Brent Council in the UK has come under fire for twinning with the Palestinian city of Nablus, despite there being an active Hamas presence in the city.
Brent Council officially voted to approve the twinning agreement during a Full Council meeting on 14 May 2025. "We affirm our commitment to solidarity, we'll build real partnerships, here and in Nablus," said Brent Councillor Ihtesham Afzal at the time. "This is for the children who grow up with the weight of occupation," he added.
The partnership was then signed at a ceremony at the Nova hotel in Wembley on January 10, 2026. Representatives of Brent Council in a video viewed by The Jerusalem Post can be seen wearing keffiyehs while signing.
According to The Times, Dr. Nehad Khanfar, a leading figure in the Palestinian community in Britain, signed on behalf of Nablus.
Social media posts attributed to Khanfar, published on October 7, 2023, said that “some dreams have become closer to reality”.
However, when presented with screenshots of the posts, he accused The Times of a “deliberate and malicious misinterpretation of my words, which have been stripped of their linguistic, cultural, and poetic context to construct a narrative that is entirely false”.
'Not a political statement of any kind'
He said the twinning agreement, "from our perspective, is a community-led initiative focused on cultural, educational, and humanitarian exchange — not a political statement of any kind.”
Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP whose constituency covers parts of Brent, told The Times the decision was “deeply ill-judged”.
“Not only was it an absurd waste of taxpayers’ money and council time, but affiliates our area with a city infamous for its links to Palestinian terrorism,” he said. “The twinning should be reviewed and ties severed.”
The Jewish Leadership Council said “Since October 7 we have seen a desperate fracturing of community cohesion alongside a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hatred. Choosing to twin with such a city cannot be divorced from the message it sends to the local Jewish community.”
However, Carol Foster from IJAN and Brent Jewish Network praised the twinning, as did a group of Holocaust survivors, including Dr. Agnes Kory.
Brent & Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign said the twinning was supported and actively campaigned for by many Brent Jewish residents and local Jewish groups, including the Brent Jewish Network, which attended the signing ceremony.
The Brent Jewish Network is a pro-Palestine group formed in late 2023.
“Expressing solidarity and recognizing the rights of Palestinians to continue to live in their own land in no way threatens the safety of Brent or British Jews," said Jewish Voice for Liberation’s Mike Cushman. "Any risk comes from the false assertions that Jews as Jews are comfortable with Israel’s breaches of international law," he added.
Hamas has long maintained an active presence in Nablus. The city functions as a hub for terror activity and recruiting in the northern West Bank. Most recently, in 2023, a Hamas-affiliated list won the election for the student council at An-Najah University in Nablus in what was seen by Palestinians as a major blow to the ruling Fatah faction headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.