British Sources Accuse Israel of Spying on Military Team in Ramallah
British officials accuse Israel of spying on a UK military team in Ramallah, which was expelled following London's sanctions over West Bank violence.
British government sources accused Israel on Friday of spying on a British military team in Ramallah that had been reporting to London and Washington on settler violence in the West Bank. According to The Telegraph, Israel sought a pretext to expel the team, which was ordered on Tuesday to leave as part of retaliatory measures against British sanctions.
The British support team operates in Ramallah under the command of an officer equivalent to a brigadier general, training the Palestinian Authority's security forces alongside American and Canadian military personnel. According to The Telegraph, the team currently consists of about ten military personnel and serves as an offshoot of the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator in Jerusalem.
Western Eyes and Ears in the Field
Over recent years, the team has reportedly become the "eyes and ears" of the West on the ground. The report details how team members move around the West Bank with greater ease than Americans due to different delegation security protocols, enabling them to provide intelligence on settler violence to their American counterparts in Jerusalem.
"The team provides the international community with the best intelligence on the security situation in the West Bank. Its closure is a literal gift to the Israelis, as it shuts down the eyes and ears on what is happening there," a British Ministry of Defence source told the newspaper.
The team was reportedly scheduled to quadruple in size in the coming weeks with the addition of some 30 retired military and police personnel, before the Israeli directive to shut it down arrived on Tuesday. Its members were given seven days to leave, as was the British delegation at the international headquarters in Kiryat Gat.
British Sanctions and Israeli Retaliation
According to British sources, the team's communications were routinely intercepted. "The Israelis listen to everything, especially the reports the team compiles and transmits regarding settler violence and the situation in the West Bank," one source said.
Last December, The Guardian reported that Israel monitored American and allied forces at the headquarters in Kiryat Gat, a claim the IDF dismissed at the time as "absurd."
The Israeli retaliatory measures followed an announcement on Tuesday by British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in the House of Commons in London regarding a series of sanctions, including a ban on trade in goods and certain services originating from West Bank settlements. Eleven other countries, including France and Canada, announced their support for the move and pledged similar steps. Miliband also declared that the British government agrees that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is taking place in areas of the West Bank by extremist settlers.
Israel responded the same evening. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar termed Miliband's remarks "scandalous lies" and announced the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem alongside entry bans for 12 Britons, mostly members of parliament, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
