What do the Greens have against Haifa? |
Haifa, a mountainous Israeli city on the coast of the Mediterranean, is a place that makes you believe in coexistence. It is home to Jews, Muslims, Christians, and to some of the region’s most persecuted minorities, such as the Druze, Baha’is and Ahmadis.
If you ever find yourself there, you will most likely visit the lush terraces on Mount Carmel. The terraces and the shrine at their summit are among the main sites of the Baha’i faith, a young monotheistic religion that emerged in Iran in the 19th century. The Baha’i are pacifist and preach for the essential worth of all religions. In Iran, despite them being the country’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, they have long faced persecution.
In Haifa, after visiting the gardens you can wander down the mountain to eat in a smart Christian-Arab restaurant, stop by a Muslim-run café for knafeh and black coffee, or end up in a bar blasting Hebrew music. There are no ‘diversity is our strength’ signs needed here – people simply live together.
So you can imagine my surprise when, of all places, at the Hackney Greens’ manifesto launch, a local pro-Palestine activist gave a passionate speech about the ‘apartheid’ in Haifa. Describing it as ‘Israel’s military port city’, she promised that under Green rule, Hackney would finally cut its twin-city ties with this evil Zionist stronghold. I couldn’t hold back my laughter.
I looked around at the devoted Green voters who would later go out door-knocking. They seemed like normal people, but their enthusiastic applause for claims that could be debunked with two minutes of basic research was telling. The only flags on display were Palestinian flags, and half the stalls seemed to be devoted to Palestine. The........