Hackney Council Removes Palestinian Keffiyeh Photo of Green Councillor: London 2026

Key Points

• Hackney Council removed the official website photograph of newly elected Green Party Councillor Brenda Puech because she was wearing a traditional Palestinian keffiyeh scarf.
• UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) initiated the complaint on June 3, writing to the council to argue that the scarf is a politically charged symbol linked by some residents to hostility and antisemitism.
• Green Party Mayor of Hackney, Zoë Garbett, publicly distanced herself from the decision, expressing deep concern over the removal and denying any personal involvement.
• UKLFI asserted that the photograph violated local government publicity codes and created an intimidating environment for Jewish and Israeli residents in the borough.
• The council acted swiftly following the legal group’s letter, replacing the image with a generic silhouette placeholder while reviewing its official display policies.

Hackney (East London Times) June 18, 2026. Hackney Council has formatted a significant local government controversy by removing the official portrait of newly elected London Fields ward Councillor Brenda Puech from its public directory. The decision was executed following direct legal and political pressure from the advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). The organization objected to the photograph because Cllr Puech was pictured wearing a keffiyeh—a traditional black-and-white Middle Eastern scarf strongly associated with Palestinian identity and solidarity.

The image was taken down and replaced with a standard blank silhouette placeholder on the local authority’s democratic services portal.

The administrative action has exposed a sharp rift within the borough’s leadership. Hackney’s Green Party Mayor, Zoë Garbett, issued a statement clarifying that she had no part in ordering the image’s removal, adding that the bureaucratic intervention by council officers was a matter of serious concern.

How Did UK Lawyers for Israel Frame Their Legal Objection?

The escalation began on June 3, when UKLFI dispatched a formal letter to Hackney Council’s chief executive and monitoring officer.

The correspondence argued that allowing an elected official to display prominent political symbols in an official municipal directory compromised the required neutrality of the local authority.

According to administrative filings detailed by UKLFI, the group stated that the keffiyeh has evolved into a “politically-charged symbol.”

The organization maintained that for a significant number of Jewish and Israeli residents within the London Borough of Hackney, the garment is frequently associated with

“hostility towards Israel and, in some cases, with terrorist organisations and anti-Semitism.”

Furthermore, the legal advocacy group asserted that the persistent display of the photograph on a taxpayer-funded website could actively foster an

“intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for Jewish residents.”

To substantiate the immediate necessity of their intervention, UKLFI included testimony in their dispatch claiming that the visual presence of the scarf in an official civic capacity had already caused documented emotional distress to “at least one” Jewish resident living within the Hackney constituency.

Which Specific Local Government Codes Did the Complaint Cite?

UKLFI’s legal team targeted the statutory frameworks governing municipal communications. They argued that the council’s publication of the photograph breached the Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity. This code dictates that local authority publicity must be objective, even-handed, and strictly non-partisan.

The group contended that by hosting an official headshot containing a highly visible symbol of international political alignment, Hackney Council was inadvertently endorsing a specific geopolitical stance.

This, they argued, violated the code’s prohibition against using public funds or institutional platforms to promote highly contentious political causes.

How Has Mayor Zoë Garbett and the Green Party Responded?

The decision to take down the image has triggered a internal political dispute between the borough’s political executive and its neutral civil service. Mayor Zoë Garbett, who leads the executive tier of Hackney Council, moved quickly to distance her administration from the operational choice made by the council’s staff.

Mayor Garbett clarified that the choice to strip Cllr Puech’s photo from the directory was handled strictly by non-elected council officers responding to external legal pressure, without any consultation or sign-off from her office.

Expressing her discomfort with how fast the administration yielded to outside lobbying, Garbett emphasized that elected representatives should not face arbitrary censorship regarding their personal identity or expressions of international solidarity in their official presentation.

What is the Position of Councillor Brenda Puech?

Cllr Brenda Puech, a long-term community activist who won her seat in the London Fields ward for the Green Party, has consistently worn the keffiyeh as an expression of humanitarian solidarity with the civilian population of Palestine.

Representatives from the local Green Party apparatus have argued that a wardrobe choice should not be conflated with antisemitism or the promotion of illegal organizations.

Supporters of the councillor have stated that treating a traditional cultural garment as an inherently offensive or intimidating item sets a dangerous precedent for local government representation, potentially restricting how diverse councillors choose to dress in official portraits.

Background of the Particular Development

To fully understand this development, it must be viewed against the backdrop of changing demographics and shifting political boundaries in East London, alongside a broader national debate over how UK public bodies handle expression related to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Hackney is home to one of the most visually and culturally diverse populations in the United Kingdom. Notably, neighboring areas within the borough and adjacent districts house some of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in Europe, particularly in Stamford Hill.

This proximity has made local authorities in North and East London incredibly sensitive to community cohesion, geopolitical tensions, and local perceptions of safety.

Over the past two years, UK local councils have increasingly become battlegrounds for international politics:

• Numerous municipal chambers across Britain have faced intense internal debates over motions calling for immediate ceasefires, institutional divestment from companies linked to defense production, and the flying of international flags on civic buildings.
• The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity, originally drawn up to stop councils from using taxpayer funds for party-political campaigns, is now frequently invoked by legal watchdogs like UKLFI to challenge any actions or symbols by individual councillors that could be seen as aligning a local authority with a specific side in an international conflict.

This incident follows a series of similar challenges where public institutions, universities, and local government bodies have felt pressured to police the wardrobe choices, pins, badges, and public statements of staff and elected figures to avoid litigation and accusations of institutional bias.

Prediction: How This Development Can Affect the Audience

This administrative intervention is likely to have immediate effects on several distinct groups within the local political ecosystem.

This case sets a clear administrative precedent within Greater London. Moving forward, councillors across all political parties will likely face stricter scrutiny regarding their attire, accessories, and symbolic choices in official civic media.

Local authorities are expected to tighten their guidelines for official photography, moving toward sterile, highly standardized dress codes to insulate institutions from future UKLFI-style challenges. This may frustrate politicians who view their personal attire as an authentic expression of their values or cultural identity.

For British Jewish and Israeli Residents

For residents who felt alienated or distressed by the display of political symbols in official spaces, this development offers a sense of systemic reassurance. It demonstrates that local government frameworks can be successfully used to enforce institutional neutrality.

However, the resulting public friction and political pushback from the Mayor’s office could also heighten visible political polarization within the community, drawing sharper battle lines around international issues in day-to-day local governance.

For Pro-Palestinian Activists and Advocacy Groups

Grassroots organizations and international solidarity movements will likely view the council’s quick removal of the image as a concerning restriction on free expression and political representation.

This action is expected to spark localized counter-protests, increased public public gallery attendance at upcoming Hackney full council meetings, and coordinated campaigns demanding that local authorities clearly protect the right of elected representatives to show peaceful solidarity without institutional penalties.