By Marcelle Mansour
Arab Council Australia (ACA) hosted a special event to welcome Dr. Vera Baboon, the Mayor of Bethlehem city in Palestine, over a women’s forum and an interactive lunch on Friday 6 May 2016 at Al Aseel Restaurant Greenacre. A group of some key Arab-Australian women leaders were invited and attended, to participate in the informal forum and share insights and experiences that might be of interest to Dr. Baboun.
Dr. Vera Baboun is a Palestinian politician and the first female mayor of Bethlehem. Prior to her election in October 2012, Mayor Baboun worked as an English language and English literature lecturer at Bethlehem University for 21 years where she was dean of student affairs. She holds a master’s degree in African-American literature and is a Ph.D. candidate in Arab-American women’s literature. Mayor Baboun holds numerous leadership positions within civil society organizations.
Dr. Vera Baboon was invited to Australia by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s special visits program for a period of five days, accompanied by Ms. Lucy Carlsen from Canberra. Her program focused on the discussion of the challenges facing Bethlehem city and the Palestinian Territories; exploring expertise, collaboration on grassroots issues that impact at the municipal level such as waste management; interfaith dialogue and community engagement; and promoting gender equality and the role of women as future leaders.
In the presence of Ms. Lucy Carlsen from the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, the names of the participant women attended as follows: Ms Randa Kattan, Ms Fatima Ali, Dr Rosemary Suliman, Ms Elizabeth Absolon, Ms Rosanna Barbero, Ms Zizi Charida , Ms Reeda Kassis, Ms Jennifer Killen, Ms Layla Naji, Ms Rana Saab, Ms Mary Shalhoub, Aida Tabet, and Marcelle Mansour (the writer of this article)
Ms. Fatima Ali the Chairperson of the ACA gave a warm welcome to Dr. Baboon and to all the women attendees and provided an inspiring biography of Dr. Vera baboon. Ms. Randa Kattan, the ACA Chief Executive Officer, summed up a brief introduction about the Council, being a secular non-profit independent community organization working to improve the lives of the most vulnerable people in the community, in collaboration with other organizations
Dr. Baboon started her talk by thanking the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for making her visit to Australia; especially she became the first female Mayor of Bethlehem city in 2012. “Bethlehem is the city of the Global message and it is fully separated from Jerusalem. This means our young generation has never seen the Nativity since 2002. After the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian territory was divided into three administrative areas of A, B, and C in the West Bank. It implies that we cannot practice any development or construction without consulting the Israeli authority, where the Israeli occupation preventing our Palestinian people from practicing their rights on their land” Dr. Baboon said.
All the attendees took a part in a friendly discussion about the terrible issues related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, hoping that this will be improved in the near future. It feels awful violating the Palestinian rights under the Israeli horrible occupation for many decades, hoping that Israel will remove all the restrictions on Palestinians and make hast resolutions in all aspects.
The meeting concluded by thanking the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for making Dr. Baboon’s visit to Australia, and the Arab Council Australia for hosting the informal meeting and wishing Dr. Baboun the very best in her Endeavour.