The British government has said it will retain its presence in occupied East Jerusalem after Israel removed the signage of its consulate amid deteriorating diplomatic relations. The removal of the signage comes as Israel announced that 20 British diplomats, including the consul general, would have to leave the country and return home. Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, said on Thursday that the consulate building would remain but would be downgraded to the “UK Mission, Jerusalem”.
The Israeli government’s decision to close the consulate followed Miliband’s announcement last month that Britain would ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In a post on X, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar reiterated on Thursday morning that “no action can be taken against Israel without Israel taking appropriate retaliatory measures”. In retaliation for the sanctions on the occupied West Bank settlements, Saar outlined the four steps that Israel was taking against the UK, including: “We did not want to come to this, but the actions of the Labour government led us here,” Saar wrote, adding that the sanctions and the “hostile rhetoric” of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians had forced their hand against the British government.
The Consul General and 20 diplomats are ending their duties and will leave Israel,” he said, adding that while the building is the property of the British government, Israel has allowed them to operate a task force of seven diplomats in the building with a “very limited scope of activity”. The minister explained that the decision was also based on an understanding reached with the British government last night. In a statement, Miliband said that the British government had been “clear” that it did not accept Israel’s decision to close its consulate, which has been around for nearly 200 years, reiterating its “longstanding view that East Jerusalem is occupied territory.” “The UK Mission, Jerusalem is independent, operational, and will continue to deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people.
Accordingly, the UK has temporarily withdrawn a number of staff and families to ensure their safety and security,” he said. Reports of reciprocal action against the consulate closure, including expelling one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat who had to leave the country, first came from the Israeli newspaper Ynet, citing a message sent to Israeli officials. On the consulate’s closure, Stephen Doughty, Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, told BBC Radio on Thursday morning that the British government was continuing conversations with Israel about the issue.
Asked about reports of a British threat to expel Israeli diplomats, the minister did not comment on it, but said they engaged with Israel in a “mature, responsible and practical debate”. Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Camille Nedelec said the downgrading of the consulate marked “a low point in UK-Israeli relations”. While a consulate mainly helps citizens, in this case British-Palestinian nationals, a mission usually refers to a diplomatic representative.
However, according to Vincent Fean, former British Consul General in Jerusalem, it did not “matter” what the consulate was now called. The E1 settlement aims to link Ma’ale Adumim and other illegal Israeli settlements to occupied East Jerusalem, effectively severing the West Bank in two. The British consulate first opened in 1839 but closed in 1914 at the start of the First World War.
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