The president of the Board of Deputies has urged the British government to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Speaking at a Conservative Friends of Israel event in Birmingham, Prime Minister Liz Truss told the audience that "the UK will stand up for Israel" and described herself as a Zionist.
The UK outpost, like most other international embassies in Israel, is currently located in Tel Aviv rather than Jerusalem.
Marie van der Zyl told the Conservative Friends of Israel reception on Sunday: "We are really hopeful that the government is going to move the embassy, like America, to Jerusalem – the capital of Israel.”
Israel’s Ambassador to London, Tzipi Hotovely also attended the reception, where she suggested that a “review” of the British embassy’s location ought to be pursued.
She told the packed event: ”Nothing can be more significant to show the friendship between Israel and the UK than this step.”
”There is just one capital to the UK, and that is London. There is just one capital to Israel, Jerusalem," she continued.
“For the last two thousand years, it’s been Jerusalem, always our spiritual home. We can’t ignore the historic truth.”
She argued that the US decision to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem “promoted peace”, contributing to the landmark Abraham Accords.
Addressing the reception, Prime Minister Truss echoed her previous remarks on barring the Iranian regime from acquiring nuclear weapons, along with her support for the controversial Westminster Holocaust Memorial project.
Prime Minister Truss proclaimed she was a “huge Zionist and huge supporter of Israel” and pledged that she would “take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength”.
Addressing concerns over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Prime Minister asserted: “Believe me, the UK will never allow - together with our allies - Iran to get a nuclear weapon”.
Vowing her “absolute, wholehearted support”, the Prime Minister said: “In this world - where we are facing threats from authoritarian regimes who don’t believe in freedom and democracy - two free democracies, the UK and Israel, need to stand shoulder to shoulder and we will be even closer in the future”.
Health minister Robert Jenrick reiterated his previous comments that refer to an area of land currently being reserved for a new UK embassy in the Israeli capital and said that he was “delighted to hear the Prime Minister commit to the review to move our Embassy to Jerusalem”.
He emphasised: “We have a site in Jerusalem there waiting to go. It is time we took responsibility and built that Embassy and recognised that the true capital of the State of Israel is obviously Jerusalem”.
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Michelle Donelan announced that one of her first international visits will be to Israel and said “there are so many lessons that we can take from Israel”.
Marie van der Zyl with the UK's Foreign Secretary James Cleverly (Board of Deputies)
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and a number of other senior Conservative Party politicians were also in attendance and supported Truss' suggestion that the embassy could be moved.
