Monday 26  December           Boxing Day

• Tuesday 27 December           Christmas Day (in lieu)

• Wednesday 28 December     Additional DFAT Holiday 

• Thursday 29 December         Additional DFAT holiday    

• Friday 30 December               Additional DFAT holiday