Britain has warned Israel that it will expel 27 Israeli diplomats from the embassy in London unless Jerusalem reverses its decision to close the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, according to a message conveyed to Israeli officials and obtained by ynet.
The warning marks a sharp escalation in already strained relations between Israel and Britain, which deteriorated further last month after London announced new measures targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The British government has banned imports of goods from settlements and announced sanctions against individuals and companies it says support, facilitate or profit from settlement activity. Britain considers Israeli settlements illegal under international law, a position Israel disputes.
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Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband
(Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images, AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
In response, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar announced a series of measures against Britain, including the closure of its consulate in East Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians and employs 27 British diplomats.
The British Consulate General in Jerusalem operates separately from the British Embassy to Israel. According to the British government, it represents London in its dealings with Palestinians in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza and handles political, economic, security and consular affairs. Britain recognizes Israel's de facto authority over West Jerusalem but has not recognized sovereignty over Jerusalem as a whole, saying the city's final status must be determined through negotiations.
Israel's decision to close the consulate and revoke the diplomatic credentials of its staff is due to take effect Thursday. Dozens of locally employed staff members have already been dismissed and the British diplomats are preparing to leave.
Sa'ar's other measures included removing British representatives from the international aid coordination center for Gaza in the southern city of Kiryat Gat, ending British involvement in training Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank and barring 12 British elected officials and other citizens from entering Israel.
Israel said those barred had been involved in antisemitic or anti-Israel activity or had denied Israel's right to exist.
People familiar with the dispute said British officials were shocked by the Israeli measures and had not expected such a severe response. They were particularly angered by Israel's decision to give the diplomats serving at the East Jerusalem consulate only 30 days to leave the country.
The officials noted that Russia, by comparison, gave Britain four months to close its consulate in St. Petersburg amid a diplomatic dispute involving espionage allegations.
The Israeli embassy in London
(Photo: Henry Nicholls / AFP)
Britain initially refrained from publicly announcing retaliatory measures, believing it could persuade Israel to reverse its decision through quiet, behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
London has now conveyed a more explicit warning, however. British Ambassador to Israel Simon Walters informed Israeli officials that if the closure goes ahead, Britain would respond by expelling 27 diplomats serving at the Israeli Embassy in London — one Israeli diplomat for each British diplomat whose work in East Jerusalem is being terminated, according to people familiar with the message.
Such a move would severely impair the Israeli Embassy's ability to operate. Although the mission employs more than 27 diplomats, the total is not substantially higher.
The embassy has also been without an ambassador for more than a year, since Tzipi Hotovely returned to Israel in September 2025. It is currently headed by chargé d'affaires Chris Cantor.
The British Embassy declined to comment on the report.
Relations deteriorate over Gaza and West Bank
The dispute comes amid a broader deterioration in ties between the two countries over Israel's policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
Britain has increasingly criticized Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence and says its latest measures are intended to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution. In September, Britain joined a group of Western countries warning that Israeli actions in the West Bank were undermining prospects for a Palestinian state.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham's government has also stepped up its criticism of Israel's conduct in Gaza. In a speech to the UN General Assembly last month, Burnham condemned Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack and affirmed Britain's support for Israel in the face of threats from Iran, while sharply criticizing the Israeli government's actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who took office in July, has made the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a prominent part of British foreign policy. Miliband, the son of Jewish refugees who fled the Nazis, has repeatedly emphasized both his personal connection to Israel and his opposition to Israeli government policies in Gaza and the West Bank.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband slams the Netanyahu government
At the Labour Party conference in Liverpool last week, Miliband received loud applause during a speech in which he denounced what he described as war crimes in Gaza, attacked Israeli government policy and defended London's decision to prohibit trade in goods from West Bank settlements.
Miliband also acknowledged the domestic pressure facing the government over Gaza, saying millions of people in Britain had been appalled by events there. "We hear you. You were right," he said.
The tensions have unfolded against an increasingly contentious British political debate over Israel and Zionism.
On Saturday, Britain's Green Party conference approved a motion describing Zionism as a "racist ideology" and calling for a single Palestinian state in place of Israel. British media noted that the decision placed the Greens, which have grown substantially in political prominence, in an unusually explicit anti-Zionist position among mainstream European political parties.
The diplomatic standoff now leaves Israel and Britain facing the prospect of one of the most serious disruptions to their bilateral diplomatic representation in years, with Thursday's deadline for the East Jerusalem consulate closure approaching.