Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithí de Róiste and Mayor Issa Kassis of Ramallah, Palestine at the signing of the City to City Friendship Agreement, alongside Cllr Deirdre Heney, Mary MacSweeney, Executive Manager of Culture, Recreation and Economic Services, Dublin City Council, Cllr Daithí Doolan and Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid. Fennell Photography
Dublin has been twinned with the Palestinian city of Ramallah as part of a "friendship agreement" between the two cities.
Lord Mayor of Dublin Daithí de Róiste and Issa Kassis, Mayor of Ramallah, signed the formal City-to-City Friendship Agreement on Thursday after the measure was approved at a Dublin City Council meeting last month.
Ramallah is the fifth city that Dublin has been twinned with, following San Jose in the US in 1986, Liverpool in the UK in 1997, Barcelona in Spain in 1998, and Beijing, China, in 2010.
"I very much welcome the signing of this Friendship Agreement between our two cities. The cities of Dublin and Ramallah agree that both of us will work together to examine issues of common interest and to look for areas of future cooperation," de Róiste said in a statement.
"The aim of this Friendship Agreement is to contribute to the strengthening of friendly relations between our two cities."
The twinning agreement was first touted last December when Dublin City Council chief executive Owen Keegan met the Palestinian Ambassador to Ireland Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid to discuss the potential for cooperation between Dublin and Ramallah, which is located in the central West Bank in Palestine.
"Following this meeting, the Chief Executive wrote to Ramallah Municipality to ascertain the interest in developing the connection between Dublin City Council and the Municipality of Ramallah at both political and official levels, based on sharing of knowledge/expertise in areas of mutual interest and benefit," Dublin City Council said in a statement.
Areas of mutual interest and benefit are thought to include climate action, sustainable transport, municipal services such as waste management, and "Smart Cities" technology.
Smart Cities use information and communication technology to operational efficiency in cities and provide the public with a better quality of government service and citizen welfare.
The council said in a statement that Keegan spoke to Ramallah authorities again in April, who informed him that the Ramallah Municipal Authority appreciated the ongoing political links with Dublin and that it was keen to develop further connections with the Irish capital.
The council said the Department of Foreign Affairs is supportive of the friendship agreement, as is the Mission of the State of Palestine in Ireland.