Municipalities and Councils - Australians for Palestine

The Old City of Beit Sahour. Photo from CCHP Archive.
representative or group from Beit Sahour
is the sole Palestinian representative at
international conferences and forums –
such as the Asia Pacific Cities Summit of
2009 (Korea) and 2011 (Australia).
The administration and staff of the
municipality are currently managing
11 active city-to-city partnerships with
priorities that range from cultural, youth,
and technical exchange to decentralised
cooperation to capacity building and
equipment enhancement as well as
projects from the Emergency Plan for
the Revitalization of the Historic City.
The municipality also facilitates the
networking among organisations in
partner cities and local organisations in
Beit Sahour.
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With all this experience behind it, the
Beit Sahour Municipality is now working
on fine-tuning its participation and
networking skills by developing a pilot
manual for communication mechanisms
and procedures, involving all the sectors
of civil society.
Community engagement (participation)
is the process of building relationships with
community members who will work side by
side with you as ongoing partners in any and
every way imaginable, building an army of
support for your mission, with the end goal of
making the community a better place to live.
Networking is a supportive system of
sharing information and services among
individuals and groups that have a common
interest.
With such concepts floating around, the
municipality and the community are primed
for success in all their endeavours. The
origin of the name Beit Sahour comes from
the Canaanite language: beit meaning place
or house and sahour meaning the white
sheep or white flock. Taken in its entirety
the name reflects the biblical heritage
of the city: Beit Sahour is the “house of
vigilance” for the shepherds who tended
their sheep in ancient times to the present.
Our commitment towards our community,
our heritage, and our nationality has
remained and will continue to be our priority.
As part of this commitment, the municipality
will be holding its first Open House on 1 July
2011. It will be an opportunity for consulates,
embassies, representative offices to the
Palestinian Authority, UN organisations,
international organisations, and nongovernmental
organisations to come and
get to know Beit Sahour, the community, the
municipality, and the local organizations. It
will be a major networking event that will be
held, of course, in Ush Ghurab Peace Park.
Come, get to know us.
Mrs. Lubnah Shomali is the officer
for international relations within the
Project Development and Public
Relations Department of the Beit Sahour
Municipality, serving the community since
March 2009.