Israel has ordered the closure of Britain’s consulate in Jerusalem and announced a series of further retaliatory measures after Andy Burnham’s government moved to fast-track sanctions against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, said London would also be excluded from a US-led international coordination mission for Gaza, marking a significant escalation in the diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
Israel will additionally ban 12 British officials and other individuals from entering the country, Mr Saar said, as the government in Jerusalem prepared further counter-measures in response to Britain’s decision.
The measures represent one of the sharpest ruptures in UK-Israel relations in recent years and follow the British government’s announcement of restrictions targeting goods and economic activity linked to West Bank settlements.
Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Mr Saar delivered a strongly worded rebuke of the British government’s position.
He said: “We do not return to our land after 2000 years in order to lose it under the pressure of Islamists, antisemites, jihadists, woke people and people from the extreme left.
“Not only will you not harm us, you will harm yourselves.”
The closure of the British consulate is particularly symbolically significant given its longstanding role in representing British interests in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel’s decision to exclude the UK from the US-led Gaza coordination mission could also have more substantial practical consequences, potentially limiting Britain’s influence over post-conflict reconstruction and governance arrangements in the territory.
The diplomatic confrontation follows mounting international concern over the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with Britain joining France, Canada and other countries in imposing or considering restrictions on settlement-related trade.
Britain has argued that settlement expansion threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state and undermines the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution. Israel, however, has rejected the sanctions as an unacceptable attempt by foreign governments to interfere in its domestic and territorial policies.
The dispute threatens to complicate Britain’s wider relationship with Israel at a time when London has sought to retain influence over the future governance of Gaza and the broader Middle East peace process.
Mr Saar’s comments suggest that Israel intends to frame the confrontation not simply as a disagreement over settlement policy but as part of a wider ideological conflict with western governments and political movements critical of its conduct in the Palestinian territories.
For Mr Burnham’s government, the retaliatory measures underline the potential diplomatic costs of its tougher approach towards Israel. The loss of access to the Gaza coordination mission may prove particularly politically sensitive if Britain is subsequently excluded from discussions over reconstruction, humanitarian assistance and the territory’s future administration.
Israel’s promise of further counter-measures meanwhile raises the prospect that the dispute could extend beyond the immediate issue of West Bank settlements, placing additional strain on a relationship that has historically been among Britain’s most important in the Middle East.
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