When I read that Hackney Council had voted to begin ending its twinning arrangement with Haifa, I couldn't help wondering: why Haifa? Whatever your views on the wider Middle East conflict, Haifa has always felt different. It is probably Israel's most multicultural city – a place where Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze and Baha'is live alongside one another. It's a city where Hebrew and Arabic are heard every day, and where people from different communities don't just coexist; they work, study and build lives together. It isn't perfect, no city is. But if we're looking for examples of what coexistence can look like, Haifa has to be near the top of the list.
At the heart of the city is the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel's leading university of science and technology. For more than a century, it has educated the engineers, scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs who have helped shape modern Israel. Around 70 per cent of Israel's engineers are Technion graduates, and the university's discoveries have improved lives around the world. But the Technion is much more than a world-class university – it is also a living example of coexistence.
Around a quarter of its students are Arab Israelis, a higher proportion than Arab citizens make up in Israel's population as a whole. Nearly 70 per cent of those Arab students are women, many the first in their families to study engineering, medicine or science.
This diversity has not happened by accident. Alongside maintaining the same demanding academic standards for every student, the Technion invests in outreach, mentoring and access programmes that help talented students from underrepresented communities meet the University's admissions standards. Initiatives such as the Archimedes Programme introduce outstanding school pupils to university-level science, helping them realise their potential and opening the door to careers in engineering, medicine and technology.
Jewish and Arab students study together, carry out research together and develop technologies that improve lives. They may come from different communities, speak different first languages and hold different perspectives, but every day they collaborate in pursuit of a common goal. That's not something we put on for visitors. It's simply everyday life.
Whether developing new cancer treatments, advancing artificial intelligence, tackling climate change or creating more sustainable food systems, collaboration is at the heart of everything the Technion does. Innovation happens because people with different experiences and ideas work together.
Of course, no city and no university can solve the Middle East conflict. But if we genuinely believe that dialogue, cooperation and mutual respect are part of the path towards peace, then it's hard to see why we'd turn away from one of the places where those values are already being put into practice.
Instead, Hackney has chosen to distance itself from one of the strongest examples of coexistence in the region. It's hard to see how that advances either peace or coexistence. Ending a twinning agreement will not bring peace any closer. It will not improve the lives of Israelis or Palestinians. It will not change the reality on the ground. What it does risk doing is sending a discouraging message to those who spend their lives building bridges rather than barriers.
The Technion's graduates have developed medical technologies that save lives across the world, pioneered advances in artificial intelligence, transformed industries and founded companies whose innovations benefit millions of people, regardless of nationality or religion. Science does not ask where someone comes from. It asks what we can achieve together.
That spirit of collaboration is precisely what Haifa represents. You do not have to agree with every policy of the Israeli government to recognise that. Equally, caring deeply about the future of Palestinians is entirely compatible with recognising a city where people from different communities continue to study, work and innovate together. Supporting coexistence should never be controversial.
At a time when division seems to dominate so much of public life, Haifa quietly offers a different example. It reminds us that coexistence is not just an aspiration; it is something people work at every day. Rather than turning away from cities like Haifa, we should be asking what we can learn from them. Symbolic gestures may generate headlines, but they rarely change lives. People do.
Alan Aziz is CEO of Technion UK
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