The Richmond City Council will consider a resolution to establish a sister city relationship with Sebastia, Palestine, at its meeting Tuesday.
Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez co-sponsored the resolution and signed an online petition in favor of establishing the sister city partnership.
“Richmond has a proud history of using Sister City relationships to stand for diplomacy, reconciliation, and cultural exchange — a tradition that establishing ties with Sebastia would continue,” he commented on the petition.
The petition had gathered more than 300 signatures from Richmond residents as of Friday evening. A sister city relationship would promote cultural exchange and foster educational, artistic, and economic collaboration, according to the petition.
Richmond City Council members Claudia Jimenez and Soheila Bana also co-sponsored the resolution.
The Richmond Progressive Alliance, a progressive political group affiliated with several of Richmond’s elected officials, including Martinez and Jimenez, and the Bay Area Palestinian Youth Movement, a grassroots movement of young Palestinians, also voiced support for establishing the sister city relationship.
Richmond was the first city in the U.S. to call for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, according to the RPA. The city currently partners with three sister cities: Shimada, Japan; Zhoushan, China; and Regla, Cuba.
Sebastia is located in the Nablus district of the West Bank. The city serves as a “cultural hub for nearby villages,” with a local economy centered around agriculture, olive oil production, and tourism, according to a press statement from the RPA.
“As we approach two years of the livestreamed mass displacement, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel, it is nearly impossible to not feel immense grief and helplessness,” the RPA said in the statement. “Here is your opportunity at the local level to stand for peace, diplomacy, and international law.”