British Embassy in Israel

The location of the British Embassy in Israel

On the 18th November, the FCDO confirmed to ICJP that following a review by the UK Government, “there are no plans to move the UK embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv.”

Background

The status of the city of Jerusalem is contested and contentious. Jerusalem was the capital of Palestine under the British Mandate Government from 1922-1948.

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted Resolution 181, recommending a ‘Plan of Partition’, that would have established independent Arab and Jewish States in the region, with the city of Jerusalem to be established as a ‘corpus seperatum’ under a special international regime and to be administered by the UN. However, this plan was never implemented.

The Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement of 1949 formalized the division of Jerusalem into the Eastern sector, including the Old City, controlled by Jordan (which also controlled the West Bank), and the Western sector, controlled by the new State of Israel.

Following the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel placed the entire city of Jerusalem under a common civil administration. This measure was strongly condemned as “invalid” by both the UN Security Council (UNSC) and the UNGA on the grounds that it attempted to alter the status of Jerusalem.

Israel formally annexed East Jerusalem in 1980, through the passing of its ’Basic Law’ in the Knesset, thereby declaring that the whole of Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. According to the UN, its de facto control on the ground has enabled it to invest vast resources and efforts into changing the physical and demographic characteristics of the city and its environs.

In the Declaration of Principles, signed in September 1993 by the Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as part of ‘the Oslo Accords’, it is stipulated that the Status of Jerusalem is among the issues deferred to permanent status negotiations. The UN has stated there is great concern that the evolving situation on the ground should not prejudge the outcome of negotiations.

As a result of the unresolved and contested status of Jerusalem countries across the world have placed their respective Israeli embassies in Tel Aviv, recognising that Israel’s current claim to the land stands in violation of international law.

The Issue

In October 2022, the ICJP issued legal advice and written notice to then prime minister Liz Truss, following pronouncements she had made regarding a review of the placement of the UK’s Embassy in Israel.

The first of these pronouncements was a Press Statement issued in relation to a meeting between Truss and the Prime Minister of Israel, Yair Lapid, at the UN General Assembly, which indicated that a “review of the current location of the British Embassy in Israel,” was underway.

The press statement followed a letter from Truss, then serving in her capacity as Foreign Minister, to the organisation ‘Conservative Friends of Israel,’ in August 2022, which stated that she understood the “importance and sensitivity of the location of the Embassy in Israel” and was committed to “reviewing a move of the location of the British Embassy to ensure we are operating on the strongest footing within Israel.”

To support our opposition to a move of the Embassy, in pursuit of a just and lasting peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, we sought legal advice from leading law firm Bindmans LLP, and senior counsel, namely respected international law barristers Alison Macdonald KC of Essex Court Chambers and Tatyana Eatwell of Doughty Street, on this matter.

We sent this legal advice, along with notice of our intention to pursue judicial review should any such move go ahead, to the then Prime Minister Liz Truss, and her subsequent predecessor, Rishi Sunak.

On 18th November, we received a personal assurance from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s (FCDO) Levant and North Africa Department that following a review by the UK Government, “there are no plans to move the UK embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv.”

The FCDO confirmed the UK’s position on the status of Jerusalem is that “it should be determined through a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians”, and that Jerusalem “should ultimately be the shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states”.

The ICJP has consistently reiterated the danger such a move would pose and therefore welcome the FCDO’s assurance that there are no plans to move the UK Embassy in Israel.

Timeline

Over the course of several decades, Israel has continuously attempted to utilize laws, policies, and practices aimed at changing the status of Jerusalem.  This has been historically documented with attempts and subsequent condemnation being recorded as early as 1967: 

4 July 1967: UNGA Resolution 2253 (ES-V) expressed deep concern “at the situation prevailing in Jerusalem as a result of the measures taken by Israel to change the status of the City”; considered these measures to be “invalid”; and called upon “Israel to rescind all measures already taken and to desist forthwith from taking any action which would alter the status of Jerusalem.”

22 November 1967: UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 242 (adopted unanimously) emphasised the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”, and affirmed that the fulfilment of principles of the UN Charter included requiring the “[w]ithdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” and the “[t]ermination of all claims or states of belligerency…”.

21 May 1968: UNSC Resolution 252 reaffirmed “that acquisition of territory by military conquest is inadmissible”; considered “that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, including expropriation of land and properties thereon, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status”; and echoed UNGA’s call upon Israel to rescind the measures taken and desist from taking further action which tends to change the status of Jerusalem.

20 August 1980: UNSC Resolution 478 “censure[d] in the strongest terms” Israel’s enactment of a Basic Law in the Knesset which formally annexed East Jerusalem and declared the whole of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Resolution affirmed that the enactment constituted “a violation of international law and does not affect the continued application of [the Fourth] Geneva Convention” in the Palestinian Territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem. It further determined that all legislative and administrative measures taken by Israel, the Occupying Power, to alter the status of the Holy City of Jerusalem “are null and void and must be rescinded”; and called upon “States that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions”. As a result of the Resolution, several embassies withdrew from Jerusalem.

18 December 2001: UNGA Resolution 56/31 determined that Israel’s decision to “impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem is illegal and therefore null and void and has no validity whatsoever” and deplored “the transfer by some States of their diplomatic missions to Jerusalem” in violation of UNSC Resolution 478.

23 December 2016: UNSC Resolution 2334 condemned “all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status” of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and including “the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians in violation of international humanitarian law”. The Resolution reaffirmed that the establishment of settlements by Israel in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution”. Israel was demanded to “immediately and completely cease all settlement activities” in the OPT, including East Jerusalem, and the Resolution underlined that it would not “recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations”.  

21 December 2017: Following the US Government’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, UNGA Resolution ES-10/19 expressed “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem”. The Resolution stressed that Jerusalem is a “final status issue to be resolved through negotiations” and reaffirmed that any action which purports to have altered the “character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded”. The Resolution called “upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem” and demanded all States not to recognize any actions or measures contrary with the UNSC resolutions regarding the Holy City of Jerusalem.

30 November 2018: Following the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, UNGA Resolution 73/22 expressed “grave concern” regarding any action taken by any governmental and non-governmental body in violation of previous resolutions. The Resolution reiterated the illegality of actions taken by Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem and called upon Israel to cease such measures. These measures included the continuation by Israel of illegal settlement activities; its construction of the wall in and around East Jerusalem; its restrictions on Palestinian access to and residence in East Jerusalem; the continuing Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes and other civilian infrastructure in and around East Jerusalem; and the eviction and displacement of numerous Palestinian families from East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, including Bedouin families.