Cardinal Vincent Nichols has written to Prime Minister Liz Truss to express his “profound concern” over the relocation of the British Embassy to Israel.
The intervention of the Archbishop of Westminster follows an announcement that Ms Truss
told her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid that she is reviewing the location of the British Embassy to his country.
It is understood that the review focuses on the question of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv, where almost all other countries have their embassies, to Jerusalem.
Cardinal Nichols said in his letter, however, that such a move “would be seriously damaging to any possibility of lasting peace in the region and to the international reputation of the United Kingdom”.
He said: “Pope Francis and the leaders of churches in the Holy Land have long called for the international status quo on Jerusalem to be upheld, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.
“The city must be shared as a common patrimony, never becoming an exclusive monopoly of any party.”
Cardinal Nichols, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, urged Ms Truss “earnestly to reconsider the intention you have expressed and to focus all efforts on seeking a two-state solution, in which Jerusalem would have a guaranteed special status”.
Palestinians hope that Arab East Jerusalem, a part of the city annexed by Israel in 1967 after the Six-Day War, will eventually become the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
A Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters news agency that the review was “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 for a two-state solution”.
