INTERNATIONAL

Editor’s note: The following is the full letter sent by senior Muslim leaders in Jerusalem to King Charles III, following UK Prime Minister Liz Truss’s decision to review the location of the British embassy in Israel and consider moving it from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Dear His Majesty King Charles III,

The Council of the Islamic Jerusalem Awqaf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs, one of the institutions of the Hashemite King Abdullah II Ibn Al-Hussein’s Custodianship of the Islamic and Christian Holy Sites in Jerusalem, sends His Majesty King Charles III best regards and wishes of great leadership of the United Kingdom and its respected people.

We also would like to express our deepest condolences and profound sympathies on the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. We wish Your Majesty would be enduring wellness and fortitude to strengthen the pillars of peace and warm relations between world nations on basis of justice, equality and mutual respect.

His Majesty,

Jerusalem has been a great example of coexistence and peace between its religious communities for centuries. The International Community, including the United Kingdom, recognized the special historic and legal arrangement, also known as the “Status Quo” since 1852. This special arrangement safeguarded the rights of religions, their relationships, the Holy Sites and the authentic character of the Holy City of Jerusalem. The respect of the Status Quo continued until the Occupation of Jerusalem in 1967, when Israel started to impose many unilateral measures in favor of its Jewish identity/community. The international community has denied these unilateral measures, including the announcement of both sides of the city, as united capital of the State of Israel in 1980, by frequently adopting tens of UNGA/UNSC/UNESCO resolutions.

The conservation of the pre-1967 Status Quo in Jerusalem is essential for preserving our religious rights, peace in our Holy City and good relations between the religious communities around the globe. The recognition of this Status Quo made most of the world’s governments refraining from moving their embassies to Jerusalem until reaching a final status arrangement by peace and negotiations not by occupation and enforcement.

We oppose moving the British embassy to Jerusalem since we understand it, as a message to the universe that the UK, in contrary to the international law and the Status Quo, accepts the continuing Israeli illegal military occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Israeli unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and the Israeli illegal Judaization measures in the Holy City.  Such move undermines the two-state solution, cancels the possible peace agreement demarcation of borders between the two states. It also inflames religious conflict and an already instable situation in Jerusalem, the rest of the occupied territories and among communities in the UK and worldwide.

Finally, we hope that the British Government will keep on its historic refrain from moving its embassy to Jerusalem and upkeep its commitment to safeguard the historic Status Quo in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Sheikh Abdul-Azim Salhab, Head of the Council of Islamic Jerusalem Awqaf

Sheikh Mohammad Azam Al-Khatib, Director General of Jerusalem Awqaf and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs 

Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, Chair of the Islamic Higher Commission in Jerusalem 

Meanwhile,

Former British Foreign Secretary William Hague has sensationally stepped into the controversy of whether to move the UK’s Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, warning Liz Truss that to do so would align her government with Donald Trump.

In a shock intervention that will have taken Downing Street by surprise, Hague, who is also a former Conservative Party leader, wrote in Tuesday’s Times newspaper: “Do not move the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.”

Hague told Truss: “This would be a breach of UN security council resolutions by one of its permanent members, break a longstanding commitment to work for two states for Israelis and Palestinians, and align Britain in foreign affairs with Donald Trump and three small states rather than the whole of the rest of the world.”

Former US President Donald Trump broke with international convention by moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in 2018 – a move which was then condemned by the British government. Only three other UN member states have embassies in Jerusalem: Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Hague, now a member of the House of Lords, is by far the most senior Conservative figure to come out in opposition to relocating the embassy.

Massively respected figure

Hague remains a massively respected figure, and his statement will encourage other Tories to follow suit, raising the prospect of another rebellion within the party against the crisis-hit Truss if she presses ahead with reviewing the location of the embassy.

Truss, who became prime minister last month, first floated the possible move in a letter to the pro-Israel lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) during her Conservative leadership campaign over the summer.

She then confirmed she was considering the plan in a meeting with Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly last month.

At that point that embassy move looked like a done deal, especially since Middle East Eye understands that the review into the location of the embassy was carried out inside Downing Street rather than by the Foreign Office.

However, opposition has grown in recent days. Both the Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, and his Roman Catholic counterpart, the Archbishop of Westminster, have cautioned against the move.

On Monday, Christian church leaders from 13 religious denominations in Jerusalem came together to warn against the move, stating that it would be a “further impediment to advancing the already moribund peace process”.

Several Jewish groups and the Muslim Council of Britain have also opposed any move.

But today’s statement from Hague is by far the most significant. It carries serious political weight, especially as MEE understands that a number of Tory MPs are likely to come out in support of the former leader.

Hague gained immediate support from former Tory chair Sayeeda Warsi who tweeted in response that the embassy review was “effectively a Trump policy prompted by Conservative Friends of Israel and supported by the Board of Deputies”.

Warsi added: “This approach damages the credibility of both organisations. It’s opposed by almost everyone else.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews describes itself as the “voice of the UK Jewish community”.

Marie van der Zyl, the head of the Board of Deputies, last week told a CFI event at the Conservative Party conference that she was “really hopeful” the government would move the embassy to Jerusalem.

Source: Middle East Eye