The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP)
Posts
Jun 3, 2025
❝Random Quotes❞
If a state with a Jewish majority was to be created in Palestine, a country with a massive Arab majority with uncontested legal claim to the lion’s share of privately owned land, the expulsion of a large part of this majority and the seizure of their land were absolutely necessary. — Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage, 2006
Sep 23, 2024: Antiwar Film Series – “A Bold Peace”: Costa Rica’s Path of Demilitarization
Sept 23, 2024 o, “Una Paz Audaz” Madison Central Library 201 W Mifflin St, Rooms 301 & 302 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm In September, the Antiwar Film Series will show A Bold Peace, a documentary about how Costa Rica abolished its military and the peace dividends that they have reaped. Watch the trailer here. We will show…
Sep 22, 2024: Banners Up for Palestine! at the Willy Street Fair!
Willy Street Fair postponed until 1 pm today. Parade has been cancelled. March With Us in the Parade! Assemble in the I/O Arcade Bar parking lot, 927 Williamson Street, Madison 10:30 am – 12 Noon You are invited to join the MRSCP contingent in the Willy Street Fair Parade! Wear your kuffiyehs, bring your family & friends as…
Sep 21, 2024: Film: “Where Olive Trees Weep”
International Peace Day Viewing Friends Meeting House, 1704 Roberts Court, Madison 7 pm (social gathering at 6:30; discussion follows film) The film Where Olive Trees Weep offers a searing window into the struggles and resilience of the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. It explores themes of loss, trauma, and the quest for justice. The film follows a…
Sep 21, 2024: Andaleeb Cartonera Workshop at Friends Meeting House
You are invited to an Andaleeb Cartonera bookmaking workshop for ceasefire in Palestine and war abolition. Come learn to create a Latin American-style cartonera book. Contribute by painting a cardboard cover for Andaleeb Cartonera’s publications. Andaleeb Cartonera press was established in Madison, WI in August 2024 to “pay tribute to the endurance of the Palestinian people,…
Sep 21, 2024: Saturday Gaza Vigil at the Farmers Market
Saturdays Capitol Square at King St, E Main St and S Pinckney St 10 am – 12 noon We join again the Commemorative Action led by the Interfaith Peace Working Group. The display of shoes and reading of names of children who have been killed are a vivid representation of the Palestinian tragedy. With other local peace…
Sep 20, 2024: The State of Healthcare in Gaza
12 noon – 1 pm Live at 89.9 FM and streaming, or archived Tune in to A Public Affair for an update on the terrible health care situation in Gaza. Host Esty Dinur will be talking with Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon who recently traveled to and provided medical care in Gaza, and Yara M. Asi, Assistant Professor at the…
Sep 18, 2024: Visualizing Palestine Virtual Book Launch
10 am CT This Wednesday, September 18th we hope you’ll join us for a virtual book launch event at 11am Eastern time/ 6pm Palestine time. Book co-editors and VP team members Aline Batarseh and Yosra El Gazzar will be in conversation with Noura Erakat and Linda Sarsour to discuss narrative shift and data-backed visualizations that…
Sep 17, 2024: Medical Apartheid in Palestine
Online 12 noon CT REGISTER HERE Health care is a human right. But under the Israeli occupation, Palestinians have been deprived of access to even basic medicine, services, and treatment. Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and the West Bank have deepened the crisis. To learn more about medical apartheid in Palestine, register for this American…
Sep 17, 2024: Growing Repression of Dissent on Palestine
10 am CT Online Join this online briefing to learn more about growing repression of dissent on Israel-Palestine, a trend that has built over decades and escalated in the past year. From anti-boycott legislation to the recent arrests of student protestors, leading experts will examine how these actions impact American democracy and our right to…
Sep 16, 2024: Vigil at Tammy Baldwin’s office
Ask Congress to block weapons to Israel & call off World War III 30 W Mifflin St 11 am – 1 pm “There will be another shipment of military weapons and planes that has to come before Congress to get an approval, and I will lead the effort to try to stop that,” – Bernie…
Sep 12, 2024: U.S. Gaza Doctors Speak Out
6 pm CENTRAL Online Vermonters for Justice in Palestine present a virtual talk by two American surgeons who traveled to work at Gaza hospitals about the horrors they witnessed there. REGISTER HERE. You will receive a confirmation email with a URL.
