{"id":638337,"date":"2026-10-06T19:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T19:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/638337\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T19:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T19:26:11","slug":"not-the-act-of-a-friend-israels-deadline-to-close-uk-consulate-nears-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/638337\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not the act of a friend\u2019: Israel\u2019s deadline to close UK consulate nears | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

London, United Kingdom \u2013\u00a0The deadline Israel imposed on the United Kingdom to close its East Jerusalem consulate is fast approaching.<\/p>\n

Thursday marks 30 days since Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar\u2019s order, a retaliatory move against the UK\u2019s wave of sanctions targeting illegal Israeli settlements.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the act of a friend or ally,\u201d Sir Vincent Fean, former British consul general to Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera. \u201cThe British Consulate General has every right to be in Jerusalem, in East Jerusalem, part of the state of Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

From 2010 until 2014, Fean held the post as the de facto ambassador to occupied Palestinian territory. He is now a trustee of the Britain Palestine Project, advocating for equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn international law, for [the UK], and for the vast majority of the world, Israel does not have the right to interfere with the diplomatic relations between the state of Palestine and the state of the United Kingdom. It is doing so by closing our office, and that is unlawful,\u201d he said, adding that he is \u201cparticularly concerned\u201d for the consulate\u2019s 50 or so Palestinian staff.<\/p>\n

\"epa01373100Sir Vincent Fean [File: Sabri Elmhedwi\/EPA]<\/p>\n

UK-Israel ties have reached a nadir. On Monday, reports claimed<\/a> that the UK could expel 27 Israeli diplomats if the consulate closure goes ahead.<\/p>\n

British National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell has reportedly held talks with Israeli officials in a visit that was not disclosed by the UK government, but an agreement to keep the consulate open was not reached.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s response was furious following the UK\u2019s import ban<\/a> on goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as well as an overall change of tone. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has, for instance, lamented Israel\u2019s \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Miliband expected Israel to retaliate, but said the UK had \u201cweighed the costs and benefits of acting\u201d.<\/p>\n

In addition to the consulate closure order, Israel expelled the UK from the Washington-led coordination centre for post-war Gaza and barred 11 lawmakers from entering Israel, including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is illegal and unlawful for Israel to act in this way,\u201d Fean told Al Jazeera. \u201cThere\u2019s been a reset in UK foreign policy since [Prime Minister Andy] Burnham and Miliband came in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s hostile actions towards the UK \u201cwill not be forgiven or forgotten anytime soon\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n

In a brief by the Britain Palestine Project that was endorsed by former UK Attorney General Dominic Grieve KC and shared with Al Jazeera, the threatened closure is described as \u201can unlawful assertion of sovereignty over occupied Palestinian territory\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Israeli announcement usurps the rights of the State of Palestine,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n

Resolution 478 was adopted by the United Nations Security Council \u2013 of which the UK is a permanent member \u2013 in 1980, resolving that Israel\u2019s attempts to alter the status of Jerusalem are \u201cnull and void\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Resolution 2334 reiterated this, \u201ccondemning all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem\u201d.<\/p>\n

The UK formally recognised the State of Palestine in September of 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If the UK resists Israel\u2019s orders, there are various logistical challenges Israel could feasibly impose on the consulate and the diplomats within it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe practicality is that the Consulate General depends on Israeli electricity [and] water. So there are means by which Israel could force the expulsion, the closure, of the Consulate General,\u201d Fean told Al Jazeera. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, but this Israeli government has broken many laws,\u201d he said when asked if Israel may use electricity or water cut-offs as a means to expel British diplomats.<\/p>\n

While reiterating that the UK\u2019s East Jerusalem consulate should remain open despite orders, Fean said that \u201cif that proves to be made impossible by force of the Israeli government, then there are alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign embassies in Ramallah could be an alternate route to manage consulate affairs, he said.<\/p>\n

The consulate acts as the channel of communications between the UK and the Palestinian government and manages consular affairs for British nationals in the region, including pilgrims to the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet again, Israel is taking it out on the Palestinians for something that somebody else has done,\u201d said Fean. \u201cThe impunity of Israel needs to be challenged. The fact that this Israeli government seems to see itself as above the law needs to be challenged.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human rights advocates have urged the UK to resist Israel\u2019s orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuch a retaliatory step from Israel suggests that any further measures taken by the UK could trigger further responses,\u201d said Zena Agha, deputy director of the British Palestinian Committee. \u201cBut that should not deter the UK from meeting its obligations under international law \u2013 nor pursuing measures towards accountability for Israel\u2019s genocide and occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shamiul Joarder, director of Friends of al-Aqsa, reiterated the illegality of Israel\u2019s actions and told Al Jazeera, \u201cIf Britain accepts this order, it risks allowing Israel to dictate the terms of Britain\u2019s diplomatic presence in occupied East Jerusalem. That would set a deeply concerning precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) did not respond to Al Jazeera\u2019s request for comment on Israel\u2019s orders to close the British Consulate, nor on the UK\u2019s intended response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"London, United Kingdom \u2013\u00a0The deadline Israel imposed on the United Kingdom to close its East Jerusalem consulate is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,85,46,44,43,1299],"class_list":["post-638337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-europe","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-news","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638337","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=638337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}