UK threatens to expel 27 Israeli diplomats as Jerusalem consulate row explodes

LONDON/JERUSALEM — Britain has threatened to expel 27 Israeli diplomats in a dramatic escalation of the row over Israel's order to close the United Kingdom's consulate in East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera reported on Sunday. The threat marks the sharpest rupture in relations between the two countries in decades, and it comes as a last-ditch British diplomatic mission appears to have failed. Reuters reported on Sunday that Britain's National Security Adviser, Jonathan Powell, quietly travelled to Israel last week to try to save the consulate. Powell held talks with Israeli officials but reached no agreement, according to three sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The standoff began on September 8, when Israel ordered Britain to close its East Jerusalem consulate within 30 days and strip its diplomats of accreditation, after London announced a ban on trade in goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. France and Canada joined Britain in the sanctions move, but Israel has directed its retaliation principally at London, which it accuses of leading the effort. The consulate is accredited to the Palestinian Authority, and its closure would sever one of Britain's oldest channels to Palestinian affairs. Israel has also expelled British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, excluded Britain from the US-led Gaza coordination mission operating from Israel, terminated British participation in training Palestinian Authority security forces in Ramallah, and banned a number of elected British officials from entering Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar defended the measures, calling Britain's sanctions 'morally distorted' and 'blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state'. 'The message to any government that harms us is clear: whoever acts against Israel, Israel will act against them,' Sa'ar said. Britain says its sanctions target 'forced displacement' of Palestinians by what Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has called 'settler terrorists', and are meant to protect the prospects of a two-state solution. Miliband has argued Britain could no longer simply 'call out' settlement expansion and had to act. The 30-day deadline issued on September 8 falls this week, forcing both sides toward a final confrontation. With 27 diplomats now reportedly on London's expulsion list, the standoff threatens to widen into a full diplomatic rupture.