Sep 11, 2024: Support student facing discipline for pro-Palestine actions
September 11, 2024 Please consider attending this rally and hearing as requested by UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine. This is part of a disturbing national trend of university administrators, politicians and influential donors spending the summer dreaming up new (and likely unconstitutional) ways to suppress criticism of Israel on US campuses and elsewhere. Besides continuing to…
Blinken says killing of American woman in West Bank ‘unprovoked and unjustified’
“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest” The Guardian, September 10, 2024 The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is in London on a diplomatic visit. He has met with the British foreign secretary, David Lammy. They held a press conference, which you can watch in the video at the top of this blog,…
US State Department declines to Condemn Israel for Shooting American Activist in the Head, Killing Her
JUAN COLE, INFORMED CONSENT, 09/07/2024 Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Basil Maghrebi at the Israeli newspaper Arab 48 reports that on Friday, Israeli troops killed an American observer in the West Bank with a gunshot to her head, as she participated in a procession at Beita south of Nablus in the Palestinian West Bank. Aysenur Eygi, 26, a…
Witness: Israeli troops intentionally killed US activist
Maureen Clare Murphy, The Electronic Intifada, 7 September 2024 Israeli occupation forces killed both an American woman during a protest in Beita, a village near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, and a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in a separate but nearby incident on Friday. In the latter incident, Bana Amjad Baker (some outlets gave…
On the murder of Ayşenur Eygi
Jeff Halper, ICAHD, September 8, 2024 Yet another courageous person who gave her life for a just cause, Palestinian rights. Ayşenur Eygi joins two other members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM0), Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, killed in actions against Israeli destruction of Palestinian life in its genocidal campaign since 1948…
Israel Has Built an Economy Fueled by Genocide at Home and Abroad
With the help of the US, Israel exports instruments of oppression abroad, while testing them against Palestinians. By Ciudong Ng, TRUTHOUT, September 1, 2024 As Israel tightens its siege, medical supplies in the Gaza Strip are running out, and doctors confront patients with unimaginable injuries. The orthopedist Hani Bseso operated on his niece Ahed’s leg, after a shell plowed…
Free speech expert, ACLU question new UW-Madison protest policy
Singing, distributing newspapers and more “expressive activities” could be banned within 25 feet of university buildings under new protest guidelines announced ahead of the fall semester. By Noe Goldhaber, The Daily Cardinal, August 30, 2024 The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s new protest policy may be unconstitutional, a constitutional law expert and ACLU of Wisconsin lawyer told The…
UW-Madison admin, students for Palestine share status of last semester’s agreement
By Camberyn Kelley, WMTV, Sep. 5, 2024 MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – UW-Madison students and administration share the status of an agreement created after pro-Palestine protests on campus last spring. It’s been four months since students encamped on Library Mall. UW Madison student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SPJ), Dahlia Saba feels like things…
Aysenur Eygi’s Family calls for Independent Investigation
“We welcome the White House’s statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate.” —Parents of Murdered Palestinian Rights Activist, Aysenur Eygi Israeli Forces Reportedly Kill US Human Rights Activist With ‘Deliberate Shot to the Head’ Israeli Forces Reportedly Kill US Human Rights Activist With ‘Deliberate Shot to…
American Human Rights Activist Murdered in the West Bank
This is not the first time Israeli forces have murdered American citizens. Israel has a long history of killing Americans and facing no consequences from the United States. In 2003, the Israeli military ran over and crushed Rachel Corrie, an American citizen, with a bulldozer and faced no repercussions. In 2010, a U.N. fact-finding mission…
A Response to the Killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi
A Response to the Killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi From Cindy and Craig Corrie The Corries are the parents of Rachel Corrie, a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who was killed by the Israeli military on March 16, 2003, as she stood to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Gaza. September…
Satellite Imagery Shows Vast Destruction in Rafah
Tal as-Sultan was the site of the Rafah Playground project in 2005. It was during the original creation of the “Philadelphi Corridor” along the Egypt border in 2003 that whole neighborhoods were razed and Rachel Corrie was killed. Israel now wants to expand the Corridor by 800 meters, and is destroying more than that. Jake…
