In January 2010 Ratson was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission ( DCM ) of the Embassy of Israel in Côte d'Ivoire , a position that ended prematurely as the country plunged into a Civil War in March 2011 . In an interview he gave to the Israeli daily Ynet on the 14th of January 2011 , several weeks before the Civil War broke , Ratson recounted the reality in the country : '' " The embassy 's economic activity has reached an almost complete standstill , and our focus now is on securing the small community of Israelis that is left in the country " '' . On 9 April 2011 , two days before the arrest of Ivorian President Gbagbo , which marked the end of the civil war , Ratson and the remaining three Israeli diplomats were evacuated to Ghana by United Nations UNOCI forces in an operation commanded by Jordanian UN forces . Following the temporary closure of the Embassy of Israel in Cote d'Ivoire , in April 2011 , Ratson was appointed as Director of Public Relations of the Embassy of Israel in France , a mission which lasted until August 2015 . A farewell interview with Ratson at the end of his diplomatic term in France quoted him mentioning the Toulouse and Montauban shootings on 19 March 2012 , as a pivotal moment . Reportage by Times of Israel journalist Elhanan Miller from 30 May 2013 , quotes Ratson saying that the assassination of three Jewish children and a parent at Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse by the young french of Algerian origin Mohammed Merah , propelled him to focus his work on Interfaith dialogue , notably between the French Muslim community and Israel
Toulouse and Montauban shootings
Toulouse and Montauban shootings
Elad Ratson