British Embassy, Tel Aviv | |
---|---|
Location | Tel Aviv, Israel |
Address | 192 Hayarkon Street, 6340502 Tel Aviv, Israel |
Ambassador | Simon Walters |
Website | British Embassy, Tel Aviv |
The Embassy of the United Kingdom (commonly referred to as the British Embassy) is located in Tel Aviv. It is the chief diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom in Israel.
It is located on Hayarkon Street in the Old North area of the city. Simon Walters has been British Ambassador to Israel since August 2023. [1]
The United Kingdom also maintains a Consulate-General in East Jerusalem, with a Consul-General not being accredited to any state, as "an expression of [the UK] view that no state has sovereignty over Jerusalem". [2] [3] The United Kingdom also has an honorary consul in Eilat. [4]
In 2009, the United Kingdom planned to move the British Embassy to the Kirya Tower. However, the Foreign Office dropped these plans because the building is part-owned by Africa-Israel Investments Ltd, a company which has built in the Palestinian territories. Israel's ambassador to London said the decision was "appeasement to those who slander Israel". [5]
Foreign relations of the Republic of Somaliland are the responsibility of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Somaliland. The region's self-declaration of independence remains unrecognised by the international community.
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country, usually an embassy. The term "consulate" may refer not only to the office of a consul, but also to the building occupied by the consul and the consul's staff. The consulate may share premises with the embassy itself.
The British Consulate General Hong Kong (BCGHK), located at 1 Supreme Court Road, Admiralty, Hong Kong Island, is one of the largest British consulates general in the world and is bigger than many British embassies and high commissions. It is responsible for maintaining British ties with Hong Kong and Macau.
In the Commonwealth of Nations, a high commissioner is the senior diplomat, generally ranking as an ambassador, in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another. Instead of an embassy, the diplomatic mission is generally called a high commission.
Israel–United Kingdom relations, or Anglo-Israeli relations, are the diplomatic and commercial ties between the United Kingdom and Israel. The British embassy to Israel is located in Tel Aviv. The UK has an honorary consul in Eilat and a non-accredited consulate-general in Jerusalem, that represents the United Kingdom in that city and the Palestinian territories. Israel has three representative offices in the United Kingdom: an Embassy located in London and consulates in Cardiff and Glasgow.
The Consulate General of the United States in Jerusalem was a diplomatic mission of the United States of America that provided consular services to Palestinian residents in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza. It was not accredited to any government. In May 2018, the United States relocated its Tel Aviv embassy to Jerusalem, and in mid-October 2018, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the Consulate General would be merged with the new US Embassy in Jerusalem and that relations with the Palestinians would be conducted through a special Palestinian Affairs Unit inside the Embassy. On 4 March 2019, the Consulate General was merged into the US Embassy and formally ceased operations. In May 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Washington will reopen the consulate, without specifying a date. In September 2021, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh called on the US administration to speed up the reopening of the Consulate General in Jerusalem to handle direct contacts with the Palestinians.
The United Kingdom does not recognise Palestine as a state. The UK has a non-accredited Consulate General in Jerusalem that "represents the UK government in Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza", and works on "political, commercial, security and economic interests between the UK and the Palestinian territories". Husam Zomlot became head of the Palestine Mission to the United Kingdom in 2018. The State of Palestine was represented in London by Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian General Delegate to the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2018. Another former Palestinian General Delegate to the UK was Afif Safieh, who began in that role in 1990.
The Consulate General of France in Jerusalem began its tumultuous history in the early 17th century. In 1535, the date of the first Capitulation between France and the Ottoman Empire, France was granted the right to appoint consuls in the cities of the Empire. The Capitulations constituted the legal basis of the French protectorate over the Holy Places, Catholic Christians, and by extension, Orthodox Christians. In 1623, King Louis XIII appointed the first consul in Jerusalem "for the Glory of God and to relieve the pious pilgrims who by devotion visit the Holy Places." The presence of consuls in Jerusalem was intermittent until 1843. Amidst the growing competition between European powers over the exclusive protectorate that France was entitled to exercise over Christians, the rank of the Consul in Jerusalem was raised to that of a Consul General in 1893. Despite the abolition of France's protectorate over the Latins and the Turkish-ruled Holy Places in 1914, the Consulate General tried to maintain and expand its influence in Palestine. Since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the Consulate General of France in Jerusalem has held the status of a quasi-embassy. The consulate is responsible for the area of the corpus separatum and the occupied territories. The consulate's districts include Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The Consulate General is independent from the Embassy of France in Tel Aviv and does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel. All contacts with the State of Israel lie exclusively within the jurisdiction of the embassy in Tel Aviv. Since its establishment in 1994, the consulate has been the French diplomatic representative to the Palestinian National Authority.
Political relations between the State of Palestine and the United States have been complex and strained since the 1960s. While the U.S. does not recognize the State of Palestine, it recognizes the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate representative entity for the Palestinian people; following the Oslo Accords, it recognized the Palestinian National Authority as the legitimate Palestinian government of the Palestinian territories.
The foreign relations of the State of Palestine have been conducted since the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. Since the Oslo Accords, it seeks to obtain universal recognition for the State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. As of 2 June 2023, 139 of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states officially recognize the State of Palestine.
The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Beijing is the chief diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom in the People's Republic of China. It is one of Britain's largest overseas embassies. It is located at 11 Guanghua Road, in the Chaoyang District. The current British Ambassador to China is Caroline Wilson.
The British Consulate-General Boston is an outpost of the British diplomatic mission to the United States serving the six New England states. Originally based in Boston proper, the modern Consulate relocated across the Charles River to the Kendall Square innovation district bordering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Consulate was founded in 1817 and is one of the oldest diplomatic offices in the United States. The present Consul General is Dr Peter Abbott OBE.
The Embassy of the United States of America in Jerusalem is the diplomatic mission of the United States of America to the State of Israel. It is located in Talpiot, a neighborhood in southeastern Jerusalem. In mid-October 2018, Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State under the Trump administration, declared that the new embassy would be merging with the Consulate General, through which the United States had maintained diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority. Currently, all diplomacy between the United States and the Palestinians is conducted through the "Office of Palestine Affairs" inside of the American embassy for Israel.