Sep 9, 2024: Infrastructures of Revolt
Mass Politics and Anti-Colonial Revolutions in the Middle East Ingraham 206UW-Madison12:00 pm – 1:15 pm Neil Ketchley (University of Oxford) re-examines one of the key features of British colonialism – the building of infrastructure – and explores how this shaped the possibilities of anti-colonial revolution. Focusing on the 1919 Revolution in Egypt, he explores how…
Freedom Flotilla Initiates Protest to Free Its Ship “Conscience”
By alex, The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, September 4, 2024 ** THE FREEDOM WATCH HAS BEGUN!** At 6:30pm today, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and its local allies initiated the “Freedom Watch” action to free our boats from Haydarpaşa port in Istanbul so that we can sail to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid and break the genocidal siege…
Palestinian Reporters’ Gaza War Coverage Nets 4 Nobel Peace Prize Nominations
According to statistics, more than 130 Palestinian journalists and media professionals have been killed by the Israeli armed forces in Gaza since October 7 Mehr Jan, American Muslim Today, Aug 27, 2024 In a bold recognition of courage amidst conflict, four Palestinian journalists have been nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. Their fearless reporting…
Israeli Forces Shot an American in the West Bank
The U.S. Government Doesn’t Seem to Care “The money I pay in my taxes as a teacher probably funded the bullet they have run through me.” PREM THAKKER, ZETEO, AUG 31, 2024 Three weeks ago, Israeli forces shot an American teacher from New Jersey. In the aftermath, Amado Sison told me that while Palestinians showed…
Sep 8, 2024: Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb in Madison
Midvale Community Lutheran Church 4329 Tokay Blvd, Madison 7 pm Registration Greetings friends, On behalf of Bright Stars of Bethlehem, I invite you to join me for an important and timely presentation by the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb. As someone like me, who has a connection with Bright Stars of Bethlehem, you know of the amazing and tireless…
Sep 8, 2024: Rejecting AIPAC: the Israel Lobby and the Democratic Party
12 noon CT Online Hear from Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, Palestinian academic Rami G. Khouri, labor leader and political strategist Harris Gruman, and Massachusetts Peace Action’s Brian Garvey, about AIPAC and the Democratic Party. We will discuss the history of AIPAC, the funding of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, and the power of AIPAC in the…
Sep 6, 2024: Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now: Education in Gaza
11 am CT Online Learn more about education in Gaza and hear from a former teacher in the region during the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Hour for a Ceasefire Now. Register here. As millions of children in the U.S. return to school, students in Gaza continue to be deprived of this right amid Israel’s…
Sep 2, 2024: Madison LaborFest
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and Jewish Voice for Peace will be tabling at this Labor Day event for Israeli ceasefires, the Read Palestine! project, and the Madison-Masafer Yatta Olive Grove. South Central Federation of LaborMadison Labor Temple, 1602 S. Park St.12:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Join us for food and drink, activities for kids, information…
Netanyahu Prefers Risking a Regional War
to a Hostage Deal and an End to the Gaza War Joel Beinin, September 1, 2024 On Sunday, Sept. 1 the Israeli army announced it recovered the bodies of six Israeli civilian hostages aged 23 to 40 in Rafah. The hostages were killed at point blank range a day or two before the army reached…
San Francisco State University divests from Israel’s weapons
Demands were part of nationwide student movement calling on universities to divest from companies involved in Israel’s occupation of Palestine By Azad Essa, Middle East Eye, 29 August 2024 California’s San Francisco State University has begun the process of divesting from four weapons manufacturers currently involved in Israel’s war on Gaza, in a move activists are…
Inside Israel’s war
Four Corners goes face-to-face with Israel’s powerful political and military voices. This article is 6 months old By John Lyons — with Jonathan Miller, Mayeta Clark and Maddy KingAustralian Broadcasting Corporation, 10 March, 2024 Ehud Barak says more than two decades ago he was new enough in Israeli politics to tell the truth. He declared then that if he was…
‘Practically a war of a mighty Israeli army on civilian population’
Palestinian Mustafa Barghouti on the latest West Bank operation Amanpour CNN, 8/30/24 Christiane Amanpour speaks to Palestinian National Initiative president Mustafa Barghouti about Israel’s operations in the occupied West Bank.
