Rishi Sunak succeeded Liz Truss as Prime Minister
(Picture: PA Wire)Rishi Sunak has dropped his predecessor Liz Truss’s plan to move the UK’s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “There are no plans to move the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv.
“Under the previous administration, it was looked at but I can confirm there are no plans.”
In mid-September, during her tumultuous 50 days as PM, Ms Truss told her Israeli counterpart that she was reviewing the location of Britain’s embassy in Israel.
At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted that he was grateful to her for considering moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
The British embassy in Israel is located in Tel Aviv where most other countries have their embassies.
The two leaders met at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The White House confirmed last year that President Joe Biden intended to keep the US Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, where it was relocated during the Donald Trump administration.
Meanwhile, a near-final tally of votes on Thursday showed former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on track to a re-election with a clear parliamentary majority boosted by ultranationalists who want tougher crackdowns on Palestinians.
Tuesday’s ballot saw out the centrist incumbent, Yair Lapid, and his rare alliance of conservatives, liberals and Arab politicians which, over 18 months in power, had made diplomatic inroads with Turkey and Lebanon and kept the economy humming.
But with the conflict with the Palestinians festering and touching off Jewish-Arab tensions within Israel, Netanyahu’s rightist Likud and kindred parties took 65 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, according to a vote count due to conclude on Thursday.
“The time has come to impose order here. The time has come for there to be a landlord,” tweeted Itamar Ben-Gvir of the far-right Religious Zionism party, Likud’s likely senior partner in the next government.
Ben-Gvir was responding to the latest violence, in which police said a Palestinian stabbed an officer in Jerusalem’s Old City and was shot dead. Earlier, Israeli troops killed a Palestinian during a confrontation in the occupied West Bank.
In London, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “At this stage it would be inappropriate to comment further ahead of the formation of the next government of Israel.
“We do call on all Israeli parties to refrain from inflammatory language and demonstrate tolerance and respect for minority groups.”
A West Bank settler and former member of Kach, a Jewish militant group on Israeli and US terrorist watchlists, Ben-Gvir wants to become police minister.
However, with Netanyahu still not officially confirmed as prime minister, it is still unclear what position he might hold in a future government.
Though Netanyahu has vowed to serve all citizens, his ascendancy has set off worries among the 21 per cent Arab minority and centre-left Jews - and especially among Palestinians whose US-sponsored statehood talks with Israel broke down in 2014.
While Washington has publicly reserved judgement pending the new Israeli coalition’s formation, a State Department spokesman on Wednesday emphasised the countries’ “shared values”.
“We hope that all Israeli government officials will continue to share the values of an open, democratic society, including tolerance and respect for all in civil society, particularly for minority groups,” a spokesman said.
