Arab News | Israel orders closure of UK consulate in Jerusalem over settlement sanctions

JERUSALEM: Israel on Tuesday ordered the closure of Britain’s consulate in Jerusalem as retaliation after London led Western sanctions over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israel said it would also expel British diplomats at a center monitoring the US-brokered ceasefire plan in Gaza and bar British training for Palestinian Authority forces, as well as banning 12 British officials from visiting Israel.

“The accusations made today by the foreign secretary in the British Parliament were outrageous lies,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said, after his British counterpart Ed Miliband accused Israeli settlers of “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank.

“The British move is morally distorted and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and in its electoral process,” he said, ahead of close-fought October 27 elections in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is championing settlements in the West Bank.

Saar said Israel was closing the British consulate which lies in east Jerusalem, part of the historically Palestinian area that Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel considers Jerusalem its undivided capital, a stance that is not internationally accepted, with the exception of a handful of countries including the United States under President Donald Trump.

“United Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and is under its full sovereignty,” Saar said.

“Any foreign activity in the area must be conducted through accepted and agreed channels and without violating Israel’s sovereignty.”