British diplomats to remain at East Jerusalem consulate to offer vital services

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - JERUSALEM — The United Kingdom said on Thursday its nearly 200-year-old consulate in occupied EastJerusalem would remain operating at a smaller scale after Israel ordered ​it shut in a dispute over British sanctions on Jewish settlements.

Israel last month issued a 30-day deadline for ‌Britain to close the consulate after London announced sanctions targeting settlements in the occupied West Bank, a dispute that has strained relations between the longtime allies. The deadline expired on Thursday.

Most diplomats will leave as the British consulate would ​formally end operations, though some would be allowed to continue work in the building under ​a deal struck between Israel and Britain, Israel said.

"We did not want it to come to this," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on social media. He said 20 diplomats and the consul general would leave Israel while a task force of seven could remain in the building "with a very limited scope of activity".

But Britain insists the building "will not be closing", and will operate as a "UK Mission" in the city.

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Miliband said some staff had been "temporarily withdrawn" for security reasons, but stressed the UK Mission would continue to "deliver vital services and our work with the Palestinian people."

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.

The United Nations and most countries consider the Israeli settlements to be illegal under international law.

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.