{"id":639943,"date":"2026-10-08T07:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/639943\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T07:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T07:38:09","slug":"uk-says-east-jerusalem-consulate-building-to-remain-open-as-a-mission-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/639943\/","title":{"rendered":"UK says East Jerusalem consulate building to remain open as a mission | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK Foreign \u2060Minister \u2060Ed Miliband says consulate building in occupied East Jerusalem would not be closing as Israeli deadline expires.<\/p>\n

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Published On 8 Oct 20268 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

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Updated: 23 minutes agoUpdated: 23 minutes ago<\/p>\n

British Foreign \u2060Minister \u2060Ed Miliband says the United Kingdom consulate building in occupied \u2060East Jerusalem would not be closing but would \u2060be known as a UK mission.<\/p>\n

Israel had ordered the \u200cBritish consulate in occupied East Jerusalem to close on Thursday over the UK\u2019s plans to impose sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday Israel had authorised the UK to continue to operate from the building in a limited scope with seven diplomats.<\/p>\n

He said 20 diplomats, including the British consul general, were ending their assignments and would leave Israel.<\/p>\n

Earlier, journalists from the Reuters news agency saw \u200cworkers remove a plaque reading \u201cBritish Consulate General\u201d from the building on Thursday, as well as another sign for its consular section. The UK flag was still flying over the building.<\/p>\n

Miliband said \u2060that having withdrawn \u2060a number of staff and families in recent weeks, the UK would now \u2060work to build up its presence.<\/p>\n

He said \u2060the UK would not \u2060take any reciprocal action against Israel while the two sides engage in \u200ctalks, following speculation that the UK could expel a number of Israeli \u200cdiplomats \u200cfrom it.<\/p>\n

Strained ties<\/p>\n

Thursday marks 30 days since Israel ordered<\/a> the closure of the consulate. The move was in response to the UK\u2019s wave of sanctions<\/a> on illegal Israeli settlements, including a ban on importing goods produced there.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have established a clear principle \u2013 no action can be taken against Israel without Israel taking appropriate retaliatory measures,\u201d Saar wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n

He said the measures were implemented \u201cin this spirit\u201d following his September 8 announcement.<\/p>\n

The United Nations and most countries consider the settlements illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.<\/p>\n

The UK had threatened<\/a> to expel 27 Israeli diplomats if Israel proceeded to close the consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, according to unverified Israeli media reports.<\/p>\n

Israel has been adamant the consulate will close even as the UK has sought to keep it open, including sending the country\u2019s top national security adviser to Israel last week for talks.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s presence in the city dates back almost 200 years, long before the state of Israel was established in 1948. The closure order does not affect the UK\u2019s embassy in Tel Aviv, which handles diplomatic relations with Israel\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The consulate, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, handles the UK\u2019s relations with Palestinians in Jerusalem, as well as in \u200cthe occupied West \u2060Bank and Gaza. It also provides consular services to Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Despite the current strains, the \u2060UK and Israel are close economic, security and intelligence partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK Foreign \u2060Minister \u2060Ed Miliband says consulate building in occupied East Jerusalem would not be closing as Israeli…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[234,85,46,44,3794,43,11420,48,238,1299],"class_list":["post-639943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-government","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-jerusalem","tag-news","tag-occupied-east-jerusalem","tag-palestine","tag-politics","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639943","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=639943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}