The UK has officially scaled down its consular operations in Jerusalem on Thursday, following a row with Israel.
The consulate will now be referred to as the “UK Mission in Jerusalem,” with a focus on delivering vital services in East Jerusalem and Palestine, according to a statement from UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.
“We have been clear that we do not accept that the Government of Israel has the legal right to close the British Consulate General in Jerusalem, which has been there for nearly 200 years. On September 8, 2026, the UK designated five settlers under the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 and announced that it will also introduce a new sanctions regime targeting settlements in the occupied West Bank over the next six to nine months. The UK government reiterates its long-standing view that East Jerusalem is occupied territory,” read the statement from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. An E1 tender refers to a government-issued construction bid to settlers in the occupied West Bank region.
The UK order also comes after the foreign secretary saw the crossing of a “red line” over the issue of E1 tenders to 1,200 homes.
Let us be absolutely clear what this means: the creation of a set of facts on the ground to make the two-state solution unviable,” said Ed Miliband in an address to the House of Commons on September 8. The Consul General and 19 other diplomats have been asked to leave. “The Bedouin communities I met in Khan al-Ahmar had lived on that land for generations. E1 proposals would evict them and place settlements directly between East Jerusalem and the West Bank, cutting through the heart of Palestine. “The British Government agree that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists. All too often, the Israeli Government have turned a blind eye to that,” Miliband added. Furthermore, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar has also called for the following actions – Since the building in East Jerusalem is property of the British government, only seven diplomats will be allowed to operate in the region. The Israeli minister also added that the consulate’s signage has been removed.
