New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Monday that he will visit ‘Israel’ next year for its “landmark 75th birthday.”
Speaking at an annual business lunch hosted in London by the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) lobby group and attended by three former prime ministers – Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May- Sunak said, “Next year I will visit Israel on what will be its 75th birthday and landmark year – after so many years of struggle – and also success,” according to a report in the UK Jewish News.
The prime minister said ‘Israel’ was now at the forefront of “remarkable achievements” in technology which he claimed were “something which Israel’s detractors in the BDS movement would do away with.”
Sunak added, “I will fight very hard for the security of the Jewish state.” “But it has also never been more important. It is a friendship which makes all of our systems healthier.”
Sunak noted that the UK will vote against a forthcoming resolution at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) relating to the International Court of Justice along with “our allies.”
The resolution requests an advisory opinion on Israeli “occupation, settlement and annexation” in the West Bank, a move branded “outrageous” by Israel’s ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely in her speech at the lunch.
While his predecessor Truss had floated the idea of the UK relocating its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a spokeswoman for Sunak said last month that there were “no plans” to do so.
Truss’s proposal drew broad criticism, with ambassadors to London from every Arab country reportedly penning a letter urging her not to go ahead with the idea.
In the past, Sunak had expressed support for such a move, telling a Conservative Friends of Israel event in August that Jerusalem was “indisputably the historic capital” of Israel and that there was a “very strong case” for moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
“It’s something I’d like to do,” he said at the time.
But Sunak also acknowledged “sensitivities” over the issue, saying, “If it was that easy, it would have been done by now.”
