Baghdad and East Jerusalem Called Sister Cities in ‘the Cause of Peace’
The mayor of Baghdad signed an agreement with the former mayor of East Jerusalem on Monday to declare the two communities sister cities “in an act of solidarity and for the cause of peace.”
Mayor Khalid Abdul-Munim Rashid of Baghdad and Ruhi Khatib, the former mayor of Jerusalem under Jordanian rule, signed a sister-cities document during a ceremony attended by Sharifuddin Pirzada, the Pakistani secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
In an address at the ceremony, Khatib, who was expelled by the Israelis after the 1967 Middle East War, said the agreement “is a blessed move to boost the moral position of Al Quds (Jerusalem) as the city of peace and a meeting point for the divine faiths.”
An Islamic foreign ministers’ meeting held in Morocco in 1981 decided to urge Muslim capitals and cities to declare themselves sister cities with Arab East Jerusalem in recognition of the role the city played in Islamic history and in affirmation of “its status as the capital of Palestine.”
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