Hackney Greens support wearing the keffiyeh
JVL Introduction
UK Lawyers for Israel are up to their old tricks; having weaponised antisemitism to attack Corbynism in the Labour Party, they are now determined to attack the Green Party with all their might for daring to criticise Israel and/or show support for Palestinians. They wrote to the Chief Executive of Hackney Council to complain about a Green Councillor “wearing a keffiyeh on the council’s “Your Councillors” webpage (saying this) was causing distress to at least one Jewish resident of the borough.” They gleefully posted that the Council Removed the “offending” Photograph.However, Hackney Greens are standing firm.
JVL we wrote to the Chief Executive, Mayor, Leader of the Council and copied all councillors to offer our support and solidarity. We received many positive responses and just a few days later were delighted to see the Open Letter, which we post below, unequivocally refuting UKLFI’s claims, demanding the reinstatement of the original photograph and noting that the complaint comes from an organisation about which many complaints have been made.
The Open letter has detailed references and is one of the best we have seen for highlighting what was wrong with the complaint, including that they regard conflating Jewishness with support for Israel’s actions as antisemitic in itself.
Below the open letter is our own.
Earlier in June Jewish News reported a meeting between Hackney Green and other Councillors with the Haredi community as being a positive event. This clearly shows that the Green Councillors’ support for freedom and justice for the Palestinian people in no way detracts from them working to ensure that the needs of Jewish people in the borough are met.
This article was originally published by Open Letter.earth on Tue 16 Jun 2026. Read the original here.
Open letter to Hackney Council
Inviting signatures from councillors, Hackney residents and organisations
To: Chief Executive Officer, London Borough of Hackney
Copied to Mayor of Hackney; Members of Hackney Council; UK Lawyers for Israel
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It is entirely appropriate that people feel uncomfortable when reminded about the persistent and wholesale criminality of the Israeli regime towards ordinary Palestinians. The fact that Zionists do so out of guilt rather than out of sympathy is no reason to let them off the hook.
The officers of Hackney Council are not independent free agents. They are employed by the Council via the majority group on the Council, which happens to be the Green group.
What is therefore stopping the leaders of the Green group simply issuing an instruction to the council officers to reinstate the photograph and if they refuse then they are disobeying a lawful instruction that should lead to the termination of their employment.
The Keffiyeh is a national symbol of the Palestinians. If there are racist Jews who take offence at it then that is tough. No doubt there are people in Hackney who object to wearing a kippa too. So what?
Totally agree with Bill Barnet.
It isn’t the site or import of the Kufiya that cause this person discomfort it is its reminder of the horrors committed by the Zionists in Israel for the last nearly eight decades.
As for those behind Lawyers for Israel they should be reminded of their appearance on the Victoria Derbyshire Show when they were there claiming that they were preparing to leave the country which was now too unsafe for them as a result of the position taken by Labour under the Leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Victoria then asked them why they were still here when they had made the same threat under the Leadership of Ed Miliband. Ed was and still is a member of the L PFI which is certainly indicative of their non-religious nature.
As a British Palestinian, I particularly like the section of JVL’s letter that the UKLFI letter and the Council Officers’ action are racist. I have been wearing my keffiyeh almost all the time since Israel began its explicit genocide in Gaza as an expression of defiance and pride in my Palestinian identity and family. I am also sick of being told what the slogans we use, such as ‘Globalise the Intifadah’ and ‘From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free’, mean rather than asking us what we mean by them. Thank you JVL and Hackney Greens!