London council cuts ties with twin city of Haifa, 'regrets' giving Oct 7 deadline for response

Councilors representing the East London borough of Hackney voted to cut ties with the Israeli city of Haifa over the war in Gaza, ending a 58-year partnership, and caused outrage by giving the mayor of Haifa the deadline of Oct. 7 to respond.

Zoë Garbett, mayor of the Green Party-controlled council, wrote to Mayor Yona Yahav in Haifa of their intention to end the twinning arrangement, asking him to reply by Oct 7, the third anniversary of the Hamas massacre.

The decision, along with the sensitive date of the deadline, has been criticized, with Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, saying the move showed “ignorance and bigotry.”

“If the Hackney Greens had any genuine interest in peace, they would celebrate Haifa, not censure it. This vote represents the prioritisation of spite over sense,” he said.

Haifa is well known as a liberal city where Jews, Muslims and Christians peacefully live together, and was the focus of a New York Times feature on the unique freedom that Muslims have in the Israeli city, unparalleled in the whole Middle East.

“There is a cultural movement. There is a youth movement. There’s a kind of freedom here,” Asil Abu Wardeh told the NYT from a cafe on Haifa’s bohemian Masada Street.

Sharon Redecker, who lives on Masada St. with her Jewish husband, is a Christian from Zimbabwe who has experienced the pain of racial conflict. She told ALL ISRAEL NEWS that she was both saddened and shocked to hear about the end of its sister-city relationship.

“I've lived in many cities in Israel, and Haifa, I would say, is the most racially integrated city that I know, which really means a lot to me with my background.”

Redecker said that Jews and Gentiles, Christian Arabs, and Muslim Arabs all live peacefully together in Haifa as an exemplary city of tolerance.

“The untwinning seems to be based on the alleged “genocide,” which indicates that they think Israel hates Arab people, but I see the complete opposite as a resident,” Redecker continued.

“Most of my colleagues are Arab Christians, and we work side by side with each other, laughing and joking as if politics didn't exist. 
We come to work on the same buses, and live with our families in peace and intolerance with each other,” she said.

“My husband is a Messianic Jew and he works side by side with a Muslim woman, a chef. She’s a mother of six,” Redecker added. “All they have for each other is just kindness, which goes to show the heart of the people.” 

“We really strongly encourage changing this decision, because I think more and more in this world today we should be doing things for unity than for disunity. 
I hope this decision will be retracted,” she said.

Another local believer named Claire, who came to Israel from the UK and married an Arab Christian, described the decision as “crazy.” 

“If they knew anything about Haifa they would know it's the city where Arabs and Jews live and work together. It's a role model for the rest of the country and a good role model for Hackney too!” she told ALL ISRAEL NEWS.

The twinning was initiated in 1968 by Lord Stanley Clinton Davis, who felt that Haifa and Hackney had a lot in common, being working-class places with mixed ethnicities.

His daughter told Campaign Against Antisemitism that despite both having a lot of challenges, both were places where people were determined to build civic society.

“My father was very keen on building peace between Arabs and Israelis,” she explained, adding that he would have been “horrified” by the detwinning and that she thought the move was “performative.”

“Haifa, of course, is a city where Arabs and Jews are together. And that's one of the reasons why I feel that this current situation is so depressing and demoralizing, because in order to build the peace that my father yearned for, you've got to bring people together. 
And that's what he sought to do… He would have been so upset. I think it was his life, his mission, to create harmony,” she said.

Hackney Councilor Simche Steinberger said the decision showed ignorance and pointed to benefits Hackney had reaped from Israeli medical expertise at Rambam hospital.

“Haifa has no benefit from Hackney whatsoever. 
They'll be the lucky ones… it's probably one of the most left cities — the Green Party is the second biggest party in the council there,” he protested.

Labour Councilor Ben Lucas reminded the council that the twinning had originally been “resident-led” and in a spirit of “working class solidarity.”

“It's multi-faith, multi ethnic, and built most notably on the noble idea of medical cooperation. 
Haifa is not perfect, but for those who want peace, it represents a model of coexistence, a fighting chance for peace,” he said, objecting to the decoupling.

“There are fellow progressives in Haifa, Socialists and Greens, aghast at the conflict and fighting for lasting solutions,” he said. 
”Far from showing solidarity, trashing that civic link signals that we abandon them, and it prevents dialogue and robust accountability with our friends.” 

He warned against “punishing people for the actions of a government” and the “danger” of focusing only on Israel, asking,

“What is it that working people in Haifa have done to people in Hackney? Because that is the issue with the severance,” he said, adding, “When the only people being punished… are in Israel, that is wrong, and it's dangerous for Hackney, regardless of its mandate.”

After the backlash caused by the Oct. 7 deadline, Garbett changed the date to Oct. 14, saying the initial deadline had been a “deeply regretful oversight,” but maintained,

"Given the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and the gravity of the UN Commission of Inquiry Reports concluding Israel has committed genocide, maintaining a civic connection with what is widely recognized as a military port city is fundamentally at odds with our anti-racist values.”

Councilor Sam Mathys, Green Cabinet Member for Culture, Nightlife, Resilience and Business Standards stated:

“We are an anti-racist party that stands for justice and hate in all its forms and shapes. A party that stands in solidarity with the oppressed.”

Pointing out the mistake in councilor Mathy’s statement, Heidi Bachram, whose husband’s family members were kidnapped and killed during the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, said, “The councilor made a Freudian slip when she said they stand for hate.”