Hackney Council votes to scrap Haifa twin city link
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- Hackney Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday evening on a motion to dissolve its 1968 twinning agreement with Haifa, citing the Gaza war and the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.
- The Green Party, which took control of the council from Labour in May's local elections, pledged in its manifesto to end the Haifa tie and review all twinning partnerships that fail to uphold human rights or participate in "apartheid, systemic oppression or genocide."
- The council cited concerns that Haifa functions as a primary Israeli naval facility and hosts the global headquarters of defence manufacturer Elbit Systems, alongside calls intensified by a September UN Commission of Inquiry report accusing Israeli forces of genocide.
- The Hackney Palestinian Solidarity Campaign submitted the original petition to end the partnership in 2024, with a cross-party motion launched in October by the Greens and Hackney Independent Socialist Groups.
- Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, labelled the Greens' motion "spite over sense," while former Hackney councillor Luke Akehurst attacked it as "performative and spiteful gesture politics" and highlighted ongoing medical exchanges between Homerton and Rambam hospitals.
- Other UK cities remain twinned with Israeli cities: Newcastle with Haifa, Bournemouth and Portsmouth with Netanya, the London Borough of Barnet with Ramat Gan, and Elstree and Borehamwood with Shoham.
- The twinning agreement has been "dormant" since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the council has stated it will not engage in any twinning activity with Haifa while the conflict is ongoing.
Why it matters: This vote turns a routine UK civic partnership into a referendum on the Gaza war, with Jewish groups arguing it unfairly targets a mixed Arab-Jewish city rather than the conflict itself. With Newcastle, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, and Barnet still twinned with Israeli cities, the Hackney vote sets a precedent for similar local campaigns across Britain.
