The British government is committed to fully restoring its diplomatic mission in East Jerusalem that serves Palestinians, former consul general Sir Vincent Fean told Arab News. The facility was downgraded this month after Israel threatened in September to shut it down completely.
“The British government is committed to ‘build back,’ i.e., to restore the full complement of this UK diplomatic mission,” Fean said. He added that there was no justification for what Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar did, and that there would be none for Israeli action against other British interests in Jerusalem.
Fean, a retired diplomat and former ambassador, headed the Consulate General in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood from 2010 to 2014. He said Britain has kept a diplomatic presence in Jerusalem since 1838 and adapted it in 1948 and again in 1967, when Israel occupied Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank. In July 2024 the International Court of Justice advised that the 1967 occupation is unlawful, advice Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accepted on Sept. 8.
That same day Israel gave Britain 30 days to close the consulate, which operates from a British-owned building near the walls of the Old City. The demand was retaliation for UK sanctions and a trade ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. On Oct. 8, when the deadline expired, Miliband said the facility would stay open under the name UK Mission, Jerusalem, after a last-minute compromise that included a temporary reduction in diplomatic staff. Fean said the mission will continue to deliver vital services, working with the Palestinian people.
Britain governed Palestine from 1920 to 1948 under a League of Nations mandate. Its first foothold in the city dates to 1838, in the reign of Queen Victoria, during a decade-long Egyptian occupation; Ottoman forces recaptured the city two years later. That first mission stood near the Jaffa Gate, beside Christ Church. At the time only Britain and France maintained a diplomatic presence in the Old City.
The mission later moved to Sheikh Jarrah while the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan ruled the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The building was bought in 1963 and opened shortly before the June 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel captured the area. Cartographer Khalil Tafakji told Arab News that in the 1950s and 1960s Sheikh Jarrah was known as the neighbourhood of consuls. Mansions built in the early 1900s by families including the Nashashibi, Husseini and Jarallah drew diplomats, health institutions and hotels.
Before 1967 most countries kept embassies in Amman and consulates in Jerusalem. The occupation led to the closure of several consulates, including those of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. The British building remains at 15 Nashashibibi Street. In recent years an Israeli settlement drive has encroached on northern Sheikh Jarrah, where diplomatic missions of Turkiye, Sweden, France, Spain and the UK were established.
This week the Amana settler organisation advanced a plan for 122 homes on a 5,665-square-metre plot in Karm Al-Mufti, land originally owned by former Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini, who died in 1974. The site is close to the UK mission, and Amana is among settler groups sanctioned by Britain. Sheikh Jarrah was a flashpoint in 2021, when Palestinian residents protested Israeli court eviction orders that would let settlers move into their homes. Tafakji said the neighbourhood also saw protests under Jordanian rule, including during the Suez Crisis launched by France, the UK and Israel.
Fean confirmed that the Jerusalem mission handles Palestinian affairs and operates separate from and independent of the British embassy in Tel Aviv. Britain officially recognised Palestine as a state in September 2025. Visa decisions for Palestinian applicants are now taken by British civil servants in the UAE, while assistants in Ramallah collect biometrics and payments. Decisions were previously made in Jordan. Fean said the shift was a UK administrative decision, not a political one.
The Britain Palestine Project, of which Fean is a trustee, said that since 1967 the heads of the Consulate General have not presented commissions to Israel or received an Israeli exequatur. The project said there is no accreditation for Israel to withdraw, that Israel does not exercise sovereignty over East Jerusalem, and that there are clear limits to its powers as occupier. The mission reports to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and covers Palestinian-related matters in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in July 1980. On Oct. 8 Miliband said the UK government reiterates its long-standing view that East Jerusalem is occupied territory. Saar described the downsizing as the closure of the Consulate General in East Jerusalem, while saying a task force of seven diplomats would remain because the building is British government property.
Saar belongs to Likud, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The government has increasingly denounced European officials over Israel’s campaign in Gaza, where its actions have faced accusations of genocide. Likud faces a general election on Oct. 27.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told Arab News it was hard to predict whether the right-wing coalition would escalate threats to close the UK mission if it wins re-election. He said that if Netanyahu remains prime minister, the government might seek to heal relations, including with Britain, or might still wish to escalate. He said keeping a diplomatic presence in East Jerusalem asserts that Britain has a stake in the future of the city, and that Britain still does not accept the sovereignty of any state over any part of Jerusalem.