News
Board president defends support for UK embassy move to Jerusalem
Marie van der Zyl was challenged over whether deputies had been consulted on policy
October 20, 2022 11:33
Marie van der Zyl was challenged over whether deputies had been consulted on policy
October 20, 2022 11:33Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies, has defended her decision to support moving the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem against challenges from deputies at a meeting of the Board on Wednesday night.
Ms van der Zyl welcomed the government’s announcement of a review into the location of the embassy at a Conservative Friends of Israel reception at the Tory Party conference earlier this month.
But she was pressed at yesterday’s virtual meeting by a number of deputies over whether she had consulted the Board before making her comments.
In her written statement to the deputies at the meeting, she said her comments had been “made in consultation with others from the Board delegation” who were present at the conference.
She explained that five years ago, when the USA announced it was moving its embassy to Israel’s capital, the Board’s then president, Jonathan Arkush, and senor vice-president, Richard Verber, had issued a statement voicing the hope that other countries would follow suit.
She added she had been “unsure whether the Board should have commented at the time on what was another country’s decision to move its embassy.” But now the UK government was reviewing the embassy’s position, that was “something of interest to us”.
She said she did “not believe that relocating the British Embassy to West Jerusalem jeopardises the two-state solution. There is already a British consulate in East Jerusalem serving Palestinians and others, and in the event of a permanent peace agreement, this could easily be transformed into a separate embassy.”
For the better part of an hour, deputies argued over her action.
James Harris, deputy for Stanmore and Canon’s Park (United) Synagogue, said in principle he favoured a move of the embassy.
However, he went on, “In my view, for the president to make the announcement she made unilaterally, with little or no consultation with deputies, not of just members at the Conservative Friends of Israel reception, is unwise… and it can’t be in the spirit of democracy.
“I contend that deputies deserve better. We are being stripped of any opportunity to scrutinise Board policy.”
Julian Pollard of Magen Avot (United) Synagogue, told the president he was “not sure the constitution authorises you to get involved in a matter of this nature”.
Karen Newman, of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, warned, “When you say the embassy should be moved to Jerusalem right now, you are speaking for very far from the entire British Jewish community.”
But the president also received backing from deputies, including senior vice-president Edwin Shuker, who remarked that for a hundred generations, “Jews prayed to return to Zion, not to Tel Aviv, not to Ra’anana, but to Jerusalem”.
Ms van der Zyl said there was an “overwhelming position of support” for her view, citing a public letter signed by 600 members of the community backing an embassy move.
Board meetings usually taken place on a Sunday. But last night's plenary was called to discuss matters postponed from September, when the meeting was devoted to tributes to the Queen. The Board's new treasurer, Michael Ziff, deputy for Maccabi GB, spoke for the first time as an honorary officer yesterday; he replaces Ben Crowne, who resigned.
Meanwhile, in an op-ed in The Times at the weekend, the former Middle East envoy for Tony Blair’s government, Lord Levy, argued that moving the embassy at the present time would be a “diplomatic disaster”.
READ MORE: Hundreds of UK Jews back moving embassy