JERUSALEM, Oct 10, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Jerusalem church leaders on Monday 
expressed their "grave concern" about Britain potentially moving their 
embassy in Israel to the contested and sacred city.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss last month told her Israeli counterpart Yair 
Lapid "about her review of the current location of the British embassy in 
Israel", according to her office.

The announcement raised the prospect of London following in Washington's 
steps under former president Donald Trump, who in 2018 relocated the US 
embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The move broke with decades of international consensus, as governments have 
refused to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of either an Israeli or 
Palestinian state before a lasting peace accord is reached.

On Monday, Jerusalem church heads warned moving the British embassy "would 
severely undermine this key principle... and the political negotiations that 
it seeks to advance".

The Council of the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem 
represents all denominations in the city, which is home to the holiest site 
in Christianity.

The Old City, in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, also hosts the most sacred 
site in Judaism and the third-holiest site in Islam.

"The religious Status Quo in Jerusalem is essential for preserving the 
harmony of our Holy City and good relations between religious communities 
around the globe," said the church heads.

Britain's review, they added, implied that there was no need for peace talks, 
and that "the continuing military occupation of those territories and the 
unilateral annexation of east Jerusalem are both acceptable".

Israel has occupied east Jerusalem and the West Bank -- the site of numerous 
biblical tales including the birth of Jesus -- since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Noting that Christians have lived in the territory "under many different 
empires and governments" for some 2,000 years, they pressed the British 
government to "redouble their diplomatic efforts" towards an Israeli-
Palestinian peace deal.

Their intervention from Jerusalem follows similar statements by church 
leaders in Britain.

A spokesperson for the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the senior 
bishop of the Anglican Church, last week told the UK website Jewish News he 
was "concerned about the potential impact of moving the British embassy" to 
Jerusalem.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the country's most senior Catholic cleric, said on 
Thursday that relocating the embassy would "be seriously damaging to any 
possibility of lasting peace in the region".