Activists in Hackney in the Palestine Solidarity campaign have been working for some time now on getting Hackney’s Labour Council to divest its pension funds from companies profiting from the Gaza Genocide and to end the twinning arrangement with Haifa, a town in Israel. Thanks also to the work of Green and independent Socialist councillors they have managed to force an extraordinary council meeting to discuss these issues this Thursday, 23 October. Boycott, divest and sanctions campaigns are long term and are more urgent than ever in weakening the Israeli settler colonial state. The progress of this local campaign also points the importance of Green and left councillors working together to bring the demands of the mass Palestine solidarity movement into local government. While it will not win its demands at this meeting this action will publicise and strengthen the local movement. We are publishing below a press statement form the Hackney Palestin Solidarity campaign which also includes the motion and the detailed wrecking amendments proposed by the local Labour leadership which refuses to recognise the genocide or to support Palestine resistance to occupation by the apartheid regime. (Dave Kellaway)

Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign Press Statement on the Full Council Meeting to debate Divestment from Israel at Hackney Town Hall on Thurs 23rd October.

21st October 2025 for immediate release.

Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign (HPSC) very much welcomes the Extraordinary Council Meeting on 23rd October to debate a motion mandating Hackney Council to withdraw pension holdings invested in firms profiting from the Gaza genocide and Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. What HPSC definitely does not welcome are the amendments proposed by the Labour Group (published in full below) which are deeply disappointing.

Hackney Council’s response to what has happened in Gaza and the increasingly brutal expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories has lagged behind other local authorities. It has, at best, been slow to acknowledge the Gaza genocide and has singularly failed to take any meaningful action which would disassociate the authority from any involvement in the ongoing persecution of the Palestinian people. The motion, presented by Hackney Green and Independent Socialist Councillors, provided a golden opportunity for our borough to catch up, and take a clear stand committing to action on divestment.

Instead, Hackney Labour has proposed a series of amendments (see Editor’s notes below) which amount to a step backwards from the Mayor Caroline Woodley’s statement on 17 September in Council, when she appeared to accept the United Nations’ Independent Commission’s categorical conclusion that Israel’s actions meet the criteria for genocide. The amendments the Mayor herself is now proposing remove the word ‘genocide’ from the motion’s title, and insist on awaiting a formal ruling from the International Court of Justice. The Labour Group amendments are at odds with the emergency motion overwhelmingly supported by the recent Labour Party conference and even the Mayor’s own public statement on divestment issued on 23rd September.

 If accepted, the amendments will simply continue the Council’s failure to provide any meaningful support to the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. . Instead of adopting a clear moral lead, which might spur other authorities to take the action necessary to promote justice for Palestinians and a meaningful peace, the Council would yet again be burying its head in the sands of inertia.

We call on Hackney Councillors to recognise that their current stance is not a neutral position, but instead is complicit in the actions of an Israeli apartheid state. Councillors are being offered a clear opportunity to take a stance against the Gaza genocide which could once again see our borough at the forefront of promoting progressive international relations. HPSC members call on our councillors from all parties to stand with residents who are outraged by the actions of the Israeli government, to reject the Labour amendments and to vote for action towards pension fund divestment and an end to complicity, not just empty words.

Rally to support the motion on Thursday 23 October outside Hackney Town Hall

 For more information: contact@hackneypsc.org

Labour Group Amendments to the Motion

Notes to editors:

Labour Group Amendments to the Motion

Motion Title: Cut all Council Ties with Israel’s Genocide in Gaza

Amended Motion Title: Israel and Gaza

Underlined text = proposed additional wording

Strikethrough text = proposed deletions

This Council notes:

● On 16th September 2025 the United Nations commission of inquiry stated that

Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

● The International Court of Justice time limit for the “Counter-Memorial” of the

State of Israel is currently set as 12 January 2026, meaning its court decision

on the ‘Application of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the

crime of genocide in the Gaza strip’ will not be made before this date.

● On 21st September 2025 the UK formally recognised the Palestinian State,

recommitting to a two-state solution, with a safe and secure Israel alongside a

viable and sovereign Palestinian state.

● On 9th October 2025 the first phase of a ceasefire deal was agreed by Israel

and Hamas.

● Hackney residents’ repeated calls and activism for justice, peace, and an

immediate ceasefire, and actions around the world, including citizens rallying

in Israel, to end the atrocities, for the safe return of hostages, and immediate

delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles.

● Our existing commitments to ethical investment and community cohesion, and

to secure updated guidance on , and our legal obligations as a state body

under Article I of the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide and not to

commit genocide.

● Legal notice issued by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in September 2025

regarding our legal obligations to divest from companies enabling and

profiting fromIsrael’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid against

Palestinians. (1)

● Actions including correspondence with the UK Government set out at

www.hackney.gov.uk/israel-and-gaza

This Council resolves to:

1. To follow commitments from Undertake, in accordance with fiduciary duties,

the actions outlined in Mayor Woodley’s statement of 23 Sept 2025 on the

‘formal recognition of the state of Palestine and action on divestment’ to take

collective action with other London councils, to explore the changes required

to engage with, and divest pension fund investments from, companies tied to

human rights breaches, including conflict. councils’ including Cumberland,

Kingston, Southwark, Tower Hamlets, and Islington and instruct the Pensions

Committee to immediately begin the process of local divestment from

companies profiting from Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza and

the West Bank.

2. Immediately end The Council will not engage in any twinning activity where

conflict is ongoing, including Hackney’s twinning arrangements with the key

military port city Haifa., which is currently inactive.

3. Write once again to the UK Government following demanding it act on the

UN’s findings and ongoing developments in the peace process., including

ending any and all arms sales to Israel, military intelligence gathering for

Israel and training cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces.

Proposer: Mayor Caroline Woodley

Seconder: Cllr Susan Fajana-Thomas

Notes:

(1)https://palestinecampaign.org/legal-notice-outlines-councils-are-under-an-obligation