Sydney Morning Herald August 31, 2007 - 10:19PM
Marrickville, in Sydney's inner-west, is now officially the sister city of Bethlehem.
The mayor of Marrickville, Morris Hanna, and his Bethlehem counterpart Dr Victor Batarseh signed a sister city agreement at a civic reception at the Petersham council chambers.
The ceremony was the culmination of a two-day visit to Marrickville by Mr Batarseh, his wife Marcelle, fellow Bethlehem councillor Anton Salman, Father Amjad Sabbara and Issa Al Hihi, a citizen of the city.
During their visit, the delegation met with Marrickville councillors and toured the local area.
"Our sister cities program is aimed at increasing international understanding and fostering world peace by furthering international communication and exchange at the person-to-person level through city-to-city affiliations," Mr Hanna said.
Mr Hanna said the relationship with Bethlehem was an appropriate one because both cities were multicultural, while Palestinian residents had made a valuable contribution to the Marrickville area.
The cities also had language in common, he said, as Arabic has been identified as one of the top five non-English languages spoken in the Marrickville area.
Marrickville and Bethlehem councils agreed to twin the two cities in 2000 and a memorandum of understanding on the issue had been in place since then.
The political situation within the region had prevented earlier signing of the agreement.
Marrickville is already a sister city to Funchal in Portugal, Keelung in Taiwan, Kos in Greece, Larnaca in Cyprus, Safita in Syria and to 6th October City in Egypt.
It joins Milan and Assisi in Italy, Cologne in Germany, Athens in Greece, Glasgow in Scotland and many others as sister cities of Bethlehem.
© 2007 AAP
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