Mayor of Preston friendship city in the Middle East 'is a convicted terrorist' - but plans will go ahead
Preston City Council has defended a decision to hold talks with a Palestinian politician over a planned friendship agreement – even after it emerged that he is a convicted terrorist.
The authority agreed in June to pursue the tie-up with the city of Hebron, in the West Bank, as “a symbol of…support” for the people of Palestine and “the wider Middle East”.
It insists the arrangement is not a show of political backing for any individual – and stresses that Preston will become one of dozens of places around the world to have a similar agreement with the city.
However, the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region [JRC] has now written to town hall chiefs in Preston urging them to withdraw an invitation to Hebron mayor Tayseer Abu Sneineh to join a planned online meeting of a working group set up to formalise the friendship deal.
When he took up his post in the city back in 2017, The Times of Israel reported that Abu Sneineh had been convicted for his role in an attack in Hebron in 1980, in which six Israeli settlers were killed and 16 wounded while returning home from Sabbath prayers.
The paper reported that the now mayor – then a 26-year-old teacher – was “convicted as one of the gunmen and sentenced to life in prison”. However, he was released three years later in a prisoner swap between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
The Post attempted to contact Tayseer Abu Sneineh for comment – via the authorities in Hebron – but did not receive a response.
The Times of Israel reported, again in 2017, that he was then “committed to pursuing a peace agreement with Israel”.
It also quotes Abu Sneineh as saying of the 1980 attack: “They all were armed settlers and soldiers, no women or children. We wanted to send a message to the settlers that this is our city and they have to leave.”
In a letter to Preston City Council chief executive Adrian Phillips, the JRC has accused the authority of making “an appalling judgement that risks bringing Preston into disrepute” by dealing with Abu Sneineh. The organisation adds that is “beyond comprehension” that the council would engage with someone with a terrorist conviction.
A letter responding to the JRC’s concerns – seen by the Lancashire Post – states that the authority “does not endorse the views of the political
leadership in Hebron, or for that matter any other place where the city has twinning or friendship arrangements”.
However, the correspondence adds that the city council “is unable to agree to your request not to engage with the Mayor of Hebron”.
It continues: “We will seek to engage in a practical dialogue with the Mayor and his team to progress the friendship arrangement.
“The leader of the council is working with colleagues to demonstrate our support for a viable State of Palestine coexisting alongside the State of Israel with safety, security and prosperity for both countries.”
The letter notes that in “extending the hand of friendship” to Hebron, the city authority has “engaged in discussions with a wide range of communities…in the spirit of open and honest dialogue” – and pledged to continue such discussions with the JRC.
In a statement to the Post, Preston City Council’s Labour leader Matthew Brown said: “We are pursuing the friendship with Hebron in the spirit of peace and community and in support of the people of that city and the wider region. In doing so, we do not endorse any individual and continue to condemn intolerance and violence of any kind.
“We are informed that 40 places across the world have a relationship with Hebron, including Spain, France, UK, Italy and Greece – and the establishment of our relationship with Hebron has been led and facilitated by the British Palestinian Friendship and Twinning Network.
“Membership of the steering group formed to help progress the friendship with Hebron is entirely discretionary and is for those who would like to be involved and support the friendship agreement.
“We involved our Faith Covenant members in a consultation event led by the British Palestinian Friendship and Twinning Network prior to council agreeing to the friendship relationship with Hebron and we asked the Faith Covenant members from each [local] faith community if they wanted to join the steering group in the spirit of partnership.
“We have no intelligence to suggest that there is a direct threat posed by any party in this friendship, which is being pursued in the spirit of friendship and tolerance.”
Although backed by the majority of Preston city councillors, the friendship agreement with Hebron previously provoked criticism from some members who said it risked giving the impression that Preston was taking sides in the ongoing war in Gaza.
The ruling Labour group has pledged to pursue a similar arrangement with a town or city in Israel, but said it wanted to finalise the Palestinian agreement first, because that was the order in which it received requests from Preston’s Muslim and Jewish communities.
The city council began the search for a suitable friendship partner in the Palestinian territories early last year in response to a call from 14 of Preston’s mosques in the wake of the conflict in Gaza.
Commenting on the background of Tayseer Abu Sneineh, Stephen Thompson, leader of the Conservative group on Preston City Council, told the Post he thought it was “appalling that Preston Labour have allowed themselves to be bullied into the friendship agreement with Hebron”.
He added: “The Mayor of Hebron is the last person Preston needs should there be a civic visit from Hebron.
“The Jewish people in Preston have had enough and I stand by them.”
Located 19 miles south of Jerusalem, Hebron was occupied by Israel after the Six-Day War in 1967. However, following an agreement reached 30 years later, it has since been split between the control of Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
But the majority Palestinian population has to negotiate military checkpoints set up by Israel in order to navigate parts of the territory.
‘This is about humanitarianism’
At a meeting of Preston City Council on Thursday, Savannah Dable – a member of Preston’s small Jewish community – told council leader Matthew Brown that “Jewish people in Preston have concerns that any dealings with [Tayseer Abu Sneineh] may radicalise individuals within the city”.
She queried whether the local authority had consulted with anti-terror police and the Home Office to assuage such fears.
Mrs. Dable also asked: “How can you distinguish yourself and your administration from the extremes of the Far Left and the Far Right if you yourself are seen to cultivate [the] friendship of a convicted terrorist in the absence of any special proposals coming from him – or you – to find peace, either in the Middle East or, more importantly, here in Preston?”
Cllr Brown emphasised that after speaking to council officers, he had been advised that there was “no intelligence” to bear out concerns that anybody involved in the friendship agreement posed a “direct threat”.
On the broader point, he said he and cabinet member for communities and social justice Nweeda Khan had stressed the need “to condemn all forms of racism and intolerance, whether it’s antisemitism [or] Islamophobia – and we’ve engaged with community leaders on messages around that”.
Cllr Brown said the authority had taken practical steps to support anti-racism projects, including in local schools, adding of the Hebron friendship agreement: “Our motivation is genuinely humanitarian and trying to find a way forward in a very difficult situation and [to] respond to the many requests from the [local] community on this issue.”