Region | Palestinian Territories
Israeli and Palestinian youths forge unlikely friendships in Japan
Several Palestinian and Israeli youth are forging friendships in a foreign land, as part of the efforts of Japanese government to promote reconciliation, said a senior Japanese official.
- By Binsal Abdul Kader, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:45 October 21, 2008
Abu Dhabi: Several Palestinian and Israeli youth are forging friendships in a foreign land, as part of the efforts of Japanese government to promote reconciliation, said a senior Japanese official.
The Japanese government is inviting high school students from Israel and Palestine, to give them a chance for making friends, as otherwise, they do not have a chance to interact with each other back home, said Kazuo Kodama, Press Secretary at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press conference in the capital.
Nine high school students - four Palestinians and five Israelis - visited Japan in August on the programme, said the official who is in the capital to attend the Forum for the Future.
"Those young men and women had one thing in common - they had lost at least one relative as a result of violence. While travelling together in a faraway country, they came to understand that religion and ethnicity make no difference when it comes to the sorrow felt at losing a parent, and they often cried upon realising this. Through these tears of understanding, they will come to create ties between their futures," the official quoted the address made by Taro Aso, Prime Minister of Japan at the sixty third session of the UN General Assembly on September 25.
The official said an initiative to establish an agro-industrial park in the West Bank, utilising Japanese funds and other resources, is in progress with the cooperation of three other parties - Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. It is part of the broader initiative called 'Corridor for Peace and Prosperity', aiming to create a viable Palestinian economy based on private sector activities.
Progress
The initiative, announced in 2006 during Japanese prime minister Koizumi's visit to the Middle East, has been progressing with several visits to the region, and ministerial and technical level meetings.
Prime minister Aso had also suggested in his UN address that if Israeli drip irrigation technology were to be introduced in the West Bank of the Jordan River, Palestinian youth would be able to grow vegetables.
Share this article
More from Palestinian Territories
More from Region
Popular in News
News Editor's choice
-
Thatcher 'stayed up' for entire Falklands War
Survived by taking 20-minute catnaps
-
Honduras hopes to move past coup with election
Ousted president urges citizens to boycott poll
-
Fonseka to head opposition alliance
Identifies stronger parliament and anti-graft focus as campaign planks
