Palestinian Olympic team comes to Hounslow

The Palestinian Olympic team joined the crowds in Lampton Park on Tuesday welcoming the Olympic torch to the Borough.

The team of five, plus coaches and officials, had arrived in London at the weekend and took a break from their busy training schedule in Stratford especially to visit Hounslow in acknowledgement of the Borough’s historic link with their country.

The Palestinian Olympic team comprises Maher Abu Rmeileh (Judo), Baha Alfarra (400m), Woroud Sawalha (800m), Sabine Hazboun (50m freestyle swimming), and Ahmed Gebrel (50m freestyle swimming). The team for London 2012 is the largest squad the Ramallah-based Palestine Olympic Committee has ever sent to compete at a Summer Olympics.

Meeting the Mayor of Hounslow, Cllr Pritam Grewal, was a highlight of the visit. Members of the public, excited to see the Olympians, also greeted them and posed for photographs.

The visit was arranged by the Hounslow-Ramallah Twinning Association, which represents the London Borough of Hounslow’s unique twinning with the Palestinian city of Ramallah. The Mayor of Hounslow is Honorary President of the Twinning Association.

Hounslow and Ramallah were twinned in 1988, and the link remains the only official Local Authority twinning with a Palestinian town or city in the whole of England. The aims of the twinning are to promote friendship and understanding between the two communities.