London's Hackney Council has begun the process of reviewing and potentially ending its nearly six-decade twinning agreement with the Israeli city of Haifa, UK Green Party leaders told The New Arab, in what could become one of the most significant municipal breaks with Israel by a UK local authority since the start of the Gaza genocide.
The decision, approved on Tuesday during the council's first meeting since the Green Party took control following May's local elections, stops short of immediately ending the relationship. Instead, it launches a formal review of all of Hackney's international twinning arrangements, alongside a public consultation and legal assessment, with councillors aiming to reach a final decision by the end of the year.
"Hackney stands for human rights and anti-racism," Green Group leader Tyrone Scott told The New Arab.
"Given the ongoing humanitarian crisis, and a UN Commission concluding Israel has committed genocide, maintaining a civic connection with the military port city of Haifa in Israel is fundamentally at odds with our principles," Scott said.
"This is about who we are as a council, what we condone, who we work with, and what that says about who we are," Scott added.
The move fulfils a central pledge in the Greens' local election manifesto, but party officials cautioned that formally ending the relationship will take months.
"To be realistic about what we've done, we haven't actually detwinned," Green councillor and convenor George Sheldon Grun told The New Arab.
The council will now establish a working group, invite public submissions and carry out a legal review before any final vote. Grun said the legal process is intended to minimise the risk of court challenges, noting previous litigation over local authority boycott motions, including Leicester City Council's 2014 decision to boycott Israeli goods.
"The basic premise is that although we don't have any obligations to Haifa, we do have obligations to residents in Hackney," he said.
Before any twinning agreement is formally ended, Hackney would also be required to notify the Mayor of Haifa and explain its decision.
Hackney and Haifa signed their twinning declaration in 1968 to encourage "friendly contacts and exchanges between the ordinary citizens" of the two cities.
Haifa was the site of one of the largest episodes of ethnic cleansing during the 1948 Nakba, when tens of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly expelled to pave way for the establishment of Israel, and today is home to one of Israel's principal military ports.
Twinning agreements, common across Europe after the Second World War, are intended to foster cultural, educational and commercial links between municipalities.
Campaigners have sought to end the relationship since 2024, when Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign submitted a petition signed by more than 4,000 residents. At the time, Labour mayor Caroline Woodley said the partnership had already become inactive before the Covid-19 pandemic.
George Binette, chair of Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign, described Tuesday's decision as "the start of a process".
"I think the Greens are sincerely committed to detwinning," he told The New Arab. "We give a cautious welcome, and we hope the consultation process will reflect the genuine opposition to this twinning relationship that exists in Hackney."
Although the council report adopts a cautious legal approach, Binette said he believes it ultimately points toward ending the relationship.
"It is seen as the beginning of a process that will culminate in an end to this twinning relationship," he said, arguing that maintaining the link amounts to an implicit relationship with a state "carrying out systematic war crimes."
Hackney PSC member Sussan Rassoulie said the campaign would continue pressing for a complete break.
"We, the people of Hackney, believe Israel is committing genocide, and we should have nothing to do with it," she told The New Arab. "We should boycott it, sanction it, shun it, divest from it."
For Green councillors, however, the issue extends beyond a single partnership.
"It's not just about Haifa," Grun said. "If in the future there's a proposal to twin somewhere else, then I think we should be applying the same principles to that as well. We need to make sure we don't treat one country as exceptional and not subject to the same rules as other countries."
The debate comes as other Green politicians seek to reshape municipal international partnerships. Last week, Greater Manchester Green mayoral candidate Geraldine Coggins said she would pursue a twinning agreement with the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah if elected.
"If our new prime minister is not prepared to stop arms sales and call out Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people, then as mayor of Greater Manchester I would offer our citizens an opportunity to show their solidarity by building bridges directly with the people of Ramallah," Coggins told The New Arab.
Several British local authorities already maintain partnerships with Palestinian municipalities, including Oxford and Hounslow with Ramallah, while Dundee, Glasgow and Derby have twinning arrangements with Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron.