British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told a Conservative Friends of Israel event that he plans on visiting Israel next year to mark the Jewish State’s 75th anniversary.
Telling the audience, which included three former Conservative prime ministers, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, and the chief rabbi of Ukraine, that he intended to visit Israel in 2023, he said: “Next year I will visit Israel on what will be its 75th birthday and landmark year – after so many years of struggle – and also success,” according to the UK Jewish News.
Sunak stressed that he "will fight very hard for the security of the Jewish state.”
“But it has also never been more important. It is a friendship which makes all of our systems healthier,” he said.
He also described Israel as a pioneer in “remarkable achievements” in technology, adding that this was “something which Israel’s detractors in the BDS movement would do away with.”
Pledging that Britain will vote against an upcoming International Court of Justice UN General Assembly resolution asking for an advisory opinion on Israel’s “occupation” of Judea and Samaria, Sunak said he would work against the resolution with “our allies.”
He described Israel as facing an “unenviable security challenge,” citing the “appalling double attack in Jerusalem just last month.”
In terms of Iran, the prime minister slammed the Islamic Republic as a state sponsor of terrorism, noting that “we must recognize its activities aren’t confined to the Middle East” and referring to a 2021 incident in which “an Iranian diplomat was convicted for a bomb targeting an opposition rally in Paris.”
Describing how the IRGC has been connected to over 10 threats in the UK, he emphasized that Israel is at the “frontline of the threat from Iran’s IRGC impulses.”
Sunak also promised that the Conservative Party would oversee the final phase of the construction of the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre to be located next to the UK parliament.