Board president’s embassy speech at Tory conference sparks intense communal debate
Marie van der Zyl divides opinion after calling for the UK embassy in Israel to be moved to Jerusalem in speech at the Conservative Friends of Israel reception, attended by Liz Truss, at Tory conference
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl has sparked intense communal debate after using a speech at a Conservative Friends of Israel reception at the Tory Party conference to back calls for the government to move the UK embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
To loud cheers from those at the Birmingham event, the Board’s president told audience, which included Prime Minister Liz Truss; “We are really hopeful that the government is going to move the embassy, like America, to Jerusalem – the capital of Israel.”
Van der Zyl added: “Friends, the government has been such a supporter of the Jewish community, and Israel. We are very, very grateful.”
PM Truss had herself spoken at the same event, declaring herself both a “huge Zionist” and supporter of Israel.
Footage of the van der Zyl’s speech was immediately circulated on the Board’s official Twitter account.
On Sunday evening her remarks were immediately praised by former deputy Gary Mond, who told Jewish News that his new organisation the National Jewish Assembly gave its “total support” to her stance on calling for the embassy to be moved from its current Tel Aviv location.
Mond’s support for the move, which was a key campaigning issue for CFI at this week’s Tory conference, was hardly a surprise.
But the Board president’s decision to raise the embassy issue in front of the PM was also defended by several other current deputies including Andrew Garfield, the deputy for Highgate Synagogue.
He told Jewish News:”I’m not sure what the fuss is about.
“I can’t see why there would be any controversy within the Jewish community about restating the fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and the appropriate location for foreign embassies including that of the UK.
“I can understand why for pragmatic reasons, we haven’t pushed for the UK government to move the embassy from Tel Aviv.
“But if the government is proposing itself to make the move, I don’t see why we would not support it.”
.@BoDPres Marie van der Zyl speaking at the @CFoI reception, about the need to proscribe the IRGC and the hope that the UK embassy will soon move to Jerusalem, as Israel’s capital. pic.twitter.com/7IdR56oaaD
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) October 2, 2022
Another deputy – who stressed they believed van der Zyl should have revealed her intention to support the embassy move with deputies before making the speech – also insisted that if a vote were taken across the communal organisation on the issue “I don’t think she would lose it.”
Following Sunday’s speech, the Board’s president is understood to have been contacted by deputies and other communal figures with messages of both praise and of criticism.
Her decision to speak out in favour the embassy move was also discussed at a pre-Yom Kippur weekly meeting of the Board’s honorary officers on Tuesday.
A senior Board of Deputies source also stressed the president would not have mentioned the UK embassy issue if Truss herself had not committed to a “review” of its location.
But the Yachad organisation were amongst those to issue a strong condemnation of the president’s comments.
An online statement by the group said:”Jerusalem is central to Jewish faith and history.
“Israelis consider it their capital; as do Palestinians. This demand ignores the complexities and risks to Israeli and Palestinians: present and future.”
The group added it was “absurd for our communal leadership to call on the UK government to make such a costly and unnecessary embassy move – one which the British taxpayer will pay for, and one which the Israeli public did not demand.”
Gavin Stollar, chair of the Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel group, was also amongst those to later question why the embassy issue was being so enthusiastically pushed by the Board’s president.
He said:“The Board of Deputies’ remit and outlook is UK domestic Jewry.
“Unless a vote in their plenary has been taken formalising a view on the location of the UK’s Embassy in Israel, the President of the Board would be well advised to keep this tub thumping Trump-esque rhetoric to herself as it is deeply unhelpful.”
Several deputies also raised the issue of democracy within the Board, with one saying they were concerned “the president has taken a line without the executive, the international division or the plenary of deputies discussing it.”
Another said:”Marie has united those people who believe in democracy with in the Board with those who believe in peaceful negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.”
Meanwhile a letter circulating online from youth leaders within the community and addressed to the Board president, said the signatories “wholeheartedly object to this inflammatory speech being made in our name.”
On Thursday, it had been signed by around 40 youth leaders.
Responding from Israel, the lawyer and respected writer on Jerusalem affairs Daniel Seidemann said:”The push to move the UK Embassy to Jerusalem is both well-intended and dangerously misguided.
“The move of the UK Embassy will be a colossal act self marginalization. Ask the US.
” It will inflict major damage on its Foreign Policy and its standing in Mid-East and beyond. ”
In December 2017 then Board President Jonathan Arkush, and senior Vice President Richard Verber welcomed the decision of the US, under former President Donald Trump, to recognise Jerusalem as Israel.
They said:”Recognising the truth of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital should ease the path to peace.”
Some deputies accused Arkush of being “wildly out of step” with their views, but others called for him to go further and call of a UK embassy move.
In May 2018 the World Jewish Congress also welcomed the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem calling it a “critical moment in history” and a “precedent worthy of emulation” by all allies of Israel.
But on Monday Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh voiced concern over a UK embassy move saying: “Any change in the status quo in Jerusalem would undermine the two-state solution and will be considered a tacit recognition of the city’s annexation to Israel, which will encourage the occupying state.”
PM Truss had first pledged to “review” moving the UK embassy to Jerusalem at a CFI leadership campaign debate.
A briefing note circulated to MPs attending this week’s Tory conference in Birmingham suggested responding to those questioning a move to relocate the British embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as “a bureaucratic one that recognises the reality on the ground”.
It added:”“It is understood that the UK government already owns land in west Jerusalem for an embassy to be built there” – a revelation which implies that Liz Truss could be ready to set the move in motion the moment it is given the go-ahead.”
A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesperson said in a statement that Truss “understands the importance and sensitivity of the location of the British embassy in Israel.”
They added:”We are undertaking a review of the current location to ensure that we are in the best possible position to continue promoting British interests in Israel, peace and stability in the region, and in support of a two-state solution.”
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