The complaint comes after the JC revealed the UK’s Deputy Consul General in Jerusalem led a UK team at this year’s 'Palestine Marathon'
March 21, 2023 16:00
British envoys who took part in a West Bank event “in defiance of the Israeli foreign occupation” have been reported to the Foreign Office for alleged breaches of the diplomatic code.
The complaint comes after the JC revealed the UK’s Deputy Consul General in Jerusalem led a UK team at this year’s “Palestine Marathon” event which, the organisers said, was in protest against the “apartheid wall” between the West Bank and Israel.
The team, headed by the second-in-command at the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, Alison McEwen, were criticised after they were pictured wearing t-shirts which showed a map which campaigners claimed “erases Israel”.
The map depicted the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea with the caption “Palestine Marathon, Freedom of Movement” but did not show Israel’s borders.
Now voluntary organisation UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) says it has reported the diplomats for breaches of the Diplomatic Service Code to the Foreign Office’s Consular Directorate which oversees the Jerusalem Consulate’s work.
Caroline Turner, chief executive of UKLFI said: “We believe that the diplomatic representatives who were wearing the t-shirt were in breach of the Diplomatic Service Code given that they wore a logo deleting Israel and openly supported an event run by someone with a long history of support for terrorism.”
The organisation said it believes the diplomats involved broke two key rules which govern their activities. They highlighted Clause 13 of the code, which states: “You must not: act in a way that unjustifiably favours or discriminates against particular individuals or interests”. They also pointed to Clause 15, which says: “You must not allow your personal political views to determine any advice you give or your actions.”
Experienced diplomat McEwen, 42, along with the Consul General Diane Corner, plays a critical role in Britain’s efforts to encourage the stalled Middle East peace process.
Last week the British Consulate General in Jerusalem’s official social media accounts uploaded pictures of what was described as TeamUK at the event organised by the Palestinian Olympic Committee.
On Twitter it described the race, which began outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, as “incredible”.
The starting orders were given by the head of the Olympic Committee Jibril Rajoub, who was jailed in 1970 for throwing a grenade at an Israeli army bus.
He was released as part of a prisoner swap in 1985 and was later a general in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and general secretary of Fatah, the Palestinian Authority’s ruling party.
Rajoub told the Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa that the race would, “convey the message that the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their homeland in defiance of the Israeli foreign occupation that seeks to restrict the Palestinians’ free movement and displace them.” He later awarded finishers their medals and certificates.
Last week Maurice Hirsch, the former Israeli prosecutor who is now the legal director of NGO Palestinian Media Watch, said: “There is clearly no possible justification for wearing and publishing tweets about a T-shirt that erases Israel and Israel’s right to exist.”
Stephen Crabb MP, the parliamentary chair of Conservative Friends of Israel, said: “It is deeply troubling that British diplomats have been happily photographed with maps appearing to replace Israel with a Palestinian state.
“The UK Foreign Office often asserts that it challenges the Palestinian Authority over its denial of Israel’s existence.
“I trust that the Foreign Secretary will now make clear to his own officials how incredibly ill-judged it was for them to seemingly endorse the removal of one of our closest allies, Israel, from the map.”
The event was actively promoted by a group called “Right to Movement”, which campaigns against “the many obstacles that we live daily under fascist racist occupation” and organised the marathon for four years until 2017 when the Palestinian IOC took over.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “The UK’s position is long-standing - we wish to see a viable two-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace, prosperity and security.”
