Madison Rafah Journal

April 27, 2004

In an effort to derail efforts to obtain official city council approval for a Palestinian Sister City, the Executive Board of the Madison Jewish Community Council has launched an attack against the City of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Mezan Center for Human Rights based in Gaza City and the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. Below is a point-by-point refutation of the charges brought against these three entities by the MJCC.

PART I: RAFAH

The Mayor and Municipality

Charges: Mayor Said Zoroub is associated with Hamas and the city of Rafah is Hamas-controlled. Rafah is a refugee camp not a city.

Facts: Mayor Said Zoroub is known to have been one of the strongest supporters of the peace process initiated in Oslo, a process harshly criticized by religious/fundamentalist groups such as Hamas. He was appointed by the PA (Palestinian Authority) to be a temporary mayor of Rafah until elections can be held. Rafah is not democratic the way Madison is, though there are democratic committees within the municipality and plans for democratic elections this year. Zoroub is critical of Yassir Arafat and considered an independent voice. He is close to the secular community in Palestine and to the Fatah movement, which has been responsible for all agreements made with Israel. Said Zoroub, like Deputy Mayor Emad Sha’ath, City Manager Ali Barhoum, and Municipality Public Relations Director Talal Hamdan all have Israeli-issued travel permits allowing them to travel outside Israel and the Occupied Territories relatively free of restrictions. Israel would never grant such permits to current or former members of Hamas.

Said Zoroub has never been, nor ever will be a member of Hamas nor has he ever been associated with Hamas in any regard. Should anyone wish to discuss this with him directly, Zoroub can be reached at 011 972 59 408 391.

The Rafah Municipality is legitimate and recognized locally and worldwide. Its officials are members of Fatah though the city of Rafah includes people representing all of the major Palestinian political factions. Rafah is a city with a full municipality that includes a number of refugee camps within its jurisdiction. The Rafah municipality cooperates closely with European and Canadian official bodies and it receives funding from US donors including USAID. USAID’s contracts stipulate that its partners not use any of its funds to support terrorist activity.

Suicide Bombers

Charge: “Of the terrorists and suicide bombers who come out of Gaza Strip, they mostly come out of Rafah.” –Steven H. Morrison, Executive Director of the Madison Jewish Community Council. The Isthmus, “Madison Eyes Palestinian Sister,” pp. 7-8, 23 April 2004.

Facts: Since 29 September 2000, the official date of the start of the second (al-Aqsa) Intifada (uprising) there have been no –i.e., Zero—suicide bombers from Rafah. There have been only two suicide bombers from the entire Gaza Strip to strike in Israel. These two were from the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. Documentation on the identity of the suicide bombers can be obtained from a number of human rights organizations including B’tselem, the well-known Israeli human rights organization based in Jerusalem. [See: www.btselem.org]

Tunnels and Weapons

Charges: Rafah is at the heart of the ‘terrorist infrastructure’ and the weapons used by Hamas to engage in terror come from Rafah’s tunnels. Approximately 80 tunnels have been found in and around Rafah.

Facts: There is no central location for resistance to the Israeli occupation or for the planning of suicide attacks against Israel. There is no known ‘vast network of tunnels’ in and around Rafah. The mayor and most of the citizens are aware that tunnels exist, but few know where they are located. In the last 7 months the Israeli military has discovered three tunnels and no weapons – see, for example, Amnesty International’s report on the occasion of the October 2003 incursions into the city of Rafah. During this incursion the Israeli military displaced over 2000 people and dispossessed them of their belongings by bulldozing approximately 600 family homes on the pretext of searching for tunnels. Amnesty International labeled this act a “war crime.” (Amnesty International. Israel/Occupied territories: “Wanton Destruction Constitutes a War Crime,” press release. AI Index: MDE 15/091/2003 (public); News Service no. 234, 13 October 2003.)

The on-going demolition of homes, mosques and businesses in Rafah is being conducted by the Israeli military in order to complete a land-clearing operation that will allow total Israeli control over the Egypt/Gaza border even after Sharon’s planned “unilateral withdrawal”. Focus on the tunnels is an attempt to distract attention from this fact. There is no way to trace the goods, including weapons, that come through tunnels. Hamas exists within the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and is physically decentralized.

The main items to come through the tunnels are cigarettes, foodstuffs and clothing that can be sold on the black market. Weapons have been smuggled in through tunnels. The quantity has been negligible and the weapons useless against the Israeli military. Not a single Israeli soldier has been killed in Rafah as a result of these weapons. Egypt has been cooperating with Israel in attempting to put a halt to the smuggling and the existence of any tunnels or weapons as has the Palestinian Authority. The Mezan Center for Human Rights has documented cases where the PA discovered tunnels and closed them themselves.

According to Raji Sourani of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza City [www.pchrgaza.org], there is a weapons smuggling black-market in which the Russian-Israeli mafia participates – a fact that accounts for the presence of Uzi’s in the hands of some Palestinian fighters.

PART II: THE MEZAN CENTER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Funding Issues

Charges: The Ford Foundation and USAID have decided to cut their funding to the Mezan Center for Human Rights because Al Mezan has refused to sign documents saying it would use none of its funding to support terror.

