JERUSALEM — Britain announced Thursday that its nearly 200-year-old consulate in Jerusalem will continue to operate on a smaller scale, renamed the “British Mission” in the city, after Israel ordered it closed due to a dispute over settlement sanctions.
Israel last month set a 30-day deadline for Britain to close its consulate after London announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a dispute that strained relations between the longtime allies. The deadline expired on Thursday.
Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, said in a statement that the consulate in East Jerusalem would officially end its operations but that some British diplomats would be allowed to continue working in the building under an agreement reached between Israel and Britain.
Saar’s British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, said his country does not accept that Israel has the legal right to close the consulate. The consulate is in a part of the city captured by Israel in the 1967 war, which Israel later annexed in a move most countries do not recognize.
Miliband said that following discussions with Israel, “our Consulate General building will not close and will be known as the British Mission in Jerusalem from today”.
Miliband said the British mission would continue to “deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people”.
Earlier on Thursday, Reuters journalists saw consulate workers removing a plaque reading “British Consulate General” and another sign indicating its consular section. The British flag still flew above the building.
Israel last month ordered Britain to close the consulate within 30 days and “withdraw its diplomats from the city”, after Britain announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including a trade ban on products manufactured there.
The United Nations and most countries consider Israeli settlements illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.
Israel insisted on closing the consulate even as Britain sought to keep it open, including sending the country’s top national security adviser to Israel last week for talks.
The British consulate was founded in 1839, well before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. The closure order does not affect the British embassy in Tel Aviv, which handles diplomatic relations with the Israeli government.
The consulate, located in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, manages Britain’s relations with the Palestinians in Jerusalem, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza. It also provides consular services to Palestinians.
The announcement of British sanctions and the Israeli order to close the consulate mark a new low point in a relationship that has deteriorated over the past three years. Britain has repeatedly criticized Israel for its actions in the Gaza war and for Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which faces elections later this month, has accused Britain’s ruling Labor Party of being hostile toward Israel.
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