The United Kingdom is withdrawing a group of diplomats from its Jerusalem mission which has hitherto worked as London’s de-facto embassy to Palestine amid a diplomatic row with Israel triggered after the new left-wing British government took power.
Britain has agreed to withdraw 20 diplomats from the Jerusalem consulate, the result of a last-minute deal with Israel preventing the mission being shut down altogether by the Israeli authorities and its staff expelled, which London already promised would trigger tit-for-tat reprisals. Among the staff leaving the country are the Consul General Helen Winterton, and what a report in The Times of London described as a “British security team that was training Palestinian police in the West Bank”.
Just seven accredited diplomatic staff will remain at the location, which is being renamed from the British Consulate to the British Mission as part of the compromise deal.
While Britain’s former centre-right Conservative Party government was broadly supportive of Israel, the 2024 General Election saw Labour take power, presaging a worsening of relations. The recent elevation of Ed Miliband to Foreign Secretary has further accelerated this, with the former Labour Party leader imposing sanctions on Israeli settlements and Israeli individuals associated with them, prompting Israel to announce it would force the closure of the British Consulate in Jerusalem.
The UK government warned in turn it would retaliate by expelling Israeli diplomats in London, threatening a full-on diplomatic confrontation between nations which are theoretically allies and in an important intelligence-sharing agreement.
Despite the face-saving agreement, Miliband released a bullish statement from Kyiv, where he is visiting on Thursday, to state the British government’s position that the east Jerusalem neighbourhood where the now-mission building stands isn’t legally Israel anyway. He said: “We do not accept that the government of Israel has the legal right to close the British consulate general in Jerusalem, which has been there for nearly 20 years. The UK Government reiterates its long-standing view that East Jerusalem is occupied territory.”
British newspaper of the left The Guardian reports that the Labour government in London felt particularly motivated to compromise and step away from expelling Israeli diplomats because it had come to the conclusion that to do this during the Israeli election cycle would help Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election prospects, an outcome they evidently wish to avoid. Further, it stated there is a tacit understanding in Westminster that even if London wanted to keep the mission going at full strength, it couldn’t do so without Israeli cooperation and security.
The former consulate-turned-mission is legally distinct and separately accredited from the full British Embassy in Tel Aviv. The actual purpose of the mission was not to provide consular services to Israelis living in Jerusalem, but actually to act as a de facto embassy to Palestine, reports The Daily Telegraph. Their report states the ‘main purpose’ of the mission is to maintain British diplomatic contact with the Palestinian Authority and to “channel aid funding to projects in the Palestinian territories”.
Israel said the demoted British mission in Jerusalem would not be permitted to continue its contact with the Palestinians.