June 2, 2004
Michael Brown
Executive Director
Partners for Peace
202-863-2951
I felt obliged to contact the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project when I heard that opponents of the undertaking were claiming the people of Rafah supported the September 11 attack on the United States. I received a moving letter from my friend and former colleague Hany Abu Nahla on September 13, 2001. Hany lives in Rafah. We met in the fall of 2000 when I worked at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.
It is easy to make all sorts of outrageous allegations against the people of Rafah as they are not here to speak for themselves. I have had the rare opportunity as an American to meet many people from Gaza and think that Americans and Palestinians would benefit from knowing more about each other. Without such contact it is easy for stereotypes and misrepresentations to prevail. With such contact, I had a valuable and instructive interaction with a fellow human being on the other side of the planet.
Michael F. Brown
Executive Director
Partners for Peace
Hello Michael,
How are you? I hope you are very well. We were exteremely shocked when we heard the news about these horrible attacks on innocent people. It is a disaster for humanity. I feel deeply sorry for those innocent victims.It was a sad day in the history of the world.
I hope you will manage to overcome sadness. We here expressed our solidarity with familes of those innocent people and with the American people. We are here against the US policy and its support for Israel, but we have nothing against the American people.
May God bless those innocent souls.
Hany