Israel closes Britain’s Jerusalem consulate amid slate of diplomatic countermeasures against UK sanctions
Trump was reportedly informed but didn't prevent UK sanctions
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced a series of harsh diplomatic moves against the United Kingdom on Tuesday in response to Great Britain announcing trade sanctions as part of a “comprehensive reset” of policy towards Israel by the Labour government.
“A boycott of goods from Judea and Samaria is a despicable practice that harms hard-working, law-abiding citizens. The Labour Government has decided to employ this practice of boycotts and BDS only against the Jewish state,” Sa’ar said.
Israel will close the British Consulate in Jerusalem, remove British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, terminate the UK's training of Palestinian Authority forces in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), and ban 12 elected representatives and other British nationals involved in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity.
“The message to every government that harms us is clear: whoever acts against Israel, Israel will act against them, and they will lose their influence and relevance in the region. Measures against Israel will not go unanswered,” Sa’ar pledged.
The moves are notably less harsh than the measures demanded by several Israeli ministers. “Expel the British ambassador tonight!” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said. “The British Mandate in the Land of Israel is over.”
He called the UK “a country conquered by radical Islam, trying to save itself from economic and social decline by attacking Jews and the State of Israel.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called for Israel to recognize the Falkland Islands as “Argentine territory under occupation.”
A Western official on Wednesday told the Times of Israel that U.S. President Donald Trump was informed of Britain's plans to sanction Israeli settlements but didn’t push back. “There was no request to hold off,” the official said, citing a call he was briefed on between Trump and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham earlier this week.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We were made aware that they are gonna make this decision. We heard their arguments as to why. We share the goal of stability. We don’t want to see an uptick in violence or tensions in the West Bank in a tenuous time in the region.”
Prime Minister Burnham doubled down on the sanctions on Wednesday, noting that “for far too long, we hesitated to act for fear of being accused of anti-Israelism.” He wrote on 𝕏 that the sanctions were not aimed at Israeli people but at “the unacceptable policies of the current Israeli government.”
“The suffering of the Palestinian people is a scar on the conscience of the world. Innocent Palestinians, including children, continue to be killed in Gaza. And there is still a humanitarian crisis, with far too little aid getting in. The scale of destruction is hard to comprehend. More than 70,000 people lie dead – at least 20,000 of them children. Families and communities have been torn apart. Millions displaced. And the population of Gaza is now penned into just one third of the territory,” Burnham said.
Great conversation this evening with UK Opposition Leader @KemiBadenoch and Shadow Foreign Secretary @TomTugendhat.
— Gideon Sa'ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) September 8, 2026
I thanked them for their firm opposition to the hostile Labour Government’s announcement today and its series of anti-Israel policies since taking office.
I… pic.twitter.com/MhtHZt5w7A
In a statement, Foreign Minister Sa’ar described the British moves as echoing “the antisemitic words of British Lieutenant-General Barker, commander of British forces in Mandatory Palestine who said, ‘punish the Jews by striking at their pockets.’”
“The move by the Labour Government in Britain is particularly absurd given that, more than a century ago, it was the Balfour Declaration of the British Government that formally recognised the historic right of the Jewish people to re-establish their national home in the Land of Israel, including in Judea and Samaria,” he charged.
Sa’ar also said, “Contrary to the false claims of the Labour Government, no new decisions have been made regarding development in E1. The decision was taken more than a year ago, and the tender process has been underway for many months.”
“The claims regarding the severing of potential Palestinian territorial contiguity are also baseless. The decision of the Government of Israel, taken more than a year ago, stipulated that two roads would be built: the first, Road 80, which will serve as a major transportation route from the Bethlehem area to the Ramallah area; the second, known as the ‘Fabric of Life’ Road, between a-Za’im and al-Ezariya.”
“This conflict will not be resolved through declarations from London or Paris, and a one-sided, anti-Israel approach only pushes the possibility of reaching a solution further away rather than bringing it closer.”
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