LONDON (Dispatches) – The UK’s Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National parties have told Middle East Eye they oppose moving the British embassy in the Israeli-occupied territories to Al-Quds, following Prime Minister Liz Truss’s controversial pledge to review its current location in Tel Aviv.
Senior Conservatives earlier this week also called for the embassy to be moved to Al-Quds at an event organized by Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), a pro-Zionist lobby group, at the ruling party’s annual conference in Birmingham.
Speaking at the event, Jake Berry, the Conservative Party chairman, pledged his “unwavering commitment… to build strong relationships with Israel and to support it in its fight to ensure that it remains safe and that the capital in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) is the home to our new embassy”.
Truss was among a number of ministers who attended the event, telling those present she was a “huge Zionist and huge supporter of Israel”.
Writing in the CFI’s Informed magazine, Truss said: “I understand the importance and sensitivity of the location of the British Embassy in Israel and I am committed to a review to ensure we are operating on the strongest footing within Israel”.
But representatives of the three opposition parties told MEE on Wednesday that they rejected moving the embassy to Al-Quds. The UK, like most countries, currently has its embassy in Tel Aviv because of the disputed status of Al-Quds.
“Our position on this hasn’t changed, Labour does not support the move,” a spokesperson for the main opposition party said. “We do not want the move to happen and we will oppose it.”
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson, told MEE: “Moving the UK embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be a provocation. The UK should under no circumstances be taking steps which risk inflaming tensions and damaging the prospects of peace.”
Moran, who is the first British MP of Palestinian descent, said she had written to James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, “to make clear that moving the embassy should only come as part of a negotiated settlement between the Zionist regime and Palestine.
“This review should accordingly be stopped,” she said. “My energy is in stopping this move from happening in the first place.”
The Scottish National Party pointed MEE to a column its foreign affairs spokesperson, Alyn Smith, wrote last week, in which he condemned Truss’s consultation as “inconsistent with international law and does nothing to help bring about a peaceful solution.”