Marrickville councillor visits sister city of Bethlehem

BY PIERS KENNA

A delegation of trade union representatives recently returned from  a study tour of Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, organised by the Union Aid abroad organization Apheda. The officials joined MPs from the NSW Labor Party and the Greens. The delegation included Marrickville Councilor Mary O’Sullivan, who took the opportunity to visit Bethlehem, which has a sister city relationship with Marrickville.

Cr O’Sullivan said the council’s sister city program offered a chance to build relationships between local councils on a global scale and to learn about issues that affect local governments and citizens.

“It allows participants to swap ideas and build community relationships based on ideals and facilitate support between citizens who are dealing with crises,” she said.

She said that Marrickville, like Bethlehem, has “a strong multi-cultural and multi-faith community. Marrickville resembles the sort of city Bethlehem used to be before the construction of the barricade, which has devastated the economy and severed the link between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, making it difficult for pilgrims to take the historic route between the two cities.”

“A wide range of religious organizations and groups support our sister city relationship, including St Luke’s Anglican Church in Enmore and St. Brigid’s Catholic Church in Marrickville. The mayor of Bethlehem, Dr Victor Bataresh visited Marrickville two years ago and many local citizens came to welcome him and hear him speak of the importance of the relationship between the two cities.”

“We arrived in the morning and were able to pass through the checkpoints more easily than one would as a Palestinian citizen as we were traveling in a tourist vehicle. Dr Bataresh greeted us and was generous and hospitable. He took us to lunch at a local restaurant.

“Dr Bataresh then discussed the current situation in the city. Whilst the tourist trade had suffered since the current conflict started, he said that more people had been traveling to Bethlehem in the past 18 months and that this was vital for the well being of the community. He impressed upon us the need for more people to support the economy by travelling there.

“He also stressed for us the need for non-violent resistance to the Israeli occupation and that it was vital for people to display resistance. He said the message of Bethlehem is one of tolerance and peace, along with a non-violent and just solution to the problem.

“I was one of the founders of the organization Friends of Bethlehem two years before I was elected to Marrickville council and decided to go myself, funding my own trip as did the state MPS we were accompanied by. I made my decision after a recent talk at St Bridget’s and the council decided to recognize my trip as taking place as part of the sister city program,” CR O’Sullivan said.