The London-based Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) lobby group said the British government “already owns land in west Jerusalem” for the new embassy in ‘Israel’ which would potentially be moved from Tel Aviv.
Last month, UK’s Prime Minister Liz Truss said that she is weighing the relocation of Britain’s Israel embassy in Tel Aviv to the occupied city of Jerusalem – a decision that would follow former US President Donald Trump’s provocative move.
Truss told Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid of the move during a meeting at the United Nations summit in New York City on September 21.
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.
During her campaign for the leadership of the British Conservative Party, Truss told CFI 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.
“Already owns land for embassy in Jerusalem”
But nonetheless, a briefing note, sent to pro-Israel Conservative members of parliament and circulated by the lobby group as part of a campaign in support of Truss’s controversial decision, suggests that the relocate of the British embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be “a bureaucratic one that recognises the reality on the ground”.
The note, seen by Middle East Eye (MEE), was sent by James Gurd, the director of CFI, to MPs, setting out the case for Jerusalem along with a “suggested casework response” for MPs to send to constituents.
The documents were sent last Saturday on the eve of the CFI-hosted event in Birmingham to mark the opening of the Conservative party conference.
MEE has seen the documents and published them both in full.
The briefing note says, “It is understood that the UK government already owns land in west Jerusalem for an embassy to be built there” – a revelation which implies that Liz Truss could be ready to set the move in motion the moment it is given the go-ahead.
The casework response – the text of a proposed letter for MPs to send to concerned constituents – says that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be “righting a historical anomaly”.
It also says, “It has long been customary for sovereign countries to choose their capital city and for Embassies and other diplomatic offices to be located there. Israel should be no different in this regard.”
The CFI briefing note claims that the move “would not preclude the Palestinians from establishing their capital in East Jerusalem in the future, nor would it alter the UK’s longstanding view that the future status of the city is an issue that must be negotiated between the Israelis and Palestinians in bilateral negotiations”.
It also states, “Under any realistic two-state solution, west Jerusalem would remain under Israeli rule – this has been long-accepted in peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians over decades.”
It notes that the United States has recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as well as “Taiwan, Nauru, Honduras, Guatemala, and Kosovo”.
“Huge Zionist and huge supporter of Israel”
On Sunday, Truss and other cabinet ministers attended the CFI-hosted event, telling the audience that she is a “huge Zionist and huge supporter of Israel” and pledged that she would “take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength”.
Addressing the reception, Truss said, “In this world – where we are facing threats from authoritarian regimes who don’t believe in freedom and democracy – two free democracies, the UK and Israel, need to stand shoulder to shoulder and we will be even closer in the future.”
Speaking at Sunday’s CFI event, Jake Berry, the Conservative party chairman, pledged his “unwavering commitment as chairman of the party that we will continue to build strong relationships with the state of Israel and to support it in its fight to ensure that it remains safe and that the capital in Jerusalem is the home to our new embassy.”
Robert Jenrick, the health minister, also alluded to UK government-owned land where an embassy could be built.
Jenrick said, “We have a site in Jerusalem there waiting to go. It is time we took responsibility and built that embassy and recognised that the true capital of the state of Israel is obviously Jerusalem.”
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl and Israeli ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely attended the event, urging Truss to proceed with the embassy move.
The Board’s President told the audience,” We are really hopeful that the government is going to move the embassy, like America, to Jerusalem – the capital of Israel.”
Hotovel also suggested that a “review” of the British embassy’s location ought to be pursued.
She told the packed event, ”Nothing can be more significant to show the friendship between Israel and the UK than this step.”
”There is just one capital to the UK, and that is London. There is just one capital to Israel, Jerusalem,” she continued.
“For the last two thousand years, it’s been Jerusalem, always our spiritual home. We can’t ignore the historic truth,” Hotovel said, claiming that the US decision to relocate its embassy to occupied Jerusalem “promoted peace.”
The CFI “casework response” supplies a draft letter for MPs to send to constituents including the wording that “I welcome Prime Minister Liz Truss’s pledge to review the location of the British Embassy in Israel,” according to MEE.
A spokesman for CFI dismissed a suggestion from MEE that the organisation was lobbying Tory MPs in favour of the move, claiming “it’s a one-page briefing note of the kind that we send out on any issue.”
CFI chairman Eric Pickles told MEE, “Moving the embassy is entirely compatible with a two-state solution and makes no decision about the final boundaries. This is a very moderate move.”
