Former Mayor of London Boris Johnson has been surprisingly appointed Foreign Minister in the cabinet set up by new British Prime Minister Theresa May.

51-year-old Johnson, a former Brussel-based correspondent, led the Brexit campaign for Britain to leave the EU.

He is widely considered as a pro-Israel politician who supports stronger tech ties with Israel and has blasted ‘‘foolish’’ BDS. He also managed to alienate Palestinians with his statements.

Johnson visited Israel in N ovember 2015 to boost tech ties between the nations, saying London was “a natural partner for Israeli companies seeking to grow.”

During his visit Johnson met with Israeli leaders, visited the Western Wall and toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. He took part in a football match with Arab and Jewish children and was photographed trying out Tel Aviv’s bicycle sharing-system alongside Mayor Ron Huldai. He also opened day trading at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

During his visit to the Western Wall he confirmed that he has Jewish ancestry.

“Yes, I have Jews in my family from Moscow, some of them rabbis,” he told Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites. “That’s on my mother’s side.”

Johnson appeared moved as he placed his right hand on the Western Wall and paused for a moment while photographers took pictures of him praying.

“It is a great privilege to come to this Wall for the first time in my life, and I join the prayers for peace in Jerusalem,” he wrote in the visitors’ book.

The Times of Israel recalled that in one of his speechs during the visit he said he admires Israel for “the audacity, the bravery, the willingness to take risks with feats of outrageous derring-do.”

He also slammed the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement campaign, calling them “corduroy-jacketed lefty academics.”

“I cannot think of anything more foolish” than to boycott “a country that when all is said and done is the only democracy in the region, the only place that has in my view a pluralist open society,” he declared.

Palestinian groups refused to meet him during his visit to Ramallah but his meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah went ahead as planned.

Boris Johnson was born in New York in 1964 as Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson into a competitive, high-achieving family.

His father Stanley was a Conservative member of the European Parliament; one brother, Jo, was a minister in Cameron’s government and his artist mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett) was from a family of liberal intellectuals. His sister Rachel is a journalist and writer.

Rachel Johnson told her brother’s biographer that, as a child, he wanted to be “king of the world” when he grew up.

Johnson won a scholarship to Eton boarding school, which David Cameron also attended two years below him.

The pair were then contemporaries at Oxford University and both members of the Bullingdon Club — an elite, all-male dining society known for its rowdy behaviour.

After graduating in classics, Johnson became a journalist, working at The Times and The Daily Telegraph newspapers, including as Brussels correspondent.

Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum have congratulated Theresa May who succeeded David Cameron after the latest resignation following the Brexit vote.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent the new Prime Minister a warm letter of welcome and congratulations as she took office. Netanyahu also took the opportunity to praise May’s predecessor David Cameron, whom he thanked for “standing beside Israel, the good relations and the strengthening of ties” during his tenure as prime minister.

The leader of Israel’s opposition Zionist Union Isaac Herzog expressed “many congratulations” to Prime Minister May, adding that “Under your leadership Israeli-British ties will surely continue to flourish”.

Herzog’s Zionist Union colleague, former-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said: “To see a woman in the halls of global power is exciting” and that May should “See Israel as a steadfast partner.”

Israel’s former-Ambassador to the UK, Daniel Taub called May a “long-standing friend of Israel”. She visited Israel in summer 2014 and during the same period expressed understanding for the “considerable” security threats facing Israel and the need therefore to “maintain a strong defence and security capability and be prepared to deploy it if necessary”.

In Britain, as Home Secretary (Interior Minister) May has demonstrated extensive and warm support for the Jewish community in word and deed. In 2015, during a Yom Haatzmaut (Israel’s independence day) event, she said ‘’if the Jewish community is not secure then our national fabric is diminished.’’

‘’She understands deeply the threat to the Jewish community and has spearheaded the fight against anti-Semitism in the country, fully supporting the work of the Community Security Trust in the UK, in partnership with the Police and granting nearly £13.4 millions of government money to boost their work,’’ writes James Sorene, director of BICOM, a pro-Israel group in Britain.

She also implemented the government’s counter-extremism strategy as she demonstrated a tough stance against radicalisation in the UK with decisions to exclude extreme Islamists from the country.