The initiative was promoted by the Municipality of Palermo, the NGO Palermo Solidarity Network "With Palestine in the Heart" and the NGO CISS-South Sud International Cooperation, as reported by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "Palermo in 1996 named a city street for Nobel Prize winner Yitzhak Rabin, killed in 1995, and today a waterfront square is dedicated to Yasser Arafat, who shared the Nobel Prize with Rabin," the mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando said during the ceremony as quoted by the paper. "The Oslo accords were the result of their courage, because the two of them understood that peace can overcome, and does overcome, old hostilities between peoples. It would be important, and I have hope that we can return to the spirit of Oslo, and to lasting peace among peoples," Orlando added. Orlando is governing Palermo, which is the regional capital of Sicily, at the head of a center-left coalition.In 2014, he awarded the honorary citizenship of Palermo to Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life-sentences in Israel for terrorism. Attending the ceremony was, among others, Arafat's nephew Nasser Al-Kidwa, who is the chairman of the Yasser Arafat Foundation and a prominent official of the Palestinian Authority's ruling party Fatah.Palermo nel 1996 ha intitolato una via a Yitzhak #Rabin e oggi intitola un piazzale sul lungomare a Yasser #Arafat, che con Rabin ha condiviso il Premio Nobel per la #Pace. Un gesto per rinnovare lo spirito degli accordi di Oslo e promuovere una pace duratura fra i popoli. pic.twitter.com/5XRuswpEWs
— Leoluca Orlando (@LeolucaOrlando1) October 29, 2019
Italian city of Palermo names square after Yasser Arafat
In 2014, the mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando also awarded the city's honorary citizenship to Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life-sentences in Israel for terrorism.
