London council set to cut Haifa ties over Israel's apartheid against Palestinians

A Green-led London council in the UK is set to end the borough of Hackney’s 56-year twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Haifa over Israel’s occupation, apartheid and genocide against Palestinians.

Councillors will vote on the proposal on Tuesday, fulfilling a Green Party election promise to sever relations with Haifa.

The party took control of the north London council in May and holds 42 of its 57 seats, making the measure almost certain to pass.

Palestine solidarity groups have spent years pressing Hackney’s previous Labour administration to terminate the partnership, established in 1968. Pressure intensified after Israel began its genocide in Gaza in October 2023.

Campaigners have also demanded that the council divest its pension fund from companies connected to Israel’s military and occupation.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said continued civic relations normalised the “racist domination” imposed on Palestinians.

It also highlighted Haifa’s role as the global headquarters of Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer and a major supplier to its military.

Israel has imposed an apartheid system on Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. Palestinian citizens of Israel also face institutionalised discrimination in land allocation, planning, municipal funding and civil rights.

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Explaining its commitment to ending the partnership, the Hackney Greens wrote: “Des­pite repeated, mass com­munity calls for de-twin­ning, the Labour-led coun­cil has con­sist­ently refused to cut ties with the Israeli city of Haifa under the twin­ning scheme.

“In Haifa, Palestinian people live under occu­pa­tion and apartheid by the Israeli state; this is not a city that reflects Hack­ney’s val­ues. Hack­ney’s cur­rent and future twin­ning rela­tion­ships should reflect our val­ues, rather than under­mine them,” it added.

Labour councillor Michael Desmond previously described demands to end the arrangement as an “appalling, abus­ive tirade”. Desmond, an avowed Zionist, has called Israel an “inclusive” country.

Pro-Israel Labour MP Luke Akehurst, who spent 12 years as a Hackney councillor, said he was “dis­gus­ted” by the Greens’ “per­form­at­ive and spite­ful ges­ture polit­ics”.

Akehurst previously directed We Believe in Israel and has defended Israel’s war on Gaza as proportionate.