Hackney’s Green Party mayor has apologised after giving the city of Haifa until October 7 to respond to plans to end their long-standing twinning scheme.
The initial choice of the third anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7 massacre as a deadline had been described as “staggeringly insensitive".
Lord Pickles, the former UK Government Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues said it marked "a new low" for the Green Party.
Zoë Garbett, who was elected mayor of the east London borough in May, had written to Haifa’s Mayor Yona Yahav informing him that Hackney Council intends to end the relationship between the two cities, which dates back to 1968.
She invited a response from Yahav by October 7, the anniversary of the Hamas attack in which around 1,200 people were murdered and 251 taken hostage, triggering the current war in Gaza.
After uproar from parts of the Jewish community, Garbett has now retracted that letter and offered a new deadline of October 14.
“The inclusion of this date was a deeply regretful oversight,” Garbett said, offering “my sincere apologies” for the “insensitive and serious mistake”.
“I am aware that October 7 marks the anniversary of the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks, a day that carries profound grief and distress for many,” she wrote.
The proposed de-twinning dominated the agenda at Tuesday's first full council meeting under the borough's Green administration.
Protests outside Town Hall saw one antizionist activist arrested after throwing eggs toward a pro-Israel crowd.
Garbett informed Haifa’s mayor about the council’s agreement to terminate the twinning and all associated municipal ties.
“My administration is seeking to conclude this chapter of our civic history,” she wrote in her first letter.
“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.
“We want active, ethical partnerships that champion peace,” Garbett claimed.
Haifa, which is home to Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Baháʼí communities, is often credited with being one of the most diverse cities in the Middle East.
The first deadline prompted immediate condemnation from several Jewish communal leaders, and calls for Garbett to resign.
Lord Pickles said: "The decision to end the consultation on the anniversary of the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust is either provocative or insensitive crassness. Either way, it is a new low for the Greens."
Phil Rosenberg, President, Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “Hackney’s Mayor has given the city of Haifa until October 7 – 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.”
Martin Sugarman, chair of Hackney Anglo Israel Friendship Association which oversees the twinning with Haifa, said: "The Green Party mayor must resign over this and immediately apologise to the Jewish community and to Israel.
“If October 7 was chosen deliberately then it is vile and sinister. It could barely be more offensive.
"If it was somehow done in error then it is staggering to think no one in the council realised the significance of that date. Heads must roll over this."
A Jewish Leadership Council spokesperson 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 October 7th."
Adam Ma'anit, an Israeli living in the UK, said: “On 7 October, Hamas murdered my cousin Tsachi’s 18-year-old daughter, Ma’ayan, before his eyes, filmed my family’s horror, then kidnapped, tortured and murdered him.
“Previously, my 16-year-old cousin Orly was murdered by a Hamas suicide bomber in an Arab-Israeli-run restaurant in Haifa – a city embodying the coexistence Hamas sought to blow apart during its ‘Intifada’. The same ‘Intifada’ for which people now clamour for on Hackney’s streets.
“October 7 is our greatest wound, a national calamity, but it is merely an insignificant date in the Mayor’s diary or, worse, has been chosen deliberately for maximum insult.
"Through its actions, Hackney’s Green council is tearing down a bridge to coexistence and peace, and choosing hate and division instead.”
Nivi Feldman, former head of UK Hostages and Missing Families Forum said: "At a time when hostages and their families are still trying to heal from unimaginable trauma, and antisemitism continues to rise across the UK, Hackney Council has chosen division over dialogue. The Green Party-led Council should be ashamed and its Mayor should resign”
A Hackney council spokesperson said: "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."
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