{"id":616100,"date":"2026-09-14T20:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/616100\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T20:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T20:14:11","slug":"jerusalem-deputy-mayor-arieh-king-calls-to-immediately-cut-british-consulate-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/616100\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King calls to immediately cut British Consulate services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King<\/a> called on the Israeli government to immediately cut water, internet, and other services to the British Consulate in Jerusalem on Monday, questioning why, if the British government views the mission as being on territory occupied by Israel, it continues to use services provided by Israel.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s comments came as he led a handful of protesters demonstrating outside of the consulate, less than a month before the deadline Israel set for the mission to close. The turnout fell far short of King\u2019s expectations, with the few protesters in attendance planting flags in support of Otzma Yehudit<\/a>, the far-right party of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar<\/a> ordered the consulate closed after the UK announced sweeping measures targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including a planned ban on settlement imports to Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are looking at Jerusalem as the occupied territory, and if you are not considering us, the municipality of Jerusalem and the government of Israel, as the sovereign of this place, why are you getting all of these services from us?\u201d King asked. \u201cI\u2019m calling the Israeli government to disconnect the electricity, the water, the telephone services.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said the consulate receives water supplied by Hagihon and telephone and internet services from Bezeq. He also said part of the road next to the mission had been closed for the consulate\u2019s security, with the Jerusalem Municipality authorizing the arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are serious and not just a pure hypocrite,\u201d King said, the British government should disconnect those services itself rather than waiting for Israel to act, instead of announcing measures he described as being done \u201cfor propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JerusalemJerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King and one other protester outside the British consulate in east Jerusalem on September 14, 2026. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)What are the UK’s sanctions?<\/p>\n

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband<\/a> announced the measures last week, saying they were intended to preserve the viability of a two-state solution and combat settlement expansion and settler violence.<\/p>\n

As part of the sanctions regime, he announced, the UK \u201cwill take action against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing, or real estate for settlement expansion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his remarks, he also said it is now officially the view of the British government that Israel\u2019s continued occupation of the Palestinian territories is unlawful and that \u201csettler terrorists\u201d were perpetrating ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in parts of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

That day, the UK published a joint statement signed by Miliband and the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned countries said that they intended to introduce national restrictions, support European restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, or were actively considering such measures, asserting that the settlements are illegal under international law.<\/p>\n

What was Israel’s response?<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s response came shortly after, with Sa\u2019ar accusing Britain of hostility toward Israel. Sa\u2019ar and other Israeli officials, including President Isaac Herzog<\/a>, also accused the UK of trying to interfere with Israel\u2019s upcoming elections.<\/p>\n

The foreign minister also argued that Jews have a historic right to live in the West Bank, where Jewish presence dates back thousands of years, saying, \u201cThe Jewish people have the right to live throughout the Land of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sa\u2019ar also argued that the UK\u2019s measures would push a negotiated solution further away rather than bring it closer.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s subsequent countermeasures against Britain included ordering the British Consulate closed, expelling British representatives from the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Kiryat Gat, and ending British training of Palestinian Authority security forces.<\/p>\n

Separately, King has pushed for a symbolic municipal response to the dispute. Last week, he called for Jerusalem\u2019s King George Street to be renamed \u201cTabur Haaretz.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked by The Jerusalem Post how Israel could maintain its diplomatic standing while asserting sovereignty over east Jerusalem as other countries consider similar measures, King said Monday\u2019s protest was focused specifically on governments with a diplomatic presence in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe British consulate in east Jerusalem on September 14, 2026. (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here in front of the British Consulate, like we were seven months ago in front of the French Consulate,\u201d King said. \u201cWe are not demonstrating against governments of countries that don\u2019t have a presence in Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

King clarified that his remarks were directed at the UK\u2019s Labor government, and not \u201cthe people of Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his remarks to reporters, King also rejected the British government\u2019s characterization of the territory as occupied, arguing that Israel had not taken it from a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was not a Palestinian state, not in 1948 and not 1967,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, who did we occupy it from?\u201d<\/p>\n

King further rejected a distinction between Jewish communities in east Jerusalem, the West Bank, and places within the pre-1967 lines, such as Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no difference between east Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria or Binyamin,\u201d he told the Post. \u201cThere is no difference between Tel Aviv and Jericho and Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King called on the Israeli government to immediately cut water, internet, and other services…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6557,3796,42,2894,3794,43,35648,4321,40,38,41,39,1299,77],"class_list":["post-616100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-diplomacy","tag-east-jerusalem","tag-headlines","tag-isaac-herzog","tag-jerusalem","tag-news","tag-otzma-yehudit","tag-sanctions","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}