Madison Rafah Journal

MICHAEL MYLREA, Jerusalem Post, July 22, 2004

Thursday, July 22, 2004 — The Madison City Council narrowly rejected on Tuesday a proposal to establish a sister-city arrangement with Rafah in the Gaza Strip, after a heated debate that divided residents of the predominantly liberal Wisconsin college town.

The nonpartisan council voted 9-8 for the plan, but that fell short of the 11 votes needed to pass.

Proponents of the proposal, who hoped to create a cultural bridge and provide relief to Rafah, squared off against those who argued that it was an anti-Israeli initiative that could send money to support terrorism.

The vote was scheduled for July 6, but was delayed due to opposition by Madison’s 5,000 Jewish residents and others.

“For us, Rafah represented bad public policy,” said Steven Morrison, executive director of the Madison Jewish Community Council. “Due to the high number of terrorists in Rafah, there’s a good chance our donations could have wound up supporting terror.” (Read on …)

United Press International, July 22, 2004

MADISON, Wis. — The Madison, Wis., City Council has defeated a resolution to make the Palestinian city of Rafah a sister city, the Wisconsin State Journal said.

A compromise proposal that would have created the first U.S.-Palestinian sister city relationship between Wisconsin’s state capital and Rafah failed by two votes after an eight-hour council session that ended at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz opposed the sister city proposal, which he said made the liberal university town appear to take sides in the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“My concern with Rafah is that it does make a political statement,” the mayor told the Wisconsin State Journal.

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, which supported the resolution, said it would continue to develop humanitarian initiatives in the Palestinian city, including healthcare projects and a playground. (Read on …)

No Palestinian sister city

Judith Davidoff, The Capital Times, July 21, 2004

Mindful that a proposed sister city program with the Palestinian city of Rafah has attracted international attention – much of it critical – the City Council early this morning narrowly defeated the pact.

After more than four hours of public testimony, council members voted 9-8 in favor of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, but the tally fell two votes short of the 11 needed for passage.

Had the measure prevailed, the Madison-Rafah sister city program would have been the first solidarity-model Palestinian sister city pact to be approved by a city council in the United States.

Amy Scarr, one of the leaders of the sister city program, vowed that the group’s humanitarian work would continue, despite the city’s actions.
“This isn’t going to prevent us from doing any of the projects or humanitarian aid that we’ve been working on,” Scarr said after the meeting adjourned at 2:20 a.m.

Rafah sister city group members sought official status from the city because it helps delegations make arrangements for foreign visits and it affords membership into an international sister city organization.
The city provides about $10,000 in funding for all its sister cities. (Read on …)

Jim Rissman, Antiwar.com, July 11, 2004

Senator Edward Kennedy has called the Iraqi prison scandal “the steepest and deepest fall from grace in the history of our country,” “Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management.” As a result, “America is being vilified throughtout the Middle East and in other parts of the world.”

“Now, the image of America the liberator has been replaced by the image of America the occupier and America the torturer,” writes Michael Lind in the Financial Times. “It will take a generation or more to rehabilitate America’s image.”

Thomas Friedman starts a piece “I have never known a time when America and its president were more hated around the world than today.” Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a columnist in London, ends one “I have never had so much correspondence from readers openly expressing their loathing for America, for Bush and now, as violently, for Tony Blair, and increasingly for the American people” (The Independent, May 31, 2004).

“To hold on to the essential and humanising distinctions” between people and “their brutish leaders and cruel orthodoxies” can be difficult. “Don’t blame all Americans,” she implores.

Keeping in mind the prospect of “all Americans” being “vilified” for at least “a generation,” consider the assessment of one Michael Mylrea in The Capital Times: “Madisonians have little in common with the people or the city they hope to adopt in the controversial Madison-Rafah sister-city proposal.” (Read on …)

Council delays sister city vote after panel’s OK

Judith Davidoff, The Capital Times, July 7, 2004

Proponents of a hot-button Palestinian sister city project have won the endorsement of a key city committee, but the anguished and bruising debate, both inside and outside the meeting, revealed a sharp divide among City Council members and within Madison’s Jewish community.

Tuesday night, the executive body of the City Council recommended adoption of a substitute resolution that calls for Madison to adopt Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip, as a sister city. The new draft takes out all references to Al Mezan, a human rights organization that sister city members have used to establish contacts in Rafah but which the Madison Jewish Community Council says has engaged in anti-Semitic activities.

Although members of the City Council’s Organizational Committee recommended that the council postpone voting on the proposal until July 20 to give lawmakers time to digest the revised resolution, two opponents of the project attempted to force a vote at the full City Council meeting just minutes before midnight.

Ald. Tim Bruer said doing so would set a bad precedent and speak volumes “about the integrity of the institution.”

Ald. Mike Verveer agreed, saying dozens of supporters of the project went home instead of staying to speak because they believed a referral was guaranteed. (Read on …)

The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, The Capital Times, July 5, 2004

In 1999, the municipality of Rafah held 25 community meetings of more
than 500 people to develop a long-term plan called “Rafah 2015.”
Neighborhood committees, students, teachers, government officials,
professional associations, women’s organizations, youth groups and
individuals participated. The result was “Strategies for Rafah: A
Vision for the Future of the Municipality of Rafah” by the Rafah
Municipal Council, which included plans for economic development,
social services, health, education, greenspace and recreational
areas, and controlling urban growth and preserving agricultural land.

Mayor Saied Fathi Zouroub, an engineer, wrote, “This vision and these
strategic directions are the result of an open, transparent and
participatory process. They are owned by all the citizens of Rafah.”

It was a process and a document that we would recognize here in
Madison and Dane County.

Since then, of course, Rafah has been ravaged by military occupation
and conflict. The city struggles daily to provide thousands with the
bare essentials of life – food, shelter, clothing, medical care,
clean water – in the face of a seemingly indifferent world.

We mention this document because it shows that there are many
visionary people in Rafah who, in spite of the horrendous conditions
that now prevail there, seek to create a better future for their
children. (Read on …)

Dean Mosiman, Wisconsin State Journal, 7/05/04

Supporters of a controversial sister-city relationship with the Palestinian city of Rafah on the Gaza Strip are expected to delay a Madison City Council vote on the proposal scheduled tonight.

The vote will likely be delayed until July 20 to let council members consider new information, the measure’s prime sponsor, Ald. Jean MacCubbin, 11th District, said Monday.

The council, which meets at 6:30 p.m. at the City-County Building, will consider several major issues, including a change from manual to automated collection of garbage and recyclables.

The Rafah proposal has seven sponsors. Supporters continue to lobby council members but MacCubbin is uncertain if they will get the 11 votes needed for passage.

City Council President Brenda Konkel, 2nd District, a supporter, said, “I think it’s gaining support. I haven’t counted the votes, but I think they’re there.” (Read on …)

A Public Affair, WORT 89.9 FM
Monday, July 19, 2004
12 noon

Esty Dinur, a member of MRSCP’s Advisory Committee and Israeli army veteran, will be debating Shirin Ezekiel, an Israeli citizen who served her military service in Rafah and who is one of the main opponents of our project.

Hosted by Norm Stockwell, it will be a call-in format. Please listen and CALL IN (256-2001).