Pro-Palestine candidates were more likely to win their seat than candidates from any major party besides Reform at the recent local elections in England, Middle East Eye can reveal.
New data shared exclusively with MEE indicates that opposition to British cooperation with Israel remains a salient political issue and is a predictor for electoral success in many areas in England.
At the 7 May local elections, candidates who signed the “Pledge for Palestine”, created by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), won 27 percent of the seats they contested, while Reform candidates won 30 percent.
Labour candidates trailed behind on 22 percent, with the Lib Dems just one point behind on 21.
More than 1,600 candidates signed the PSC pledge, which committed them to use their position to support Palestinian rights if they are elected.
They pledged to "take all appropriate steps to" uphold "the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people", and support "efforts to prevent, and ensure accountability for, Israel’s crimes of genocide, military occupation, ethnic cleansing and apartheid".
The pledge also promised to "ensure my council is not complicit in and does not help to normalise Israel’s violations of international law, including through the council divesting pensions and any other funds it administers from complicit companies and through its procurement policies".
The pledge was signed by more than 1,000 Green candidates, more than 200 Labour candidates, more than 200 independents and local parties, as well as some Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates.
Seats with large young and student populations, and significant ethnic minority and Muslim populations, were especially likely to see candidates stand on a pro-Palestine platform.
In Hackney in London, 31 Green candidates made the PSC pledge, including Zoe Garbett, the party’s mayoral candidate who was successfully elected. The Greens won a majority of seats on Hackney Council, ending up with 42 out of 57.
Elsewhere in London, in Haringey the Greens surged to 28 council seats, comfortably overtaking Labour and coming very close to achieving overall control.
In Bradford and Birmingham, numerous independents and Greens who signed the pledge won their seats.
Jeanine Hourani, a member of Palestinian Youth Movement Britain, one of the Vote Palestine coalition partners, said: “The victories of the Vote Palestine campaign show decisively that Palestine is indeed a local issue for residents across the country. In the months leading up to election day, 16 local campaigns were launched, spending thousands of hours canvassing and organising dozens of local action days.”
Hourani added: “The results demonstrate how indispensable grassroots community organising is to the Palestine movement, but also serve as a caution to elected officials. Pledge signatories collectively outperformed almost every political party, and their successes will only grow as we look towards the 2029 general election.”
Green councillor Asma Alam, who won her seat in the Burnage ward in Manchester, said: "I made the pledge because it is the bare minimum. If councils have power over pensions, procurement and public money, then Palestine is absolutely a local government issue.”
Alam added: "Greater Manchester has the largest local government pension fund in England, worth over £31bn. Campaigners have identified nearly £905m in investments linked to companies complicit in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. We cannot pass motions, say the right things, and then carry on as normal.
"For me, this is simple: I will not take a council pension while that pension is tied to Palestinian suffering. Divestment is not symbolic. It is about refusing to let public money bankroll injustice."
In January, the Labour government's Communities Secretary Steve Reed warned Labour-administered councils that they could be sued for boycotting Israeli businesses.
Reed pointed local councils to government guidance published in 2016 that prohibits procurement boycotts against Israeli firms and firms that trade with Israel.
In the past two years, multiple local authorities have voted to boycott companies complicit in Israeli war crimes or that arm Israel or benefit from its occupation of Palestinian territory.
