Israel’s most recent ambassador to the United Kingdom, Daniel Taub, returned home after being repeatedly warned over security breaches at his residence in St John’s Wood, London, it has emerged.
According to several sources, the breaches related to late night visits by individuals to his official home. Israeli officials raised the visits with Taub. He returned to Israel after the visits continued.
Taub, who had applied to stay in London before his departure, was identified after a flurry of speculation in the Israeli media earlier this week over the identity of a senior Israeli diplomat in Europe who had become embroiled in an alleged scandal.
Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, however, strongly denied claims that appeared online in Israel on Wednesday relating to allegations of aspects of Taub’s behaviour, insisting it had determined that there had been “no criminal or disciplinary” wrongdoing. The circumstances of Taub’s departure from London last year have emerged amid controversy over whether he should be appointed as the Israeli foreign affairs ministry’s chief legal counsel – a post for which he is regarded as the leading contender with the reported backing of Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
Referring to claims made online, the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs told the Guardian that it “expressed its disgust at the publication of untruthful allegations regarding one of the finest members of its foreign service”.
“The ministry emphasises that following a thorough investigation by the inspector general of the ministry, it was determined that there had been no criminal or disciplinary wrongdoing and that the issue related to a breach of security protocol. The issue has been addressed and concluded.”
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