The ministry's role is to implement Israel's foreign policy, and promote economic, cultural, and scientific relations with other countries.

In the early months of 1948, when the government of the future State of Israel was being formed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was housed in a building in the abandoned Templer village of Sarona, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Moshe Sharett, formerly head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, was placed in charge of foreign relations,[2] with Walter Eytan as Director General.

In November 2013, the longest labor dispute in the history of the Foreign Ministry's workers union came to an end when diplomats signed an agreement that would increase their salaries and improve their working conditions.

[4] In October 2000, Morocco, Tunisia and the Sultanate of Oman closed the Israeli offices in their countries and suspended relations with Israel.