The Mayor of Haifa has invited Hackney’s Mayor to visit his city and witness its “complex reality” for herself, following the Green-led council’s decision to review all twinning relationships, including the 58-year link with the Israeli port city. The move, which is expected to formally end the twinning in the coming months, has drawn sharp criticism from Labour, who accuse the Greens of making “one mistake after another”.
Background of the Twinning Controversy
Hackney’s twinning with Haifa dates back to 1968, established to “encourage friendly contacts and exchanges between the ordinary citizens”. However, since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, activists have intensified pressure on the council to sever ties, citing allegations of war crimes and genocide by Israel in Gaza, as reported by Amnesty International and a UN commission of inquiry.
Mayor Zoë Garbett has argued that “maintaining a civic connection in Israel is at odds with our anti-racist values” amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis. But in a letter to The Times on Wednesday (August 5), Haifa’s Mayor Yona Yahav criticised the move as a “delegitimisation of an entire society through a distortion of reality”, adding that his role as mayor was “not to conduct global politics”.
Invitation to Visit Haifa
Instead of cutting ties, Yahav invited Garbett to visit Haifa and see its society for herself, “not through screens and social media posts”. He described Haifa as an “exceptional model of coexistence in the Middle East”, where “for more than a century, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and Bahá’ís have lived alongside one another here, not as an abstract ideal but as a way of life”.
Yahav acknowledged that “as in every democratic society, we experience arguments and differences of opinion”, but stressed that the way to address them is “not by severing ties or singling out entire cities and communities. It is through dialogue, familiarity and working together”.
Impact on Local Services and Activist Pressure
According to the council, the twinning in recent years has been largely limited to hospital exchanges between Homerton Hospital and Rambam Medical Centre, which have been dormant since the Covid-19 pandemic. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) argues that any link with Israel must be rescinded, citing the death toll in Gaza, the occupation of the West Bank, and the historic expulsion of roughly 60,000 Palestinian Arabs from Haifa in 1948. The PSC also highlights Haifa’s role as the global headquarters for arms producer Elbit Systems, which supplies the Israel Defence Forces.
Controversy Over Consultation Deadline
The decision to review twinning arrangements has been marred by controversy, particularly after the council initially set the consultation deadline as October 7, 2026 – three years to the day after the Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage. Garbett apologised to Yahav for the “deeply regretful oversight”, and Hackney Labour councillor Ben Lucas has demanded an investigation into how the deadline was set.
A Hackney Labour spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the council is “singling out one country” and called the move “contradictory and confusing”. “They call for a review of the twinning arrangements while at the same time proposing to end the twinning relationship with Haifa. If the outcome of the review is already being pre-determined, what is the purpose of the review?” the spokesperson said. “It seems that one mistake after another is happening with this new administration as they pursue their aim to de-twin from Israel.”
Hackney Council did not respond to the LDRS’s request for comment.
