Hackney mayor sorry for ‘staggeringly insensitive’ 7 October consultation deadline
Zoë Garbett extends process by a week after admitting original deadline was a “serious mistake”
Hackney Mayor Zoë Garbett has apologised after setting 7 October as the deadline for the Israeli city of Haifa to respond to plans to end its 58-year twinning agreement with the London borough.
In a second letter sent to Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav on Thursday, Garbett extended the consultation deadline to 14 October, admitting that selecting the anniversary of the Hamas attacks had been “a deeply regretful oversight”.
The move follows widespread criticism from Jewish organisations after Garbett’s original letter, sent a day after Hackney Council voted in principle to end the twinning arrangement, asked Haifa to submit its views “by 7 October 2026”.
Jewish News has made a Freedom Of Information request to the council to view all emails, Whatsapp messages an other electronic communication between council workers related to the decision to select 7 October as the deadline date.
In her latest letter, first obtained by the Hackney Citizen, Garbett wrote: “I am aware that 7 October marks the anniversary of the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks, a day that carries profound grief and distress for many.
“As mayor, I take full responsibility for the correspondence issued under my name. Overlooking the significance of this date was insensitive and a serious mistake, and for this, I offer my sincere apologies.”
The apology came after Jewish leaders condemned the original deadline.
Phil Rosenberg, president of the Board of Deputies, said: “Hackney’s mayor has given the city of Haifa until 7 October – the anniversary of the Hamas massacre – to respond to their spiteful detwinning consultation.
“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 Jewish Leadership Council 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 bring insult to the memory of those murdered and kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October.”
A Hackney Council spokesperson told Jewish News: “We apologise for the insensitivity of the original closing date for our consultation. 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.”
In her apology letter, Garbett said the consultation had been extended to ten weeks so it would not close during the Jewish High Holy Days in September. However, according to the Hackney Citizen, she said that in trying to avoid those dates, officers had “failed to recognise the significance of the 7 October date itself”.
Hackney councillors voted on Tuesday to begin the formal process of ending the borough’s twinning agreement with Haifa, a partnership established in 1968 that has included medical links between Homerton Hospital and Rambam Medical Centre.
The Green-led administration argues that the relationship no longer reflects the council’s priorities because of the war in Gaza. The proposal remains subject to consultation before councillors make a final decision in the coming months.
Martin Sugarman, chair of the Hackney Anglo-Israeli Friendship Association, told the Daily Mail that Garbett should resign, saying that if the date had been chosen deliberately it was “vile and sinister”, and that if it had been an error it was extraordinary that nobody at the council had recognised its significance.
Interested parties now have until 14 October to submit representations before Hackney Council decides whether to proceed with ending its long-standing civic partnership with Haifa.