Israel announced a series of retaliatory measures against the United Kingdom on Tuesday following Britain’s decision to impose sweeping economic sanctions targeting Israeli communities in Yehuda and Shomron.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that Israel will close the British Consulate in Jerusalem, remove British representatives from the international coordination headquarters in Kiryat Gat, end British involvement in training Palestinian Authority security forces in Ramallah, and bar 12 British elected officials from entering Israel.

According to Sa’ar, the 12 officials targeted by the entry ban have been involved in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity and deny Israel’s right to exist.

“Britain initiated and led the current move — it planned it long in advance,” Sa’ar said, warning that Israel could also take retaliatory measures against other countries that move against it. “The message to every government that harms us: Whoever acts against Israel — Israel will act against it, and it will lose its influence and relevance. Steps against Israel will not go unanswered.”

Sa’ar accused Britain’s Labour government of taking the measures for domestic political reasons ahead of the party’s conference later this month, calling the move “morally distorted” and a blatant intervention in the affairs of a sovereign country.

“The Jewish people have the right to live throughout Eretz Yisroel no less than the British have the right to live in Britain or the French in France,” Sa’ar said. He also invoked the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate, arguing that Britain itself recognized the Jewish people’s historic rights to the land more than a century ago.

Sa’ar blasted the boycott of products from Yehuda and Shomron as a “despicable practice” targeting law-abiding, productive Israelis and described sanctions on services as “abhorrent.”

The foreign minister also accused London of attempting to interfere in Israel’s upcoming election and pressure the country into accepting a Palestinian state, which he said the Israeli public overwhelmingly opposes following the Oslo process, the withdrawal from Gaza, the Second Intifada and the October 7 massacre.

Sa’ar said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would not be resolved through declarations from London or Paris, arguing that anti-Israel policies only push a solution further away.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)