The UK government is considering expelling Israeli diplomats if Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration moves ahead with plans to close the British consulate in Jerusalem.
UK national security adviser Jonathan Powell travelled to Israel for secret talks last week in a bid to reach a compromise. Those efforts have yet to succeed, according to several people familiar with the matter, with the deadline for closing the consulate looming this week.
“There are ongoing talks and space for some kind of deal regarding the consulate but so far nothing has been agreed and it’s looking unlikely ahead of Thursday,” said one person familiar with the matter.
“The Israeli government is in an election campaign and the issue plays well in its rightwing base,” they added.
Two of the people familiar with the matter said that even if Israel went ahead with the move to close the Jerusalem consulate, London would be likely to wait until after the results of the October 27 election to make good on the retaliatory threats, if at all.
The UK threat to expel Israeli diplomats from London was first reported by Israeli news site Ynet on Monday, although several of the people familiar with the matter said it was not accurate that more than two dozen were set for expulsion.
A second person familiar with the matter said that UK officials had believed there was “progress in the talks” and speculated that the leaks to the media were a bid by elements within Netanyahu’s government to scupper any possible agreement.
The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment.
“There is no reason for us to address speculations regarding decisions that other countries might make in the future,” said an Israeli official.
“We have already proven that any step against Israel will be answered in the appropriate fashion, and this will be the case in the future as well,” they added.
UK-Israel ties deteriorated sharply last month after London announced an import ban on goods and some services linked to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Announcing the measures in parliament, UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband said he felt a “deep sense of shame” about events in the Palestinian territories, amid escalating settler violence and settlement construction in the West Bank and the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza after several years of war.
The moves triggered an unprecedented diplomatic response from Israel, with the Netanyahu government immediately announcing its intention to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem, a mission opened almost 200 years ago and which currently primarily serves Palestinians.
Additional steps taken by Israel included the expulsion of two teams of British officials from Ramallah and the US-led co-ordination centre for postwar Gaza, as well as banning a dozen British MPs from entering Israel.
Miliband last month said he expressed “regret” over the Israeli government’s measures but added: “I’m proud of what we did and it was the right thing to do.”
Last week he reiterated to LBC that Britain did not want the consulate to close, adding that it was “a conversation we continue to have” with the Israelis.
Several of the people familiar with the matter expressed concern that “tit-for-tat” reprisals between the two governments would continue and further damage bilateral ties if Israel closed the consulate and London went ahead with its expulsion threats.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office declined to comment on speculation and live discussions.