DUBLIN (JTA) — A proposal to twin Dublin with Gaza has been shelved until September.
The motion by Mayor Gerry Breen, which he filed as a city councillor before he was elected mayor in March, was supposed to be considered at the Irish capital’s City Council meeting on July 5, its last session before summer recess. But the hearing was postponed for two months to accommodate other agenda items, a spokesman said.
Breen had proposed twinning the Irish capital with Gaza in a gesture of "sympathy" with the Hamas-controlled territory.
If passed in September, the motion will clear the way for Dublin and Gaza to enter into a cooperative arrangement to promote cultural and commercial ties.
"My feeling was sympathy for the people of Gaza," Breen told Dublin’s Evening Herald newspaper last week. "There may not be any achievement in it, but it’s saying that we empathize with the plight of the inhabitants in that area. Other councillors have motioned criticism [of] Israel, and I think they’re 10 a penny, and I think that sometimes a positive is better than a negative."
Dublin already is twinned with Barcelona, Liverpool and San Jose, Calif. Gaza also is twinned with Barcelona, as well as five other cities, including Tel Aviv.
