Israel to shut British consulate in Jerusalem on Thursday as 11 arrested at London October 7 protests
Foreign minister Gideon Saar said Israel would hold firm on stripping the Sheikh Jarrah consulate of diplomatic status in retaliation for the UK settlement trade ban, as eleven people were arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations and counter-protests in London on the October 7 anniversary.
Israel will shut the British consulate in Jerusalem on Thursday, stripping it of diplomatic status in retaliation for Britain’s ban on trade with Israeli settlements, as eleven people were arrested at pro-Palestine demonstrations and counter-protests in London on the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks.
Foreign minister Gideon Saar said Israel would hold firm despite British efforts to reach an agreement to prevent the closure. A spokesperson for Mr Saar told Reuters: “It would close on Thursday, as announced.” The move would bar around 30 diplomats from legally operating from the building in Sheikh Jarrah, which provides consular services to Palestinians in East Jerusalem and handles British relations with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel ordered the closure on 8 September, setting a 30-day deadline, after Britain announced it would ban goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. France and Canada joined the sanctions. Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, made an undisclosed visit to Israel last week to try to keep the consulate open, but no agreement was reached, and Reuters reported that a deal before Thursday’s deadline was unlikely.
It would close on Thursday, as announced.Spokesperson for Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar, quoted by Reuters, 7 October 2026
London has warned it would expel Israeli diplomats in response if British diplomats were forced out. Israel says it will stop short of expelling the diplomats and expects them to work from the British embassy in Tel Aviv instead.
The consulate closure coincides with a day of tension in London. The Metropolitan Police arrested eleven people on Wednesday as pro-Palestine student marches and a counter-protest clashed on the anniversary of the Hamas attacks that killed some 1,200 people in Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage.
Five people were arrested on Wednesday morning for inciting racial hatred at what police called a “spontaneous protest” outside the Board of Deputies of British Jews in Camden, after allegedly shouting or chanting slogans calling for intifada. Four more were held at student marches and one at the counter-protest in Holborn for breaching the Public Order Act, and one person was arrested for common assault.
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting called the protests “shameful” and Education Secretary Lucy Powell urged students to protest on another day. Around 100 marchers walked from King’s College London to University College London under strict police conditions, including a ban on face coverings. Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg said the organisation would “not be threatened or intimidated by this small and extremist minority of British society”.
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