Both sides claim a win — but relations have soured over British plans to sanction West Bank settlements.
LONDON — The U.K. and Israel have stepped back from the diplomatic brink by securing a compromise to prevent the full closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem.
Most diplomats will leave what will now be operating as a “U.K. Mission” in the occupied territory — but Israel has stopped short of closing it entirely ahead of Thursday’s deadline.
Both sides were presenting this as a good outcome Thursday, in a diplomatic tussle over the U.K.’s plans to impose sanctions on illegal settlements in the West Bank.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the diplomats and their families were being “temporarily withdrawn” to secure their safety, but he said the mission will remain independent, operational and continue to work with the Palestinian people.
“We will work in the coming months to build back up our presence, and we will not take reciprocal action while such discussions are underway and credible,” he continued, in a statement released as he was visiting Ukraine.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar set out a list of diplomatic actions taken against Britain, adding: “We established a clear principle: It is not possible to act against Israel without Israel taking appropriate measures in response.”
Sa’ar said the consulate would be “closing its operations today” and that the “sign of the British Consulate in Jerusalem has been removed.” Twenty British diplomats, including the consul general, will be leaving East Jerusalem.
But the British flag was still flying on Thursday afternoon. Seven diplomats remain.
The dispute over the consulate has been the latest marker of declining relations between Israel and the U.K. under its Labour government. Israel threatened to close the consulate within 30 days of Sept. 8, in retaliation against Andy Burnham’s government announcing a ban on trade with illegal settlements in the West Bank.
A person familiar with Israeli government thinking, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, told POLITICO the mission is “basically an empty shell” that cannot issue visas, renew passports or liaise with the Palestinian Authority. Britain does not tend to issue visas or passports in consulates.
“The seven diplomats there, their work is basically to maintain the building and hold the Union Jack in place,” they said.
A British official presented the deal as a “good outcome” nonetheless. After three weeks of hard-fought negotiations, a feared spiral of tit-for-tat expulsions has been avoided.
The U.K. has told Israel it is keeping the possibility of retaliation open, however, after Israel threatened to expel British diplomats from Israel. The Israeli government had been demanding that the U.K. rolls back its pending package of sanctions on West Bank settlements, but British ministers are holding firm.
Miliband maintained Thursday that Britain does not accept Israel has a “legal right” to shutter the site that has been there for nearly 200 years, because East Jerusalem is deemed “occupied territory.”
The hope in the U.K. Foreign Office is that maintaining a presence will make it easier to build back up after elections in Israel on Oct. 27.
U.K. National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell traveled to Jerusalem last week as part of efforts to persuade the Israeli government not to shut the consulate, but a breakthrough wasn’t reached until Wednesday night.
“The foreign secretary was very clear on our red lines. We’re not reopening the sanctions package and we have to keep our presence in East Jerusalem,” said the U.K. official cited above. “We were very clear about that with the Israelis. We had lots of back and forth with them through officials. It took time but we had been confident we could get to a decent place.”