UK Foreign Office suspected of planning secret embassy move to Jerusalem

A secret plan to move the British embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is in place according to former UK diplomat Craig Murray.

Citing an unnamed source, Murray said that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has carried out “secret contingency planning for a post Brexit move to Jerusalem”. The plan has not been announced because of its controversy but it is thought that it may be implemented if the UK decides to leave the European Union.

Murray explained that the UK is bound by a common position under EU common foreign policy so until Brexit the official line is that the UK is not considering moving its Embassy.

Reasons for wanting the move is said to be “partly ideological, and partly to sweeten relationships with the USA in seeking a trade deal”.

Expressing his own observation about the plan he said: “The Tories probably think this would cause more trouble between Corbyn and the Parliamentary Labour Party, and that the Westminster classes are totally out of touch with real public opinion on Palestine, as they seldom meet anybody who does not share their extreme Zionism.”

Murray revealed that information regarding the secret plan came to him via an unknown FCO source. Unable to guarantee the full reliability of the source, Murray said he had contacted the FCO Press Department to confirm the story.

Commenting on the Foreign Office’s failure to respond to his query, Murray said: “If this is nonsense, it would have taken the FCO two minutes just to tell me so.”

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In his email to the FCO, Murray informed its media staff that he was asking a specific question regarding any preliminary study that may have been conducted or is being conducted, while pointing out that a generic response to his query such as “there are no plans to move the embassy” would be insufficient as an answer.

MEMO contacted the FCO also asking specifically if the UK had conducted or is conducting a post-Brexit contingency plan to move the embassy and was told that the “the British Embassy to Israel is based in Tel Aviv and we have no plans to move it”.