From: Jennifer Loewenstein
To: Emad Shaíat, rbaladya@hotmail.com
Subject: delegation planning
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2003 17:06:48 -0600

Dear Mr. Said Zoroub, Emad Sha'at, and Ali Barhoum,

As you know, four of us plan to visit Rafah from January 12 - 18th as part of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project's first delegation.

We would like to make contact with people in key areas in Rafah, including (if possible) health care, education, youth planning programs, women's programs, refugee committees, religious programs, and, of course, all of you in the municipality.

We have our flights scheduled -- we will fly into Tel Aviv on the 11th via British Airways -- and all of us are obtaining official press cards from the local media here so that our entrance into Gaza will, hopefully, be relatively easy. If you have any suggestions for us, we would appreciate it.

The first night (the 11th) we will stay in East Jerusalem so that we can get our press cards stamped at the Beit Agron, as is the requirement, first thing in the morning. Then we shall come directly to Gaza. Do you recommend we come separately or together when we get to Erez? I have heard conflicting information on this.

If there is anything in particular you would like us to do, please let us know. We look forward to establishing official ties with you in preparation for our larger delegation in the spring.

Feel free to contact any of us should you need to. I will be in San Diego, California for about six days but should have access to my email.

Thank you for all your kindness and interest.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Loewenstein
George Arida
Francisco Bradley
Marc Rosenthal

At 05:45 AM 12/27/2003 +0000, you wrote:

Dear Ms. Jennifer

Thanks for you and for our friends in Madison for their support and help. The mayor Said, Mr. Emad and I are working together to prepare well for a productive working visit to Rafah. We will do our best for the delegation to meet different sectors of the Rafah community and I hope to send to you a draft of the visit schedule before your come, to let you know and for your comment.

For what you raise about the traveling issues, especially to enter Gaza, I think Dr. Emad can advise due to his experience related to this issue.

Please pass my wishes to San Diego, California. I was there in this city last August for five days via the International visitorsí program which was organized by the State Department.

We will keep in touch.

Ali Barhoum

From: Jennifer Loewenstein
To: RAFAH BALADYA, rbaladya@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: delegation planning
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 01:17:56 -0600

Dear Mr. Barhoum,

Thank you very much for your response. I am looking forward to meeting with you and the others this January. I will contact Emad Sha'at for advice on getting into Gaza.

We will be a very small delegation, but we think it is very important to make contact with you directly before we proceed with the sister city. I am responsible for organizing the larger delegation later in the spring and I felt it necessary to get first-hand experience working with you and other sectors. I have spent much time in Rafah but this is the first time I have been part of a major sistering project.

I am really looking forward to meeting you -- I have heard many good things about you and about the Rafah municipality in general from a number of different sources. Also, it is important to me to work constantly on educating people here in the US about the reality there. There is a great deal of ignorance and propaganda in our media. I'm sure you know this.

By the way, I know that the situation in Rafah is particularly bad. I follow the news reports from the foreign press (not the US media) very closely. It will be especially important for us to get your ideas about what the most effective things we can do are. We will share our thoughts on this, too.

Again, thank you for writing. I am forwarding your message to the other delegation people. I leave for San Diego in a few hours, but will check my email at least once while I'm there. And I'll say hello to the city for you.

Jennifer Loewenstein

Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2003 05:57:17 +0000
From: RAFAH BALADYA, rbaladya@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: delegation planning

Dear Ms. Jennifer

Yes, the situation in Rafah last week was terrible, many houses demolished completely and 9 persons killed, 421 injured. All these things happened in two nights.

I am working together with Dr. Emad to prepare the visit schedule. I am looking to cover all that you asked before, and from my experience many things we can raise during the visit from the people here. Also I am looking to exchange ideas about future cooperation.

Looking to see you,

Ali

visitors since July 13, 2003

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