Publish date24 Sep 2022 - 12:21
Story Code : 566526

UN rapporteurs condemn UK decision for relocation of embassy in Jerusalem

United Nations’ special rapporteurs have criticized Britain over a recent decision to relocate its embassy in Jerusalem calling that a breach of the international law and UN resolution UK supported for long time.
UN rapporteurs condemn UK decision for relocation of embassy in Jerusalem
Three UN experts have strongly criticized UK Prime Minister Liz Truss's repeated suggestion that she may relocate the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. 

On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Truss told her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid that she is reviewing the embassy's current location. 

During the Conservative party leadership contest, Truss, then foreign secretary, told the Conservative Friends of Israel group that she was inclined to move the embassy to the contested city.

Such a move would reverse decades of British policy. The UK has long maintained its embassy in Tel Aviv - even after Israel declared Jerusalem as its capital - as part of a longstanding policy that the city's final status should be decided following negotiations.

In 1967, Israel occupied and annexed the eastern part of the city of Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

Now, both the current and most recent former UN special rapporteurs focused on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, along with a third United Nations expert, have condemned Truss's suggestion that this should change.

Separately, Michael Lynk, who served in the same role as Albanese until May, and Ardi Imseis, who worked for 12 years at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), voiced their concerns in a three-page footnoted letter sent to UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Tuesday. 

The United Kingdom, they write, has long supported international law and UN Security Council resolutions which have established that Israeli regime is prohibited from asserting claims of sovereignty over any part of the Palestinian territories it occupies.

Elsewhere in the world, they note that the UK has endorsed the principle that states cannot annex conquered territory, including in relation to Russia's illegal invasion and occupation of Crimea and Ukraine.

The UK also rejected the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem under Donald Trump in 2017, a move which the Biden administration has maintained.
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