Madison Rafah Journal

Commemorating the life of Rachel Corrie

Sunday, March 21
4:30-5:30 pm Silent Auction viewing and bidding
5:30-6:30 pm Vegetarian Dinner by Lulu's restaurant
6:30-9:00 pm Program
Fellowship Hall, First United Methodist Church
203 Wisconsin Avenue, Madison [Map]

A benefit dinner and program sponsored by the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and Madison Playgrounds for Palestine.

Tickets for the dinner and program are $15 for adults and $10 for children 12 and under. All proceeds will help provide Palestinian children with a new playground in Beit Sahour, West Bank through Playgrounds for Palestine, and a water purification system for a school in Rafah, Gaza through the Maia Project of the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA).

Besides information on these two humanitarian projects, the program will mark the seventh anniversary of Rachel Corrie's death on March 16 with (Read on …)

Dear Members and Friends of MRSCP,

Late last year, we agreed to take on the task of raising funds to pay for and install three water filtration/desalination systems that the Middle East Children's Alliance (MECA) wants to put in a school and two day care centers in Rafah.

This is part of the very ambitious MAIA PROJECT by MECA to install 20 such systems in schools, kindergartens and daycare centers in Gaza. So far, funds have been raised for about five systems.

We are pleased to report that we are only $800 away from our goal of paying for one of the two smaller systems.

And, while we are planning a major fundraiser for Sunday, March 21 (more information on that shortly), we are hoping that you will consider a donation to help put us over the top for this first daycare system so that we can turn our attention to the much larger school system.

(Read on …)

On January 21, 2010 54 members of Congress sent a letter to President Obama calling for an end to the Gaza blockade by Israel and Egypt. You can thank Tammy Baldwin for signing this letter and supporting an end to the suffering in Gaza here.

Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, February 4, 2010

Israel lobbyists are calling the 54 brave congresspeople who signed the letter to Obama against the Gaza blockade "the gang of 54," and trying to light a fire under em. One of them has cold feet. From Arutz Sheva wire:

(Read on …)

Mr. Bill Corcoran, President
American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA)
Tuesday, 9 February 2010, 12:30 – 2:00 p.m.
The Palestine Center
Washington, DC

RSVP here, or watch the webcast live at 1 PM.

A year after the bombs stopped falling on Gaza, full recovery remains elusive. Survival is a daily challenge. ANERA president Bill Corcoran has traveled to Gaza regularly during the past year to assess the damage and the effectiveness of humanitarian assistance. He will talk about current conditions and challenges for helping Gazans rebuild their lives.

(Read on …)

Gush Shalom, Haaretz, Jan 15, 2010

Mike Murray, The Capital Times, January 8, 2010

Dec. 27 marked the one-year anniversary of Israel’s brutal invasion of the occupied Gaza Strip, which was commonly referred to as “Operation Cast Lead.”

During this three-week act of aggression, Israel killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, injured thousands more, and destroyed billions of dollars of Palestinian civilian infrastructure. Today, Israel continues to subject the 1.5 million Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza Strip to a dehumanizing blockade — an illegal act of collective punishment — that denies Palestinians adequate access to food, clean water, sanitation, electricity, and even school books and construction materials for rebuilding.

While most governments around the world have maintained an official silence about the siege of Gaza, activists worldwide are beginning to speak out against Israel’s illegal actions. Recently, a worldwide coalition of activists organized solidarity marches around the world — including Egypt and Gaza — to protest the siege.

Back in the United States, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, has begun to demonstrate an admirable proclivity for compassion, courage and rationality in regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an institution where all three of these characteristics are sorely lacking on this issue: Congress. Many progressive and independent-minded members of Congress are beginning to tire of their colleagues’ unthinking support of Israel and are showing a willingness to challenge both Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians and our government’s unconditional support for Israel.

(Read on …)