When will Britain recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel?

In less turbulent times, the disappearance of the Home Secretary would lead the television news bulletins and clear the next morning’s front pages. Yet Sajid Javid went missing on Monday with barely an eyebrow raised.

The former Conservative leadership candidate travelled to Jerusalem and visited the Western Wall, the second-holiest site in Judaism and buttressing the holiest site: the Temple Mount. His pilgrimage to the destination of millennia of Jewish prayers is the first by a UK Cabinet minister in 19 years and especially noteworthy because while there he had, in the eyes of his own government, dropped off the map. 

The UK does not recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and in fact doesn’t recognise it as even being inside Israel. East Jerusalem, runs the UK position, is ‘part of the Occupied Palestinian Territories’ but the rest of the city is a diplomatic blackspot.

When Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem in 2017, Theresa May said the city’s status ‘should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately be the shared capital of the Israeli and Palestinian states’.