Hackney Council rejects PSC bid to detwin borough with Haifa
Labour councillors lead backlash against 'deeply problematic' PSC move, backed by the Greens, to end 50 year civic twinning with Israel's third largest city
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
A Palestine Solidarity Campaign motion calling for the London Borough of Hackney to end a 50 year-long civic twinning with Haifa has been rejected amid claims it would send out “a deeply problematic message.”
PSC activists, joined by speakers from the Hackney Greens and the Independent Socialists, gathered outside the north London council’s Town Hall on Wednesday, in anticipation that the detwinning motion would pass after it was debated that evening.
But Labour councillors, backed by Mayor Caroline Woodley, lined up to speak in favour of continuing the twinning, first established in 1968, which has been based largely around the Hackney Anglo-Israel Friendship Association’s (HAIFA), medical exchange between Homerton hospital and Rambam hospital in Haifa.
While the Town Hall said they would “note” the de-twinning petion, which had 4000 names on it, a majority of councillors backed the need to continue twinning with Israel’s third largest city.
There were also claims that a PSC member was arrested and charged for assaulting an individual supporting the Hackney-Haifa twinning outside the Town Hall meeting.
Jewish News has contacted the Met Police for comment.
Matt Rowland Hill from Hackney PSC also reacted furiously to the decision claiming:”Caroline Woodley and Hackney’s Labour council made a stand last night — against Amnesty International and the world’s other leading human rights organisations.
“Last time the world took a stand against apartheid — in South Africa — Hackney Council was on the right side of history.”
Earlier Labour councillor Ben Lucas told the meeting that de-twinning would be divisive for the community, adding:“To pin the actions of the Israeli government in prosecuting their campaign in Gaza on the people and communities of Haifa, as this petition seeks to do, sends a deeply problematic message.
“This is an international, non-political, non-sectarian and multi-faith link, rooted in and led by our communities and built over a number of decades. That is to be celebrated, not shunned.
“If we truly want to promote dialogue with the region, and peace, these are the ties that we should be promoting.”
His collegue Cllr Michael Desmond, said calls for de-twinning were an “appalling, abusive tirade.”
Desmond added:”We’re twinned with Gottingham in Germany — we all know what happened in the war.”
Security was increased ahead of the meeting, with those in the public gallery warned Palestinian or Israeli flags were not allowed.
At one stage a woman attempted to hang a Palestine flag from the balcony but was quickly held back by a nearby security guard.
Labour’s Chris Kennedy also spoke against the petition, saying:”I want to see people from Hackney able to visit Haifa and see the harsh realities of life there.
“I want the people from Haifa to be able to come to Hackney and see how here people of all faiths, and none, can live peacefully together.”
Mayor Caroline Woodley said that while she “understood the strength of feeling on both sides”, she remained “committing to twinning”.
She added:“At the beginning of this year, this council called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid, and the release of all hostages, this continues to be our position.”
Woodley also reminded the meeting that the civic twinning uses no actual council resources.
Once the conflict is resolved, we will consider future training relationships where meaningful and sustainable connections are in place between communities in Hackney and overseas — including, I hope, in Palestine.”
Cllr Anne Lynch also pointedly wore a yellow ribbon in support of the Gaza hostages at the full council meeting.
Addressing the meeting on behalf of the PSC, resident Norma Cohen repeatedly said she was speaking “as a Jew” as she called for de-twinning.
She claimed twinning “lends legitimacy to a state accused of war crimes and guilty of a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system, according to the UN”.
Cohen claimed the Haifa twinning, which had been put on hold in terms of actual travel exchange between the two countries as a result of the pandemic, and then the conflict in Gaza, was only in existence because it was deemed to be what Jewish citizens of the borough wanted.
She said:“As a Jew, it is in the honourable Jewish tradition of struggle against segregation that I speak this evening.”
Green Group leader on the council Zoë Garbett revealed she had shifted her view on detwinning, and had now become supportive, largely as a result of the campaigning by PSC activists.
She praised “the power of the camp outside” as she referred to the PSC activists, and also suggested the size of the petition in support of the move showed “the strength of residents’ feelings in this borough.”
Also for the Greens Cllr Alastair Binnie-Lubbock claimed it was “inappropriate” that Hackney was twinned with Haifa adding the council “would not have had a twinning relationship with apartheid South Africa and any city there.”
Labour Councillor Sam Pallis, opposing the motion, raised the work undertaken by activists from Israeli and Palestinian pro-peace group Standing Together, who have spoken out against ending twinning.
Despite protestations from the Greens, it was confirmed at the end of the debate that the petition to detwin would be noted, but the move to end the relationship with Haifa had not passed.
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