LONDON: A Palestinian rights group has warned the British prime minister that it plans to seek a judicial review if the UK announces it will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. 

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians wrote to Liz Truss with a comprehensive legal opinion prepared by human rights law firm Bindmans LLP and four barristers from Essex Court Chambers and Doughty Street Chambers.   

It comes after Truss told Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapin in September that the UK was reviewing the embassy’s location.

Her statement drew international concern and was criticized by 50 British Jewish youth leaders, several Arab diplomats in the UK, and members of her own Conservative Party. William Hague, a former leader, and Alistair Burt, a former Middle East minister and treasurer of the Conservative Friends of Israel group have both opposed any move.

The ICJP letter heaps further pressure on a prime minister who has already crashed the economy in her first weeks in power with an uncosted mini-budget that cut taxes for the rich.

“This opinion of independent legal counsel, expert in their field, reinforces the massive concentration of diplomatic, religious and political concern over the review around moving the UK’s embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” said Crispin Blunt, a Conservative MP and a director of ICJP.  

“The fact that the UK is apparently seriously considering this is already causing serious reputational damage, not least to our inherited responsibilities to be at least balanced to Palestinian aspirations that have been so betrayed in the grim reality that has followed in the century since the Balfour Declaration.” 

The independent legal opinion obtained by the ICJP considers Jerusalem’s special status under international law, as well the international legal ramifications of relocating.

It states that there are strong grounds to conclude that a move would imply recognition of Israel’s claim, under its Basic Law of 1980, that the city is “complete and united” as the its capital. 

The statement has been repeatedly declared invalid by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council, which says the law constitutes a violation of international law. 

The legal opinion also states that a move would violate British obligations under the Geneva Conventions to “not encourage, aid, or assist another state in violating the conventions.”

Tayab Ali, an ICJP director and a partner at Bindmans LLP, said: “The prime minister has demonstrated over the last few weeks the dangers of carelessly announcing policies that are not thought through and without proper consultation. The prime minister should not approach international situations in the same way. 

“We cannot as a country champion the Ukrainian fight for freedom … and then create policy for Israel which so badly undermines the British assertion of the primacy of international law and the UN charter.  The consequences of carelessness at this level would be unthinkable.”