Dabeet, who serves on Sister Cities International — an organization dedicated to promoting citizen diplomacy among nations — wants to build “bridges of peace and understanding among nations.” He is particularly interested in building some bridges between the United States and his native Palestine and serves on Sister Cities International in a capacity that allows him to do exactly that.

Ambassadors and guests from around the world gathered to kick off Donald J. Trump’s January 20 inauguration. Sister Cities International’s January 17 inaugural ball was among the first of many inaugural festivities in Washington as Trump becomes the 45th U.S. president.

The group will cement their bond today at a ceremony in Council Bluffs formalizing a friendship between Afghanistan’s third-largest city, Herat, and the Bluffs. The two cities will become “sister cities” as part of a decades-old citizen diplomacy program called Sister Cities International. The program pairs up cities from different countries to promote mutual understanding. 

“During challenging times like these, there’s no replacement for people-to-people diplomacy – it’s something governments just can’t do,” observes Joanne Bouldt Sanders, former mayor of Sonoma and co-Chairman of Sonoma Sister City International. [...] “Organizations like Sister Cities International connect communities around the world, bringing people from different cultures together, allowing them to understand each other better and develop and build positive relationships"

Diplomats can only do so much to bridge the divides between their countries and the rest of the world. Good bilateral relations start with strong ties at the governmental level. But as public servants, diplomats operate under significant restraints and there is always a layer of formality that may or may not ever melt. [...] This Sept. 11 marks 60 years since President Dwight D. Eisenhower launched a citizen diplomacy campaign that was initially aimed at improving ties with Japan and Germany through a sister cities initiative.

The Santa Clarita Sister Cities Program is a proud member of Sister Cities International (SCI), a nonprofit citizen diplomacy network creating and strengthening partnerships between U.S. and international communities in an effort to increase global cooperation at the municipal level, to promote cultural understanding and to stimulate economic development. Currently, the City of Santa Clarita has international Sister Cities in Tena, Ecuador and Sariaya, Philippines.

Every year citizen diplomats, business influencers, municipal leaders and other luminaries from around the world converge at Sister Cities International's annual conference. Building on President Eisenhower's original vision, Sister Cities International is an organization dedicated to fostering world peace by building global relationships one city at a time.