Is Liz Truss about to move Britain’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem?
In this 60-second explainer, our foreign editor Michael Daventry examines how a shift in British policy would be controversial
Britain’s new prime minister Liz Truss has told Jewish supporters that she was willing to review the location of her country’s embassy in Israel.
That is going to be controversial.
In most countries around the world, embassies tend to be in the capital city – like London, where there are nearly 200 of them.
But Israel’s choice of capital city is Jerusalem and right now Britain doesn’t recognise that.
It says the city’s status is undecided because the Palestinians call Jerusalem their capital too and there needs to be a peace deal first.
That’s why the British embassy to Israel is in Tel Aviv – and most other countries do the same thing.
The big exception is America. Donald Trump moved its embassy to Jerusalem five years ago and it triggered protests everywhere, and only a few countries have followed his example.
If Liz Truss was to move the embassy, it would be biggest change to British foreign policy in half a century.
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