Cash-strapped Brent Council admits it has no idea how much Nablus twinning will cost
Brent and the councillor leading twinning move fail to respond to repeat requests to confirm how many Palestinians live in the borough
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Cash-strapped Brent Council have admitted they have yet to calculate the cost of twinning formal twinning arrangement with the West Bank city of Nablus nor have they carried out any assessment on the impact of the move on the ethnically diverse borough.
A motion, endorsed by Brent Labour Group, was carried at a full council meeting last month supporting a twinning with the Palestinian city, despite criticism it would prove “divisive” amidst considerable tensions around the conflict in the Middle East.
Moving the motion Wembley Hill ward Labour councillor Ihtesham Afzal claimed twinning with Nablus “speaks to who we are and what we stand for” in a borough he said had “a significant number of residents of Palestinian heritage”.
But when Jewish News asked both Brent and Cllr Afzal to clarify how many Palestinians were residing in the borough, both failed to respond to requests for clarification.
The council is also understood to have been sent a barrage of complaints raising concerns about the cost implications of the Nablus twinning, at a time when it is facing a £10 million deficit in this year’s budget and similar next year, and council reserves are being used up, and where council jobs are also being cut.
One senior Labour figure said Brent’s decision to consider the formal twinning had provoked a “furious response” from regional party chiefs who are already conerned about the way the north West London council was being run.
Jewish Labour cabinet member Cllr Neil Nevra walked out of the November 18 meeting at which the Nablus twinning motion was passed in disgust.
“Twinning undertaken in a one-sided way in an area of conflict, where there are varying narratives, can do the exact opposite – create community discord inside Brent,” said Cllr Nerva. “The very opposite of why we, regardless of party, were elected as councillors.”
Now the wider Jewish Labour Movement have also attacked the move.
A JLM spokesperson told Jewish News: “For the most ethnically diverse local authority in the country to act in such a one-sided way is performative politics and its divisive worst.
“It’s terrible to see Labour councillors rejecting the opportunity – offered up by a Jewish Labour councillor – to build community cohesion by twinning in Israel as well as Palestine. At a time when cash-strapped councils are still feeling the impact of Tory mismanagement, Brent residents will rightly ask how much this posturing will cost them.”
The motion passed by the council claimed the Brent-Nablus twinning relationship would “promote initiatives like educational collaborations, sports programmes, and heritage preservation workshops, creating long-term connections between residents and institutions and engages with local communities, cultural organisations, and leaders in both twinned regions to support the establishment of the partnership.”
One leading expert in council finance told Jewish News such a wide-ranging initiative would “undoubtedly cost thousands and thousands of pounds”.
Brent has long prided itself on its diverse populations, with large Jewish, Hindu, Christian and Muslim, and Irish populations living in relative harmony with each other.
The twinning motion had suggested “Brent currently has the second highest Arab diaspora in England and Wales, within which there is a significant number of residents of Palestinian heritage.”
But there have been no formal twinnings in the borough since the 1997 one with South Dublin.
Jewish News also understands that further concerns are set to be raised from within Labour about the conduct of Cllr Afzal, originally from Burnley, Lancashire, and from a Pakistani background, in relation to his campaigning on the Palestinian issue.
The Brent and Harrow PSC group, which he is involved with, have staged a series of anti-Israel activities outside Wembley Stadium during football matches there, which have been the subject of complaints.
A pro-Irish republican “Free Derry” banner was raised by Brent and Harrow PSC activists involved with the Labour Party outside Wembley which also questioned suppoet for Ukraine against Putin’s Russian forces alongside claims that “Ireland supports Palestinian resistance”.
The banner is linked to the Irish Republican Socialist Movement which has a paramilitary INLA wing.
Cllr Afza declined to comment when asked by Jewish News about the cost implications of his Nablus twinning, and on how many Palestinians lived in the borough of Brent.
A Brent Council spokesperson said: “Officers are now exploring a formal twinning arrangement with Nablus, including looking into practicalities like ongoing cost and an equalities impact assessment, and will report back to councillors with a range of options for consideration, alongside a review of the council’s twinning protocol, at a future council meeting.”
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