Who we twin with matters.
It’s a public declaration of shared values, an expression of friendship, solidarity, and mutual respect between communities.
But when those values are violated, when the foundations of human rights and international law are undermined – that friendship must be re-examined.
Bournemouth’s twinning with Netanya was once seen as symbolic: two coastal towns, celebrated for their natural beauty. A relationship suggesting shared values and mutual respect. But, as Gaza suffers catastrophic violence – with tens of thousands killed and entire communities starved, bombed, and displaced – we must ask:
What exactly are we aligning ourselves with?
Netanya was not built on empty land. It grew atop the ruins of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian village Umm Khalid, close to the site of the Tantura massacre in 1948, where over 200 Palestinian men were executed and the remaining survivors expelled.
One of those survivors – a young boy at the time who was born in Umm Khalid, now in his 80s – came to Bournemouth recently.
His presence was a living reminder that this is not ancient history, but an ongoing trauma. He, like so many in Bournemouth’s displaced Palestinian community, watches the unfolding genocide with pain and urgency.
This is not a political stance – this is a plea from those who survived one genocide, and from those watching another being inflicted on their families and friends. To remain twinned with Netanya is to disregard that plea, and to overlook the violent foundations on which the Netanya stands.
BCP Council has committed, in its Equality & Diversity Policy, to “tackling discrimination, advancing equality of opportunity, and fostering good relations between people.” It further pledges to “stand against all forms of hatred and abuse, including racism and oppression.”
To maintain a formal partnership with a city that is both a product and beneficiary of ethnic cleansing – and whose state continues to carry out apartheid and siege against a native population – is to betray those values.
It sends a message that our commitment to equality is conditional, that some lives and histories matter less than others. We cannot claim to stand against racism and oppression while we remain twinned with a city complicit in both.