UK warns Israel it may expel 27 diplomats over Jerusalem consulate closure

British Ambassador Simon Walters delivered a message to Israeli officials on Monday warning that London is prepared to expel one Israeli diplomat for each of the 27 British staff whose diplomatic status would be terminated if the British consulate in East Jerusalem is closed, according to the Ynet website as cited by Press TV. The UK Foreign Office declined to comment on the report and did not deny it.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar ordered the consulate shut by Thursday, October 8, and revoked the credentials of its staff. The mission, located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, operates separately from the British embassy in Tel Aviv and handles political and consular affairs for Palestinians in East al-Quds, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The closure is retaliation for Britain's ban last month on imports of goods from illegal Israeli settlements. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the measures alongside similar steps by France and Canada over what he described as the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The ban followed Israeli plans to build more than a thousand new settler homes on occupied land. All such settlements are illegal under international law.

Sa'ar called the British decision "morally distorted" and accused the Labour government of hostility and interference ahead of Israel's election later this month. His countermeasures also expelled British representatives from a Gaza coordination center, ended British training of Palestinian Authority security forces, and barred entry to 12 British figures, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Britain's National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell visited the occupied territories last week in an unannounced attempt to keep the consulate open, sources told Reuters. The talks produced no agreement. A spokesperson for Sa'ar said the mission would close on Thursday as announced.

Former British attorney general Dominic Grieve has advised the Foreign Office that Israel has no legal right to close the consulate. East al-Quds is recognized by the United Nations, and by Britain, as occupied Palestinian territory. Retaining the mission does not concede Israeli sovereignty over the city, whose final status remains subject to negotiation. Grieve noted that the closure would fall mainly on Palestinians by disrupting consular services, aid oversight and reporting from the West Bank and Gaza. An expulsion on this scale would severely impair the Israeli embassy in London, which has lacked an ambassador for more than a year. The clash marks a further breakdown in relations already strained by Israel's settlement expansion and its war on Gaza, according to Mehr News.