By Alexander Cornwell and Ammar Awad
JERUSALEM, Oct 8 (Reuters) – Britain said on Thursday its nearly 200-year-old consulate in Jerusalem would remain operating at a smaller scale, renamed as the “UK Mission” in the city, after Israel ordered it shut in a dispute over sanctions on settlements.
Israel last month issued a 30-day deadline for Britain to close the consulate after London announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a dispute that has 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 formally end operations but that some British diplomats would be allowed to continue work in the building under a deal struck 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 Israel captured in a 1967 war, which Israel later annexed in a move that most countries do not recognise.
Miliband said that following discussions with Israel, “our Consulate General building will not be closing, and will be known as the UK Mission, Jerusalem from today.”
Miliband said the UK Mission would continue to “deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people.”
WORKERS REMOVE SIGNAGE FROM CONSULATE BUILDING
Earlier on Thursday, Reuters journalists saw workers in the consulate remove a plaque reading “British Consulate General” and another sign for its consular section. The British flag was still flying over the building.
Israel last month ordered Britain to close the consulate within 30 days and remove its diplomats from the city, after Britain announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including a trade ban on goods made there.
The United Nations and most countries consider the Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.
Israel has been adamant the consulate will close even as Britain sought to keep it open, including sending the country’s top national security adviser to Israel last week for talks.
Britain’s consulate was founded in 1839, long before the State of Israel was established in 1948. The closure order does not affect Britain’s embassy in Tel Aviv, which handles diplomatic relations with Israel’s government.
The consulate, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of East Jerusalem, handles Britain’s relations with Palestinians in Jerusalem, as well as in the West Bank and Gaza. It also provides consular services to Palestinians.
The British sanctions announcement, and Israel’s order to close the consulate, mark a new low in a relationship that has deteriorated over the past three years. Britain has repeatedly criticised Israel over its actions in the war in Gaza and over Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which faces an election later this month, has accused Britain’s governing Labour Party of being hostile towards Israel.
(Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Ammar Awad; Editing by Rami Ayyub, Daniel Wallis, Peter Graff)
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