In an event held by the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) in Birmingham earlier this month, Liz Truss proclaimed that she is a “huge Zionist” and “huge supporter of Israel”. This cringe-worthy fawning over Israel was followed by her revealing her intention to look into moving the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Such a move would certainly add an air of legitimacy to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
By wishing to relocate the existing Tel Aviv embassy to the highly contested city of Jerusalem, the UK government is also at positive risk of breaking international law, showing complicity in the illegal occupation of Palestine, and promoting an apartheid state being executed by the Israeli government and military.
Prominent Tories have warned Truss against making such a move
Former British Foreign Secretary William Hague advised Truss to “not move the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem” and warned that it would “align Britain in foreign affairs with Donald Trump and three small states rather than the whole of the rest of the world”. [1]
Moreover, the former Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan stated in a letter to the Financial Times,
“If pursued to its conclusion, moving the embassy would destroy the UK’s reputation for respecting international law, and it would undermine our standing in the world.” [2]
In addition, the Muslim Council of Britain’s Secretary General, Zara Mohammed, has stated in an open letter to the Prime Minister,
https://twitter.com/MuslimCouncil/status/1577953229547225088“As Muslims, we have a fundamental concern about tensions in our religion’s third holiest site; as Britons, we remain disturbed about what our country’s reputation and ability to credibly uphold international law. We would therefore urge against making any such decision to move the embassy in the interest of national peace and security.” [3]
The pro-Zionist stance being promoted by Liz Truss is worrying for the thousands of Palestinians and Palestinian rights activists in the UK, who will be marginalised in the discourse surrounding UK-Israel relations. The normalisation of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine and suppressive policies towards Palestinians threatens the integrity of the UK and its commitment to abiding by international law.
The human rights organisation Amnesty International states that “Israel’s discriminatory system of governing Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) constituted apartheid, a crime under international law.” [4] Therefore, the UK is as risk of being complicit in the violation of human rights.
We recently witnessed sheer double standards being promoted by the UK government when it encouraged support for the Ukrainian side in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war in schools and institutions, even going so far as to praise Ukraine’s forces for their ‘resistance’ and ‘bravery’. Such privilege is not awarded to Palestinians who have been subjugated to violent occupation by Israel for decades, and in which successive UK governments have been complicit. Unlike the bake sales and events raising money for Ukraine which have been welcomed, students who have expressed solidarity with Palestine are suppressed and discouraged from voicing their concerns. [5]
The UK government continues to benefit from geo-political relations with Israel through providing military training, export of arms equipment that is used to attack and surveil Palestinians, as well as other weapons and intelligence ties. [6]
To combat the British government’s apparent desire to relocate its existing embassy to Jerusalem, the MCB have launched a campaign calling on the community to raise this issue with their MPs and to lobby the Prime Minister against moving the embassy to Jerusalem!
In a few clicks, you can send a letter to your local MP here!
Source: Islam21c
Notes
[1] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-embassy-israel-jerusalem-move-william-hague-condemns
[2] https://www.ft.com/content/5d4f9455-cad2-43d8-bcd3-de5b038cb67b
[3] https://mcb.org.uk/mcb-updates/mcb-writes-to-prime-minister-over-recent-statements-on-moving-british-embassy-to-jerusalem/
[4] https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/
[5] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220727-survey-exposes-uk-governments-hypocrisy-over-ukraine-and-palestine/
[6] https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/how-the-uk-military-supports-israels-oppression-of-palestinians/
