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Financial Times Unilaterally Decides on Israel’s Capital

In an article covering British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s visit to Israel, the Financial Times (registration required) writes: Tel Aviv continues to press Britain for reform of its laws on “universal jurisdiction”, under which any UK…

Simon Plosker
November 7, 2010
12:00 am

Reading time: < 1 minutes

In an article covering British Foreign Secretary William Hague’s visit to Israel, the Financial Times (registration required) writes:

Tel Aviv continues to press Britain for reform of its laws on “universal jurisdiction”, under which any UK citizen can apply to a court for the arrest of visiting foreign officials on alleged war crimes.

While Tel Aviv is widely regarded as Israel’s economic and cultural centre, the organs of political power, including the Knesset, Prime Minister’s Office, Foreign Ministry and most other government ministries are located in Jerusalem, Israel’s capital city.

So even if the Financial Times refuses to recognise Jerusalem as the capital, the newspaper has no right to unilaterally designate Tel Aviv as Israel’s premier city particularly in the context of this story. Any diplomatic discourse between Israel and Britain would have emerged from Jerusalem. Therefore the FT has simply got it wrong.

Please write to the Financial Times – [email protected] – and point out the error of its ways.

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Tags: Financial Times, Jerusalem, William Hague

Simon Plosker

With over two decades of experience in various non-governmental organizations in the UK and Israel, Simon Plosker returned to HonestReporting in October 2022 as Editorial Director having previously been part of the organization’s management team from 2005 to 2020. Prior to his first spell at HonestReporting, Simon worked in Israel for NGO Monitor, BICOM, and served for a short period in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. He was Managing Editor of the Geneva-based NGO United Nations Watch for two years before moving back to the frontline defending Israel from media bias. Simon has a BSoc.Sc in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics. He immigrated to Israel in 2001 from London.

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