With a view to enhancing cooperation between Palestinian Municipalities and their South African counterparts, a meeting was held on the 26th of March between Hebron Mayor Khaled Osaily and the South African Undersecretary of Local Government Dr. Yuins Karim, the President of the South African Local Government Association, the Mayor of Johannesburg Mr. Parks Tau as well as several South African mayors and local government experts. The South African delegation was accompanied by Ambassador of South Africa to the Palestinian National Authority Prof. Makalima and Mr. Ulrich Nitschke, Head of GIZ’s LGP program in Palestine.
After welcoming his guests, Osaily underlined the deep ties between Palestinians and South Africans, given the similarities between past conditions in South Africa and the current situation in Palestine reflected by Israel’s discriminatory policies against unarmed Palestinians. Osaily also valued the stances taken by the South African government and people towards the Palestinian cause and their support of national rights guaranteed by all international laws and conventions. He underlined the importance of strengthening cooperation and building new ties between Palestinian and South African municipalities. “This would help ensure our common development as well as the exchange of experiences and would enhance cultural and human ties through partnerships between municipalities”, he added.
Osaily also touched on the history of Hebron, its civilization and rich historical and architectural sites. He spoke about Israeli occupation policies in Hebron that not only violate Palestinian properties and dignity but also attempt to erase history and falsify facts proven by sites present in the city for 6000 years. Osaily then touched on services provided by Hebron Municipality and how it embarked on an infrastructure development process in various fields over the past few years in line with the city’s vertical growth, the increase in building activity and in the number of its inhabitants. “Such efforts were made to support economic development and provide basic services needed by the industrial sector in the city to enhance investment opportunities and generate jobs for young Palestinians, especially for recent graduates”, he added.
During a visit to a number of Municipal Sections including the Remote Control System for the Hebron Water Network, the GIS, Electricity and Customer Service Sections, Osaily added: “Hebron Municipality enjoys many key attributes and experiences that we can share and exchange with you. Hence, we should work together to harness our capacities to provide the best level of services to the inhabitants of both Hebron and Johannesburg”.
Dr. Karim said he was stunned by how advanced Hebron Municipality was. “Implementing such creative and pioneering projects under occupation encourages us to seriously enhance the cooperation which started long ago thanks to historical ties between the South African leadership and the Palestinian leadership first under late President Arafat and now under President Abbas. We share the pain you feel under occupation and because of policies implemented against you as we have witnessed similar conditions before the end of the apartheid in South Africa. We have always overtly declared our support and solidarity with Palestinians and called for your right to self-determination to be respected so that you can build your fully sovereign State and put an end to this occupation which defies all UN resolutions”, he said.
At the end of the visit, and before a tour of the Old City and Al Ibrahimi Mosque, both parties exchanged symbolic gifts and underlined the need to build ties in order to ensure the success of their partnerships and cooperation.