“They Want Palestine Empty”
Artist in Jenin Blasts U.S. Support for Israel Amid West Bank Assault Democracy Now! Aug 29, 2024 At least 18 Palestinians have been killed and 30 more wounded in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has launched its largest military operation in two decades. Israeli forces have simultaneously raided four cities and refugee camps in…
‘Israel’s Starvation Strategy’: IDF Fires on World Food Program Team
“This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza.” JAKE JOHNSON, COMMON DREAMS, AUG 29, 2024 The World Food Program said Wednesday that it was forced to suspend the movement of its employees in Gaza after the Israeli military fired on one…
Israel kills prominent militant in deadliest West Bank raids since Gaza war began
BY MAJDI MOHAMMED AND MELANIE LIDMAN, Associated Press, August 29, 2024 TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) — The Israeli military said it killed five more militants, including a local commander, early Thursday in the West Bank as it pressed ahead with what appeared to be the deadliest military operation in the occupied territory since the start of the war in…
“Trying to Repeat the Nakba”
Israel Launches Largest Military Raids in West Bank in Two Decades DEMOCRACY NOW! AUGUST 28, 2024 This is viewer supported news. Please do your part today. DONATE GUESTS The Israeli military has launched its biggest operation in the occupied West Bank in close to two decades, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers,…
Wisconsin Ceasefire-in-Gaza Advocates to DNC: “No More Bombs”
Sandra Whitehead, Wisconsin Muslim Journal, Aug 27, 2024 About 150 Wisconsin Ceasefire-in-Gaza advocates joined tens of thousands from around the nation to protest outside the Democratic National Convention last week in Chicago. Protestors also marched in Milwaukee and Madison days before the convention and at the DNC’s rally Tuesday at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.…
Israeli attacks that killed scores of civilians should be investigated as war crimes
Amnesty International, August 27, 2024 A new investigation by Amnesty International reveals Israeli forces failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimise harm to civilians sheltering at camps for internally displaced people while carrying out two attacks targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders and fighters in the south of the occupied Gaza Strip…
Special Back-to-School Appeal: Please support Read Palestine!
During the past year the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project joined with a group of local book-loving volunteers to create READ PALESTINE! — a project to spread awareness and educate young people about Palestine by offering them Palestinian stories and culture through books. We need your help now to expand the reach of this project. Here…
Palestine Won at the Democratic Convention
Dr. James J. Zogby, Arab American Institute, August 26, 2024 The 2024 Democratic National Convention was an exhausting roller coaster ride for Arab Americans and supporters of Palestinian rights. It was a messy affair, with highs and lows, some small victories and some setbacks. But on balance, the naysayers are wrong, because Palestine and supporters…
Palestinian American Lawmaker Gives Speech the DNC Wouldn’t Allow
Democracy Now!, Aug 23, 2024 Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday after a four-day convention in Chicago where her campaign refused to allow a Palestinian American to take the stage to address Israel’s war on Gaza. We hear Georgia state Representative Ruwa Romman, who was among the list of speakers offered by…
What I Saw Was “Unfathomable”
Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel Democracy Now!, Aug 21, 2024 A group of American doctors who treated patients in Gaza held a press conference in Chicago on Tuesday to describe the suffering they saw among Palestinians injured and killed in Israel’s war on the territory. The press conference,…
Israel Using Ceasefire Talks to Expand Colonization of Palestine
Israel’s insistence on controlling two key corridors shows its intention to carry out land grabs, the expert said. By Sharon Zhang , TRUTHOUT, August 22, 2024 Israeli officials’ ceasefire demands show that they aren’t just using ceasefire negotiations to prolong their genocide of Gaza, but also to secure permission to further deepen their colonization of Palestine, a UN…
Aug 29, 2024: Read “Light in Gaza” with the FCNL
We hope that you can join us for our first virtual FCNL Book Club! Our virtual discussion on Light in Gaza will be on Thursday, Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. ET. Written by 11 Palestinian writers and poets, this anthology centers the voices of Palestinians in the conversation about a just future for Gaza. You…
