JERUSALEM, April 30, 2018 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub Monday met with the Consul General of Italy, Fabio Sokolowicz, where they discussed the latest political developments.
General Rajoub, who is also member of the Fatah Central Committee, briefed the Italian representative on the upcoming meeting of the National Council, set to start on Monday evening.
They discussed bilateral cooperation in youth and sport and possible future initiatives that may involve sportsmen from Italy and Palestine.
A specific reference was made to projects involving female representatives from the sport sector, as a continuation of an already fruitful cooperation with the Higher Council for Youth and Sports and in the framework of the leading role that Italy holds among the EU donors on gender issues, Monday said a press release issued by the Consulate General of Italy in Jerusalem.
During the meeting, Sokolowicz also referred to the upcoming start of the Giro d’Italia with legs of the cycling race being run in Israel.
He explained that throughout its century-long history the Giro has often started from places outside of Italy in order to meet the requests of hundreds of thousands of cycling fans internationally.
Being one of Italy’s oldest sports competitions, the Giro has accompanied and sometimes helped forge the Italian history and has contributed to further unifying the Italian people, as it was the first sports event that was taking place on a national level said the release.
“Built around the principles of sportsmanship and fair competition the Giro d‘Italia is first and foremost a unique sporting event. Any attempt to give it undue political connotations is baseless.”
While acknowledging that this year’s edition of the Giro d’Italia will cross only one part of Jerusalem, Sokolowicz expressed the hope that one day, as the two States live together, side by side in peace and security, the race will come back again to Jerusalem and cycling fans will be able to see the riders being cheered by Israeli as well as Palestinian crowds all over the city.
Sokolowicz reiterated the longstanding position of the Italian Government on the final status issues in the Middle East Peace process: in particular the expectation that a peaceful and fair solution, based on two States living side by side, with Jerusalem as a shared capital of both, can one day mend decades of conflict and suffering for the Israeli and the Palestinian peoples.
T.R./M.H.
