A delegation of the Brent Jewish Network met with Brent Council Leader Muhammed Butt this week to express strong support for the borough’s proposed twinning with Nablus, arguing for this positive step towards international friendship and understanding.

Brent Council officially voted to approve the landmark twinning agreement with the Palestinian city of Nablus in May. The vote was overwhelming and was welcomed by community members, campaigners and civil society groups. Brent joins a growing number of UK communities forging partnership links with cities in Palestine.

Cllr Ihtesham Malik Afzal, who led the initiative, said: “”This twinning is about more than symbolism—it is a commitment to shared values, mutual understanding and global solidarity at a time when so many are looking away. Brent is standing up and showing what it means to build peace and cooperation from the ground up.”

Since the vote, opponents have mobilised with a petition, denouncing the decision as “sectarian in its nature”. In response, Cllr Afzal said the petition is based on “misinformation and fear” and includes “demonstrably false claims”. He pointed out that the suggestion that Nablus is controlled by Hamas is “not only wrong, it’s dangerous”.

He said: “We will not allow the politics of fear and division to derail a simple act of solidarity, international friendship and collaboration for mutual benefit. Twinning with cities like Nablus is a peaceful, symbolic gesture that promotes mutual understanding. Opponents are using fear and misinformation to polarise the issue and divide the community.”

The petition’s creator, Ian Collier, a Reform UK candidate in Brent Council’s local elections last year, who was beaten into sixth place in the ward he contested, with under 5% of the vote, is reported to have been advised by UK Lawyers for Israel and to be working closely with Brent Conservative councillors. He said, when presenting the petition to a recent meeting of Brent Council, that it was “being pushed that the twinning arrangement is no more than a sham to transfer funds and resources to a proscribed organisation.” After cries, of “rubbish” and “that is a slur”, he was forced to concede: “Let’s assume that this is not the case.”

The Jewish Chronicle and Board Of Deputies of British Jews have expressed their hostility to the twinning arrangement. But the Brent Jewish Network took a different view, congratulating the council on its decision. Its delegation to the council included synagogue members, secular Jews, young people and elders.

They shared their own experiences of visiting Nablus, the vibrancy of its city life, the warmth with which they were received by its people and the difficulties that their communities face under illegal Israeli occupation. They pointed out that visiting Nablus as visible Jews did not cause any hostility whatsoever from its people, who were unfailingly hospitable. They noted that Nablus, as home to Muslim, Chrisitan and Samaritan Jewish communities, was a great twin city for proudly multicultural Brent.

The group expressed its dismay at the recent intervention in this matter by the Board of Deputies. They reaffirmed that a significant threat to community cohesion is the false correlation of Jews with the Israeli State and the fraudulent presentation of every Jew as being in support of the Israeli war on Gaza. They explained that the Board, by choosing to assert these falsehoods, was directly undermining community cohesion in Brent.

The group also pointed out that the Board is not representative of the whole Jewish community, evidenced by its failure to include the Reform synagogue in Brent or any non-Orthodox synagogal bodies in its delegation to the Council. The Board’s highly sectarian attitude was demonstrated by its recent disciplining of 36 of its own elected representatives for expressing mild anti-war views.

Following the meeting, Brent Jewish Network member Daniel Wern said: “We congratulate Cllr Muhammed Butt and Brent Council for the progress made on the Nablus twinning project. Nablus is a city that I was privileged to visit in 2015, where I was received with warmth and hospitality. Much like Brent, Nablus is a bustling, vibrant place. It is diverse, with many different communities living together. People in Nablus have much the same problems as us – unemployment, housing scarcity, inflation – in addition to facing a brutal Israeli occupation. Twinning is an exciting opportunity to build links with the people of Nablus in a spirit of friendship and solidarity.

“It is pure chutzpa for the Board of Deputies to criticise anybody’s efforts towards community cohesion. Their intervention into Brent Council’s democratic process has nothing to do with defending Jews or community cohesion, but instead has everything to do with their steadfast support for Israel. Rather than affirm the separation of local Jews and the Israeli state, they knowingly conflate the two. We urge the Board of Deputies to step back from sectarianism.”

Image: Brent Jewish Network delegation with Brent Nablus Twinning Association outside Brent Civic Centre.