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A Green Party mayor hailed by Zack Polanksi for her local election victory in Hackney is facing calls to resign after writing to an Israeli city about ending a twinning agreement with a deadline of October 7 to respond.

The date has become infamous around the world and in Israel as it marks when Hamas launched a terror attack in 2023, killing more than 1,300 people, mostly civilians. Victims were gunned down in cold blood, mutilated and raped. A further 250 were taken hostage.

This week, the Green Party-led council of Hackney voted to start the process of ending a twinning bond between the Israeli city of Haifa and Hackney, which dates back to 1968.

In her letter on Wednesday announcing the plans to her Haifa counterpart Yona Yahav, Hackney Mayor Zoe Garbett wrote that her administration was seeking to end the historic bond, citing a controversial UN report that Israel had “committed genocide” and adding that the Jewish state was “at odds with our anti-racist values”.

Ms Garbett said she would be grateful if Mayor Yahav could share any views on the matter by October 7, the third anniversary of the terrorist massacre.

The Express has contacted Hackney Council for comment. The Mail reported the authority said there had been an “error”.

Commenting on the October 7 deadline, Phil Rosenberg, President, Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “Whether this was deliberate or the product of staggering insensitivity, it is an appalling choice of date.

“That nobody involved in drafting or approving a letter about Israel recognised its significance speaks volumes about Hackney Greens’ attitude towards this issue and their local Jewish community.”

Martin Sugarman, the chair of Hackney Anglo-Israel Friendship Association, which oversees the twinning with Haifa, was cc’d in the correspondence from Ms Garbett.

He said: “The Green Party mayor must resign over this and immediately apologise to the Jewish community and to Israel. If October 7 was chosen deliberately, then it is vile and sinister.

“It could barely be more offensive. If it was somehow done in error, then it is staggering to think no one in the council realised the significance of that date. Heads must roll over this.”

A Jewish Leadership Council spokesperson said the date on the letter was “crass and shockingly insensitive”.

“In choosing this date of all days as a deadline, the mayor of Hackney has taken her politics of division a step further in a sickening attempt to mock and torment Israelis in their grief, and bringing insult to the memory of those murdered and kidnapped by Hamas on October 7,” they said.

The Green Party took control of the Hackney authority in the May elections this year. It ran on a pledge to end the twinning. The party holds 42 out of the 57 seats, gaining an additional 40 seats as they ended Labour’s control of the borough.

Lord Pickles, the former UK Government Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, said: “The decision to end the consultation on the anniversary of the largest mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust is either provocative or insensitive crassness. Either way, it is a new low for the Greens.”

Nivi Feldman, former head of the UK Hostages and Missing Families Forum, added the council should “be ashamed” and called for the mayor to resign.

“At a time when hostages and their families are still trying to heal from unimaginable trauma, and antisemitism continues to rise across the UK, Hackney Council has chosen division over dialogue,” he added.