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Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Junior Minister Jeffrey Donaldson have met with a group of Palestinian and Irish teenagers working together for peace.
The young people are part of the Connections for Peace project which aims to make a positive contribution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by bringing together teenagers with their peers from both sides of the border here.
Martin McGuinness said: “It is fantastic to see these young people having a passion for peace and a serious desire to learn more about how they can help bring reconciliation to their people.
Whilst conflict situations across the world are very different, we hope there are key lessons for them to learn from our experiences here. And from their example we can learn that you can never be too young to develop a commitment to peace, to learn about other cultures and hold the belief that each one of us can play our part in making new connections for peace.”
Jeffrey Donaldson said: “I welcome this opportunity to meet with these young people and I congratulate them on their commitment to peace.
“People from across the world have shown considerable interest in the Northern Ireland peace process and whilst understanding that no two sets of circumstances are identical I believe we can make a contribution to helping other countries move forward.”
To date the teenagers have visited holy sites, have taken part in cultural events, music making and have developed their knowledge of peace building skills.
The project will meet again in Jerusalem in 2009 which is the international year of reconciliation.
The young people are from Northern Ireland, the Balinteer Community School in Dublin and the Zebabdeh Group for Peace and Reconciliation from the Palestinian West Bank.
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