Malta-sponsored meeting in Ramallah

A workshop for persons involved in conservation and the management of historic cities in Palestine met in Ramallah at a meeting sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malta.

This meeting was the concluding meeting for the preparation of the 'Palestinian Charter - Charter on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Palestine'.

The meeting was addressed by Hamdan Taha, Deputy Minister for Tourism and Culture and Mark Pace, the Representative of Malta to the Palestinian Authority.

The two-day meeting, with a video link to Gaza for participants who could not attend, was the last of a series of four meetings to finalise the document. The document will be the basis for the protection and conservation of cultural heritage in the Palestinian territories.

The Palestinians were joined by Raymond Bondin, Malta's Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.

Bondin was invited to attend both as an expert and also as the technical person on behalf of Malta for this project having been the person who initialised this project.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Malta sponsored the project after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Tonio Borg and the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of the Palestinian National Authority Khouloud Daibes. 

This was followed by another technical Memorandum of Understand signed between Hamdan Taha and Raymond Bondin on behalf of Malta and Bruno Pisani on behalf of ICCROM.

ICCROM, an organisation founded by UNESCO in Rome, was the organisation responsible for the technical preparation for the project. The project was also sponsored by UNDP through the Millennium Development Goal project.

The Palestinian officers and participants praised Malta for sponsoring this project that is considered fundamental for them as part of their capacity building and institutional reorganisation.

Palestine is at the moment also preparing a law for the protection of cultural heritage.