Liz Truss 'Considering Moving' UK Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

Six months after then-president Donald Trump announced the decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel the US embassy was officially transferred there from Tel Aviv on 14 May, sparking a wave of indignation across the Middle East.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss is allegedly considering emulating Donald Trump’s controversial decision and relocating the British embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to media reports.

Liz Truss informed her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, "about her review of the current location of the British Embassy in Israel" when the two leaders met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, a Downing Street spokesperson was cited by The Telegraph as saying.

מודה לידידתי הטובה, ראשת ממשלת בריטניה ליז טראס, שהודיעה כי היא שוקלת בחיוב את העברת שגרירות בריטניה לירושלים בירת ישראל- אנחנו נמשיך לחזק את השותפות בין המדינות 🇮🇱🇬🇧

צילום: אבי אוחיון, לע״מ pic.twitter.com/0DZB0TGMsl

— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) September 22, 2022

In response, Lapid tweeted to thank his “good friend, British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who announced that she is positively considering moving the British Embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel."

Back in August, during her successful Tory leadership campaign, Truss told the UK’s Conservative Friends of Israel 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 at the time.

The August announcement unleashed a torrent of criticism from former UK diplomats.

In a letter to The Times, Sir Vincent Fean, former consul-general in Jerusalem, ex-Kenyan high commissioner Sir Edward Clay, former Iran envoy Sir Richard Dalton, one-time UN envoy Sir Jeremy Greenstock and Lord Green, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia condemned the pledge made by Truss.

“Moving the British embassy would… preempt the outcome of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians on the basis of international law. To have meaning the law must apply equally to all,” the signatories wrote.

The letter concluded that, " The Two states is British government policy: until that policy is realised, the embassy should stay put.”

Currently, the British embassy in Israel is located in Tel Aviv, similar to virtually all countries except the United States, Honduras and Guatemala.

Ex-POTUS Donald Trump, in a flurry of moves to support Israel, had recognized the country’s claims to the Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War, and moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians consider to be their capital, in 2018. Only Guatemala, Honduras and Kosovo have since followed suit.

Israel had seized the eastern half of the city in the same conflict, declaring it to be its capital. The United Nations has long denounced Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as well as its construction activities in the West Bank.

Protests over Trump’s move resulted in the deaths of dozens of Palestinians. Theresa May, the British Conservative prime minister at the time, criticized the step, saying:

“We disagree with the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital before a final status agreement. We believe it is unhelpful in terms of prospects for peace in the region. The British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it.”

Many Arab leaders also condemned the move, with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri calling it "provocative," and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif describing it as "a day of great shame."