Two United Nations experts have strongly slammed UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s suggestion that she is considering moving the British embassy in ‘Israel’ from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, stressing they see “no valid reason why a similar move by the United Kingdom now needs to be ‘reviewed’.”
Truss told Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid she is weighing the relocation of the UK’s Israel embassy during a meeting at the United Nations summit in New York City on Wednesday, The Telegraph reported, a decision that would follow former US President Donald Trump’s provocative move.
An unnamed UK government spokeswoman said Truss informed Lapid “about her review of the current location of the British Embassy in Israel,” according to news reports.
In response, Lapid tweeted on Thursday his thanks to the British leader for considering the move. “We will continue to strengthen the partnership between the countries,” he said.
In 2017, former US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy to the occupied Jerusalem in May 2018, prompting criticism from the Palestinians, most Muslim-majority countries, and many states in Europe, as they concerned that it would undermine prospects for a two-state solution to the so-called “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The UK prime minister at the time, Theresa May, criticized Trump’s move. Truss, however, told the UK’s Conservative Friends of Israel last month, before she became prime minister, that she would review the UK’s decision to remain in Tel Aviv if she became the British leader.
“I understand the importance and sensitivity of the location of the British Embassy in Israel. I’ve had many conversations with my good friend Prime Minister Yair Lapid on this topic,” she said.
In a three-page footnoted letter sent to UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Tuesday, Michael Lynk, who served as UN special rapporteur focused on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 until May, and Ardi Imseis, who worked for 12 years at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), have condemned Truss’s suggestion, saying “no doubt Prime Minister Liz Truss will ask you to take charge of the view she promised to the Conservative Friends of Israel.”
“We write, as friends of the United Kingdom to say that there is nothing to review: the British Embassy should stay in Tel Aviv unless and until there is a comprehensive peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians with Jerusalem as the shared capital of the two states.”
The United Kingdom, they write, has long supported international law and UN Security Council resolutions which have established that Israel is prohibited from asserting claims of sovereignty over any part of the Palestinian territories it occupies.
Elsewhere in the world, they note that the UK has endorsed the principle that states cannot annex conquered territory, including in relation to Russia’s illegal invasion and occupation of Crimea and Ukraine.
“We see no valid reason why a similar move by the United Kingdom now needs to be ‘reviewed’. Doing so would not be consistent with the United Kingdom’s public assertion that it stands firm on respect for international law,” they write.
