A last-ditch mission by Britain's national security adviser to stop Israel closing its historic consulate in East Jerusalem has failed, pushing London and Jerusalem toward their sharpest diplomatic rupture in years and raising the prospect of tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats in the coming days.
Jonathan Powell traveled to Israel earlier this month for talks aimed at reversing or delaying the closure order, but officials on both sides confirmed the visit ended without an agreement. Israel's government has told Britain its Consulate General in East Jerusalem — in operation since 1838 and historically Britain's channel for relations with Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — must shut, stripping roughly 27 British staff there of their diplomatic status.
Retaliation Layered on Retaliation
The closure order is Israel's response to sanctions the UK announced on Sept. 8 targeting Israeli settlements and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, part of a coordinated package with France and Canada. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar framed the consulate's closure as one of several countermeasures, which also include giving British officials attached to a U.S.-led Gaza coordination mission, as well as UK diplomats based in Ramallah, seven days to leave; barring Britain from training Palestinian security forces in the West Bank; and denying entry to 12 British lawmakers and public figures — including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn — whom Israel accuses of antisemitic or anti-Israel activity.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he regretted the decision but had anticipated it when the UK imposed its own sanctions:
We weighed the costs and benefits of acting … and we thought we simply could not stand by because we feared Israeli action.
Ed Miliband, UK Foreign Secretary
Britain is now weighing the expulsion of 27 Israeli diplomats from London — a figure UK officials say is designed to mirror, one for one, the British staff losing their status in Jerusalem.
The dispute has also exposed divisions within each country. Emily Thornberry, who chairs the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that the closure oversteps Israel's authority, saying East Jerusalem is occupied Palestinian territory and that shutting the consulate there "is not in Israel's prerogative." Dominic Grieve, a former UK attorney general, went further, calling the move an unlawful assertion of Israeli sovereignty over the area. In Israel, opposition leader Yair Lapid criticized his own government's handling of the standoff, warning that "creating crises is not a policy" and that the British embassy relationship risked becoming unworkable.
With the closure deadline now effectively passed and Powell's mission unsuccessful, both governments face a decision this week on whether to follow through on threatened retaliation or seek a face-saving pause — an outcome diplomats in both capitals say looks increasingly unlikely given how far the rhetoric has already escalated.
