June 20 – A brief but intense mission just came to an end in Israel and Palestine; it was organized by the President of the Umbria Region, Catiuscia Marini, invited at the Peres Center for Peace for the President’s 90th birthday. The visit allowed President Marini to check the implementation status of two major cooperation projects. The first between Israel, the Italian Regions and Save the Children, for which the Umbria Region is the leader; and the second with the Palestinian Authority, for the realization of an Arbitration Board, a project by the Umbria Region and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The first day in Ramallah was packed with meetings, during which Marini, accompanied by the Consul General of Italy in Jerusalem, Davide La Cecilia, visited the Mausoleum of Yasser Arafat, met with the Secretary-General Tayeb Abdel Rahim Al and Rami Hamdallah, the new prime minister to whom she delivered the official text of the Palestinian Arbitration Statute. The latter was endorsed a few days before by President Mahmoud Abbas who thus formalized the conclusion of the decentralized cooperation project’s first stage. The project, made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims at supporting the development of the private sector. The day ended with a presentation for the press of the Statute and the contents of the project, carried out by Sviluppumbria. The meeting was also attended by Nemer Hammad, adviser to President Abu Mazen, the Ministers of Justice and the Palestinian Economy, the presidents of engineers, lawyers, builders, industrialists’ associations and the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, partners of the project. A later meeting with the Consul General of Italy, attended by the console Elena Clemente and the Director of the UTL of Jerusalem, Vincenzo Racalbuto, allowed to assess the positive results achieved by the Italian Cooperation Agency in the Palestinian territories, and in particular the PMSP (Italian program in support of Palestinian municipalities).
