Hackney Council may withhold emails over 7 October twinning deadline

Hackney Council is considering withholding internal correspondence about its decision to give an Israeli city until the third anniversary of the 7 October Hamas attack to respond to a proposal to end their twinning relationship, despite a Jewish News freedom of information request.

In July, Hackney Council, which is controlled by the Green Party after it won an overwhelming majority in the local council elections held in May, voted to cut ties between the borough and the Israeli city. Subsequently, the elected Mayor of Hackney, the Green Party’s Zoe Garbett, wrote to Yona Yahav, the Mayor of Haifa, informing him of the intention to break the twinning between the two cities.

Garbett said that “Hackney and Haifa have shared a civic bond since 1968; however, in my view the relationship no longer reflects the strategic priorities of the council.”

She went on to write that: “As the directly elected Mayor, I wish to be transparent about my administration’s direction, as set out in my party’s manifesto: my administration is seeking to conclude this chapter of our civic history.

“Given the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and the gravity of the UN Commission of Inquiry Reports concluding Israel has committed genocide, maintaining a civic connection in Israel is at odds with our anti-racist values. The Council stands up for human rights and wants to ensure our global connections reflect our shared core values. We want active, ethical partnerships that champion peace.”

She told Yahav that she was “writing to formally invite the views of your administration on the proposal to terminate the twinning agreement. I’d be grateful if you could send me any views on this matter by e-mail…by 7 October 2026.”

There was widespread fury within the Jewish community when the letter was published. Phil Rosenberg, President of the Board of Deputies, said: ““Whether this was deliberate or the product of staggering insensitivity, it is an appalling choice of date. That nobody involved in drafting or approving a letter about Israel recognised its significance speaks volumes about Hackney Greens’ attitude towards this issue and their local Jewish community.”

A spokesperson for the JLC said: “This is crass and shockingly insensitive. In choosing this date of all days as a deadline, the Mayor of Hackney has taken her politics of division a step further in a sickening attempt to mock and torment Israelis in their grief, and bringing insult to the memory of those murdered and kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.”

Garbett subsequently sent a second letter to Mayor Yahav, claiming that the choice of date for him to respond by had been “a deeply regretful oversight”. A council spokesperson told Jewish News that “we originally set the consultation to run for 10 weeks on the consultation platform. As soon as we noticed this error, we changed the closing date.”

However, Jewish News contacted the council last month, submitting a request for any e-mails, whatsapp messages or other communications between council employees, councillors or any others on three issues: the letter sent to Mayor Yahav, the deadline of 7 October included in the official letter from Mayor Garbett to Mayor Yahav, the decision for the consultation into the detwinning process ending on 7 October.

The council acknowledged receipt of the FOI request at the time, but on Wednesday 27 August, the council responded saying that it was “extending the deadline for this request by a further 20 working days”, saying that it was “considering the Public Interest Test (PIT) for applying exemption s36, Prejudice to the Effective Conduct of Public Affairs”, an extension which is permitted under the Freedom of Information Act.

In its 2026 Manifesto, Hackney Green Party wrote: “We will bring greater participation, transparency, communication and accountability back to Hackney’s local government.”

In Zoe Garbett’s 2023 pledge for the Mayoralty, the first sentence included a commitment “to open the council up to more public scrutiny.”