Facts: The Mezan Center for Human Rights receives $75,000 from the Ford Foundation each fiscal year. Relations between Al Mezan and its partners at the Ford Foundation are good, and there has been no talk of a cessation of funding.

With regard to USAID, reports contend that Al Mezan refused to sign a document USAID had drawn up asking its funding recipients to renounce the use of any funds for terrorist activities. These reports also claim that Al Mezan urged other NGOs to boycott the order to sign such a form. The Mezan Center for Human Rights has never applied for, and does not receive, funding from USAID. It therefore had no need to sign a USAID form. Because USAID’s contracts include the stipulation that funds shall not be used to support terrorist activity, Al Mezan viewed the secondary “Certification Regarding Terrorist Funding” as gratuitous and offensive.

Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial

Charges: Al Mezan is on record in Durban as an organization that denies the Nazi holocaust and proposes anti-Semitic resolutions. It was partners with the Palestinian rights organization LAW at the conference, an organization “instrumental in creating the anti-Semitic focus at Durban”, according to a Geneva-based group called UN Watch. (www.unwatch.org)

Facts: The Director of the Mezan Center for Human Rights, Issam Younis, attended the conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa in late summer 2001. Younis was the only person from Al Mezan to attend. He participated in no demonstrations and carried no anti-Semitic placards. Issam Younis personally and the Mezan Center collectively denounce all forms of racism, oppression and discrimination –including anti-Semitism— advocating adherence to international law, especially international humanitarian law. Neither Mr. Younis nor the Mezan Center denies the Nazi holocaust nor are they partners with any organization that has done so. Anyone wishing to speak to Mr. Younis about these matters may reach him directly at 011 972 59 407 847 or by phoning Al Mezan at 011 972 8 245 3555.

Issam Younis and others at the Mezan Center knew that a number of their international volunteers (including Benjamin Granby, Jennifer Loewenstein and Wendy Pearlman) at the Center were Jewish. These volunteers experienced nothing that could have been termed ‘anti-Semitic’ even in the broadest sense.

It should be noted that the organization “UN Watch” cited by the Madison Jewish Community Council is a pro-Israel organization fully controlled by the American Jewish Committee and staffed by some of the most senior American Jewish leaders including Edgar Bronfman of the World Jewish Congress and David A. Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee. Morris Abram, Honorary President of the American Jewish Committee, founded it in 1993. (See: www.charitywire.com/charity11/00664.html)

It should also be noted that a second conference in Durban, South Africa took place in the summer of 2002. No representative from Al Mezan was able to attend because of Israeli-imposed travel restrictions into and out of the Gaza Strip. The same occurred in January 2003 at the time of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. These restrictions are currently in place on the Gaza Strip making it impossible for men under age 35 to leave Gaza even for medical and personal emergencies.

September 11th Terror Attacks

Charges: Thousands of Rafah’s citizens “flocked to the streets to rejoice at the death and destruction of Americans on September 11th 2001. It is insinuated that the Mezan Center supported these celebrations.

Facts: There is no eye-witness or documentary evidence supporting the claim that thousands of people in Rafah rejoiced at the September 11th terror attacks against the United States. On the contrary, citizens of Rafah say they remember no mass public rejoicing at these events whatsoever. In fact, many citizens of Rafah worried that the United States would retaliate against the Palestinian people if no clear enemy were identified.

On September 13th, 2001 the Mezan Center for Human Rights published a press release condemning the terror attacks against the United States (www.mezan.org; see Press Releases – 2001). The release states, “Al Mezan Center was shocked by the terrorist acts which resulted in terrible civilian losses and would like to emphasize that nothing can justify an act of violence of this kind or indeed any terrorist act. We condemn any such terrorist attacks and particularly those aimed against innocent civilians. Al Mezan Center would like to send its condolences to the families of the victims of the attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon….We would like to again emphasize our sadness at the suffering of the victims….”

PART III: THE MADISON-RAFAH SISTER CITY PROJECT

Anti-Semitism and “Israel-Bashing”

Charge: The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is using a Common Council resolution favoring a sister city relationship with Rafah in the Gaza Strip as “a thinly veiled mechanism to bash the State of Israel,” (Letter to Mayor David J. Cieslewicz and Members of the Common Council from the Madison Jewish Community Council, 20 April 2004). It is an anti-Semitic resolution proposing to establish official ties with “anti-Semites and terrorists”.

Facts: The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project condemns all forms of racism and discrimination including anti-Semitism, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination. Madison-Rafah (MRSCP) has both supported and encouraged the formation of a sister city project with a city in Israel in the hope that three way ties might be developed in the future. It supports and seeks out dialogue with Israeli partners and differentiates between the policies of the Israeli government towards Palestinians and individual attitudes, hopes and actions of Israeli citizens seeking cooperation, coexistence and understanding.

Because the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project accepts the authority of International Law including legal treaties such as the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Times of War and numerous UN Security Council resolutions, and because it accepts as a basis for justice documents such as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights it must abide by internationally accepted standards and definitions of terms such as ‘occupation,’ ‘war crimes,’ ‘racism,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and ‘crimes against humanity’ regardless of the state or group engaged in such acts.

Our goals and motivations for establishing sistering ties with the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip center on the need for people-to-people contact in an effort to educate residents of Madison and Rafah in particular on the social, political and economic realities that bind us together in a common humanity.