Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced a series of retaliatory measures against the United Kingdom on September 8, 2026, including the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem. The order gives the consulate 30 days to cease operations, with diplomats losing accreditation at that time, an Israeli official told Reuters. Additionally, British personnel involved in a U.S.-led coordination center for Gaza in Kiryat Gat must leave immediately, according to reports in The Jerusalem Post. Sa’ar framed the response as necessary following the UK’s imposition of sanctions on Israeli settlements.
The UK sanctions, announced by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, ban imports of goods from settlements in the occupied West Bank and were coordinated with France, Canada and nine other countries, The Guardian reported. Miliband described the settler activities as amounting to ethnic cleansing carried out with the tacit support of the Israeli government. A British official cited by KAN News called Israel’s retaliatory steps regrettable but maintained that the sanctions addressed a moral and security imperative related to violence in the West Bank. The official stressed that the measures targeted extremists rather than Israel as a whole.
In addition to the consulate closure, Israel will terminate longstanding British training programs for Palestinian Authority security forces in Ramallah and bar entry to 12 British lawmakers and activists, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Sa’ar listed these individuals as having engaged in antisemitic and anti-Israel activities, according to The Times of Israel. The foreign minister accused the UK of interfering in Israel’s upcoming elections scheduled for late October. These steps mark a significant escalation in diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
The British consulate in East Jerusalem, which was established in 1839, functions as the United Kingdom’s diplomatic mission to the Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, The New York Times noted in its coverage. Its closure represents a major disruption to British representation in the region. Sources indicated that Israel’s government planned to convene on September 10, 2026, to formulate responses to the other nations that joined the UK in the sanctions effort, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
BBC News reported that the sanctions followed increased international concern over settler violence in the West Bank after recent attacks by Israeli extremists on Palestinian communities. Israel has rejected the characterization of its policies, with Sa’ar calling the British accusations outrageous and false in his recorded statement. The foreign minister’s English-language remarks echoed his initial Hebrew comments that described a boycott of settlement goods as a despicable practice harming law-abiding citizens and Palestinian workers.
The dispute comes amid broader international isolation for Israel following the Gaza war, as described in coverage by The Christian Science Monitor. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has separately criticized settler violence while maintaining strong support for the country, according to The New York Times. British officials expressed that their actions were not intended as an attack on Israel but as a response to extremists and violence in the territory.
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