Barnet Council votes to twin with Israel's Haifa months after Hackney severed ties, while every Labour councillor abstains

The Conservative motion passed with all but two Tory councillors backing it, while the council's single Green councillor voted against. Barnet will now explore a formal partnership with Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and its largest seaport. Haifa is known for Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Arabs living, working and studying side by side. The vote is a direct rebuke to neighbouring Hackney.

Hackney campaigners argued that ties with a major Israeli military port were 'incompatible' with its values.

Haifa sits inside Israel's 1948 borders, not the occupied West Bank or Gaza.

Twinning can bring school exchanges, community visits and commercial links between cities.