Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has dropped a controversial plan by his predecessor to move the U.K.’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Downing Street announced.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss kicked off a review into whether Britain should follow the decision of the Donald Trump administration to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv.
Speaking at a Conservative Friends of Israel hustings held during the summer leadership race, Sunak said there was a “very strong case” for moving the embassy and formally recognizing Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel, but conceded it might be easier said than done.
Asked Thursday whether the government was still considering the relocation, a No.10 spokeswoman said: “It has been looked at. There are no plans to move the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv.”
Moving the embassy would be interpreted as Britain recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, despite both Israelis and Palestinians claiming it is their capital.
A Palestinian legal group, the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, warned in a letter to Truss last month that it would seek a judicial review if the government went ahead with the plan.
The move had be condemned by cross-party lawmakers including former Foreign Secretary and Conservative peer William Hague, who argued the move “would be a breach of UN Security Council resolutions by one of its permanent members, break a longstanding commitment to work for two states for Israelis and Palestinians, and align Britain in foreign affairs with Donald Trump … rather than the whole of the rest of the world.”
The former U.S. president moved the U.S. embassy in Israel in 2018 — a move which was condemned by the British government at the time. Only three other UN member states — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — have embassies in Jerusalem.
