Daniel Taub, Israel’s most recent envoy to the UK, returned to Israel after officials raised late-night visits to official home

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

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 in north-west 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 a recent alleged scandal.

Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs, however, strongly denied claims that appeared online on Wednesday relating to allegations of aspects of Taub’s behaviour, insisting it had determined that there had been “no criminal or disciplinary” wrongdoing.

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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”.

It said: “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.”

Israel’s foreign ministry conducted an internal investigation relating to the concerns over unauthorised visitors in the residence. Taub was questioned over the affair and apparently satisfied officials.

Taub served as ambassador to the UK between 2011 and 2015, when he returned to Israel. He will be replaced by Mark Regev, Netanayhu’s foreign language spokesman.

Born in Britain in 1962, Taub gave up his UK citizenship more than 30 years ago when he emigrated to Israel. Thoughhe formally completed his four-year term last year, he had applied to extend his posting for another year and told people he would be staying.

The Israeli media reported earlier this week that an unnamed senior diplomat had been blocked from taking up the post of legal adviser at the ministry of foreign affairs. After the Guardian identified Taub, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that he was the individual involved.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Taub served as ambassador to the UK between 2011 and 2015. Photograph: Roland Kemp/Rex/Shutterstock

Providing more details on the affair, Haaretz said the issue of visitors to the ambassador’s residence had originally been raised by British officials concerned over their ability to protect him.

The paper reported: “The British security services asked the ambassador to cease the practice, which was hurting their ability to safeguard him. When it happened again, though, the security services made an official request to the embassy’s security officer.

“They warned that if the violations didn’t stop, they would no longer be able to take responsibility for guarding the ambassador and his residence. The embassy’s security officer relayed a report on the subject to the Shin Bet security service and the foreign ministry in Israel.”

According to the paper, following media reports on the case Israel’s new attorney general, Avichai Mendelblit, asked to see the foreign ministry report on the affair.

An expert in international law, Taub is regarded as a high flier in the Israeli diplomatic service, having served as legal adviser to Israel’s missions to the UN in New York and Geneva.

Taub was also involved as an official in both negotiations on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and a member of Israel’s negotiating team in the Israeli-Syrian negotiations.

Taub’s departure was announced in June last year and in recent months the post of ambassador has been vacant ahead of Regev’s arrival.

Taub was regarded in diplomatic circles as an effective advocate for Israel in the UK at a time when UK-Israel trade ties doubled.

Before becoming a candidate for the ministry’s chief legal counsel he had been also tipped as Israel’s “BDS [boycott divestment and sanctions] tsar”, a role which did not come to fruition.

The issue of security protocols around senior Israeli diplomats – and sensitivity over any suggestion they could make themselves open to pressure from foreign intelligence agencies – is a particularly sensitive one not least following recent revelations over the extent over the extent to which Israel has been targeted for intelligence gathering.

Last week it was revealed that the UK’s GCHQ and its US equivalent, the NSA, had hacked video feeds from Israeli drones and jets, while the Wall Street Journal revealed a few weeks before how the US continued to monitor Israeli officials.