Hackney Mayor says she supports ‘ethical divestment’ following meeting with pro-Palestinian demonstrators
Hackney Mayor Caroline Woodley. Photograph: Hackney Council
Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley has put on record her support for “ethical divestment” following a meeting with pro-Palestinian campaigners who have set up camp outside the Town Hall.
Woodley spoke to the two founders of the camp, Max Geller and Heather Mendick, as well as Leila (not her real name), who has lost more than 100 family members and friends in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The meeting was organised to discuss the demands of the camp, which has been stationed in the Town Hall square on Mare Street since 9 May.
Protesters are calling for the council’s pension fund to divest its stocks in Elbit Systems Ltd, a supplier of equipment to the Israeli Defence Force.
They are also asking for the twinning relationship between Hackney and the Israeli town of Haifa to be scrapped, and for the borough to instead twin with a town in Palestine.
In a statement to the Citizen, Mayor Woodley said that when she was asked during the meeting “specifically for my views on divestment, I asserted support for ethical divestment”.
Members of the camp have vowed to stay put “until the council divests”.
Woodley also told the Citizen: “As a public institution, we are constrained in the action we’re able to take unilaterally, and I understand that this can be more than frustrating.
“I call on the government to bring scrutiny and transparency, to support ethical investment, and to uphold international humanitarian law.”
“It shouldn’t be that controversial,” said Leila in an interview with the Citizen following her meeting with the mayor.
“Hackney is a diverse borough which tries to present itself as progressive, and many people are shocked that money at a council level pension scheme comes from a place so obviously harmful.
“Even if there’s disagreement about other issues with Palestine, there’s a general agreement about divestment.”
Leila explained that the camp’s demands go further than just divesting from Elbit: “We want the council to adopt an ethical investment policy, so they don’t profit from anything that causes suffering.”
Talking more specifically about her meeting with the mayor, Leila said: “She made it clear that she was there to listen, and I felt she was receptive, but nervous.
“And I understand why – they [Woodley and council chief executive Dawn Carter McDonald] are in new roles, and anyone who’s taken a stance on Palestine has been punished by national Labour.”
She added: “We’re grateful that this issue is now being prioritised, and I hope [the council] will try to make a decision.
“Mainly, I hope the mayor will be bold, so we can be proud of the money generated for Hackney.”
The noisy, tiny minority of Hackney citizens who are camped outside the town hall – if they are Hackney citizens – can shout all they like and try to be the tail that wags the dog, and bully the Council into wanton acts of boycott of Israel. But the vast silent majority of people are disgusted by what these supporters of terror are doing and what they stand for. They stand for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the ancient homeland of the Jews, Israel. They stand for support for Hamas and the terror groups.
We all support ethical divestment. So what? The question is , is divesting from Israel ever ethical, when it has been fighting to defend itself from the murderous intent of the Palestinians and their various, terror, death cult groups, and worse, the ignorant and ill-informed groups who support them, for 75 years and more??
Is breaking the link with our twin Israeli town of over 55 years, Haifa, and the superb medical team exchanges between our two 'town' hospitals, which treat and employ multi-faith people, ever ethical? No, and such a betrayal of the Twinning agreement should be seen for what it really is, and what Keir Starmer himself has called it, 'the new anti-Semitism which is anti-Zionism' – in other words everyone in the world can enjoy national liberation and self rule, except the Jews, in Israel, where we came from , before we were ethnically cleansed and occupied and colonialised, by the Arab Settler Empire.
No amount of protest marching, demonstrations and tent cities can disguise the evil intent of these anti-Israel/anti-Semites, attention seeking thugs, even if some are the usual Kapo Jews.
Hi Martin Sugerman, chair (and only member?) of the Hackney Anglo-Israel Association. This deranged, mouth-foaming comment was quite amusing until the last two words. The Jewish people protesting against Israel's genocidal actions in Gaza, who you call "Kapo Jews", include many Holocaust survivors and their descendants. While you were trying and failing to kill Arabs in the IDF and preparing to self-publish books nobody would ever read, they were living with the trauma of their encounters with real Kapos. You use this language while daring to accuse other people of anti-semitism.
Nevertheless, I do hope you keep posting your comments and sending the racist emails for which you later have to make public apologies. Every time you do, you discredit your own position even more thoroughly and bring the day closer when Hackney cuts its ties with Israel.
I suspect this comment is from Martin Sugarman who Hackney Council allows to run the borough's twinning with Haifa in Israel. His racist views do not represent the people of Hackney and it is shocking that our Council chooses to continue to work with him and to maintain their relationship with Haifa even while Israel's genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and occupation continue.
The Mayor deserves some sympathy, she is between a rock and a hard place, the voters of Hackney are appalled by Israeli government reprisals against innocent civilians in Gaza but her sponsor Mr Starmer is not, what is she to do?