Beit Sahour Municipality receives the Ambassador of Finland

Beit Sahour Municipality, represented by Mayor Laith Hazim Qumsiyeh and several members of the Municipal Council, received the Ambassador of Finland, H.E. Mrs. Tarja Kangaskorte, on the afternoon of Tuesday 4 August 2026, on her first visit to the Municipality.

The visit was made to congratulate the Mayor and the new Municipal Council and to learn about Beit Sahour in its political, economic, social, cultural and religious aspects and its importance for tourism.

Mr. Qumsiyeh welcomed the Ambassador and thanked her for her visit. He spoke about Beit Sahour’s historical, religious and tourist significance, the distinction of its local women’s and youth institutions, the Municipality’s many development projects and the new Council’s vision for the next four years. He also spoke about the Ush Ghurab problem, the confiscated land and the daily settlement practices and their effect on residents’ lives, and the new settlement outpost, and outlined the Municipality’s efforts to recover the confiscated land.

For her part, the Ambassador expressed her pleasure at her first visit to the Municipality, noting the city’s religious importance and its standing locally and nationally. She spoke about possibilities for cooperation with the Municipality in many fields, including investment initiatives, developing bilateral relations and supporting development cooperation programmes such as education, women’s empowerment and human rights, and building twinning relationships with Finnish cities through institutional networking and other programmes.