TUC Congress voted today to fight any bid by the government to relocate Britain’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Liz Truss said last month she was considering following the US in moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, though East Jerusalem is seen as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Moving, the National Education Union’s Louise Regan said Ms Truss was trying to emulate Donald Trump, who moved the US embassy in 2018 — but that legitimising Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem would be “disastrous for the rights of Palestinians and reward Israel for its actions in the occupied territories since 1967.”

Ms Regan pointed out that the violence of the occupation is increasing, with 2022 proving the deadliest year for Palestinians since 2006.

“This year 105 Palestinians have been killed, including 26 children,” she told delegates.

Seconding, Joanna de Groot of the UCU reminded Congress that both the United Nations and Amnesty International have identified Israel’s systematic oppression of Palestinians as a form of apartheid.

“Jerusalem has been under attack for decades” and Israel’s policies looked “very like ethnic cleansing — forcing residents from their homes, renaming streets and squares and demolishing buildings,” she said.

Any embassy move would be “illegal, foolish and wrong.”

At the Palestine Solidarity Campaign fringe meeting the previous evening NEU general secretary Kevin Courtney had warned that if the Tories do move the embassy to Jerusalem the labour movement would need to put pressure on any incoming Labour government to reverse the move — as Joe Biden’s Democratic administration in the United States has not.