Israel on Thursday said the British consulate in Jerusalem had ceased to function as a consulate, with 20 British diplomats, including the consul general, leaving the country, while Britain said the building would remain open as the “UK Mission, Jerusalem”.
The development followed a diplomatic standoff between the two countries after Israel ordered the closure of the consulate in September in retaliation for Britain and other Western countries imposing sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the move to downsize the British diplomatic presence followed dialogue with the UK government aimed at avoiding an escalation in tensions.
“As I announced, the British consulate in Jerusalem ended its role today,” Saar said in a statement, adding that 20 diplomats including the consul general were ending their missions and leaving the country.
Saar said the building was the property of the British government and that a “task force of only seven diplomats” would be allowed to operate from the premises, “which ceased to function as a consulate today”.
“Their scope of activity will be very limited,” Saar said.
He added that “Israel will no longer turn its cheek to diplomatic attacks against it.”
Britain, however, said it had reached an agreement with the Israeli government under which the building would continue to operate.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the building “will not be closing, and will be known as the UK Mission, Jerusalem”.
“The UK Mission, Jerusalem is independent, operational and will continue to deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people,” Miliband said in a statement.
He said the arrangement would maintain Britain's longstanding presence in Jerusalem and its role in supporting a two-state solution.
“This will ensure that we maintain our longstanding British presence and the U.K.'s role in support of a two-state solution,” he added.
The UK said it would not take reciprocal measures, such as expelling Israeli diplomats from London, under the current agreement.
An AFP photographer on Thursday saw that the diplomatic emblem and a plaque on the facade of the consulate had been removed. It was not immediately clear whether new plaques would be installed.
Saar had ordered the consulate's closure on September 8. At the time, Israel also said it would expel British representatives from a centre monitoring the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire plan, bar British training for Palestinian Authority forces and ban 12 Britons, mostly members of Parliament, from visiting Israel. Saar said Thursday that those measures had been implemented.
The retaliation came after 12 countries, including Britain, Canada and France, announced sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank following a surge in settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied territory.
The British consulate in Jerusalem was founded nearly 200 years ago. It is located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed. Israel regards the city as its undivided capital, while Britain and most other countries do not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Jerusalem.
The consulate has handled British political, commercial, security and economic interests with the Palestinians and provided consular services to British nationals in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.