The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP)
Posts
May 15, 2025
❝Random Quotes❞
“Jewish Democracy” is an oxymoron. ― Rotem Levin, Israeli peace activist, referring to apartheid and the second-class status of Palestinians under Israeli law, Nov 19, 2024
Central Library 201 W Mifflin St, Madison 7:00 pm The first “One Book, Many Communities” event of 2016 will take place next month, focusing on Palestinian architect-humorist-scholar Suad Amiry’s Sharon and My Mother-in-Law. The “One Book, Many Communities” project, coordinated by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine (LAP), is a book club that violates boundaries and borders. It launched…
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, November 17, 2015 Adalah-NY is proud to announce the release of a new short video featuring eight leading artists, all with ties to New York, stating their support for the cultural boycott of Israel and calling on cultural workers to commit to Palestinian rights by…
Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) — Rafah [slideshow_deploy id=’1004’] [slideshow_deploy id=’1004′] Related articles: Samira Project Children’s Counseling A Samira Project Success Story
Thursday, November 19, 2015 7 p.m. Sterling Hall 1310 Ahmed Hamad is a Palestinian activist from Gaza who will be speaking on his personal experiences in occupied Gaza and how living under such oppressive conditions affects the Palestinian people. Todd St Hill is an organizer with We Charge Genocide’s Cop Watch program, which trains and…
John Quinlan, Forward Forum KSUN Channel 983, November 2, 2015 John Quinlan talks with Sahar Abbasi Baidon, a mother of four and Women and Children Activities Coordinator at the Madaa Silwan Creative Center in East Jerusalem. Sahar came to Madison on a national tour of Room Number 4, a photographic campaign prepared by the Madaa…
Josh Ruebner, US Campaign to End the Occupation, October 30, 2015 If so, click here to download a template to print out stickers to distribute. Fits templates for Post-It Super Stick Labels #2800-N or Avery 5395. Thanks to designer Tsela Barr of member group Madison-Rafah Sister City Project for designing this resource.
Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, October 25, 2015 Assaf Gavron The leftwing movement of criticism of Israel is getting more and more mainstream by the second. Everyone is walking the path; they’re just getting there a little later. The Washington Post, a hotbed of neoconservative ideas for the last 15 years, has another article harshly critical of…
Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, October 24, 2015 Glen Weyl We’ve long predicted that liberal Zionists will start coming out for boycott because there’s no other peaceful way to end the conflict; and they will even abandon Zionism in the name of a peaceful transition to democracy. This has now happened in the Washington Post: the week…
Sunday, November 1, 2015 First Unitarian Society 900 University Bay Drive, Madison 1:00 – 2:30 pm “They left me in the room for 5 hours with my hands tied behind my back and my legs tied to each other. When I refused to confess, they slapped me and tightened the hand ties more and more.”…
October 23, 2015 by A Public Affair Today Esty Dinur talks to Leila Abdelrazaq, author of the newly released “Baddawi.” Her new book tells the story of a young boy raised in a refugee camp, trying to find his way in the world after fleeing his homeland after the war in 1948 established the state of…
Institute for Middle East Understanding, Mondoweiss, October 22, 2015 (Screenshot: MSNBC) Last week, MSNBC aired a map (above) showing the loss of Palestinian land to Zionist settlers and then to Israel from 1946 to the present. Following criticism from Israelis and their supporters, MSNBC apologized and stated that the map was incorrect. But was it?…
October 21, 2015 by A Public Affair Pledge Edition: Karma Chavez talks with Steven Salaita about his new book, “Uncivil Rites: Palestine and the Limits of Academic Freedom.” His new book addresses his controversial termination from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and important issues that affect both higher education and social justice activism.
“ In our work with people in Gaza, we have been told repeatedly that the issue of the prisoners is a vital one for the entire Palestinian resistance movement that cuts across political divides. Shireen Issawi like all political prisoners needs to know that she is not forgotten and that she is in our hearts.”…
Madison365 staff, Oct 30, 2015 Palestinian American author Leila Abdelrazaq wrote the graphic novel Baddawi, which describes her father’s experience in a refugee camp during the Lebanese civil war. Leila Abdelrazaq, a Palestinian-American writer, cartoonist, and Palestinian rights activist, was a featured speaker Oct. 23 at Central Library for the Wisconsin Book Festival. The Madison…
http://madisonrafah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Sequoya-JVP-10-15-Event-flyer.pdf
One year on, the children of Gaza still face suffering and trauma. Jon Snow has returned to the territory on the anniversary of the conflict. He found children scavenging in the ruins of a mosque destroyed in last year’s bombardment.
Karma Chavez, WORT 89.9FM A Public Affair, September 9, 2015 Today Karma Chavez talks with Palestinian activist Haitham Salawdeh. Haitham is a relative of the infant killed by Israeli settlers who fire bombed their house in the West Bank last month. In late July, 18-month old baby Ali Saad Dawabsheh was burned to death in…
Fighting Bob Fest is right around the corner and MRSCP is preparing some fun activities to show Progressive leaders that foreign policy matters and that PEP (Progressive Except on Palestine) is not acceptable. This year’s main Saturday event will be held at Breese Stevens Field on East Washington Avenue in Madison. Because the event is…
Joy First, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, August 26, 2015 Voices for Creative Nonviolence engaged with a number of Wisconsin peace groups to organize an 8-day 90-mile walk across southwest Wisconsin from August 18-25. The purpose of the walk was to call attention and make connections between the militarized police violence at home and the military…
Gaza Mental Health Foundation At the request of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) has agreed to raise funds for the Samira Project in Rafah. This project was requested by the Rafah branch of the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees. It will provide psycho-social counseling for 150 children with…
Raymond Deane, The Electronic Intifada, 31 July 2015
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), July 2015 [pdf-embedder url=”http://madisonrafah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ocha_opt_gaza_blockade_factsheet_july_2015_english.pdf”]
Charlotte Silver, The Electronic Intifada, 18 June 2015 Palestinians queue at the Rafah crossing on 14 June. Ashraf Amra/APA images Fahad stood on his crutches at the Rafah terminal, the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, his right foot swaddled in bandages. He waited for his name to be called. Fahad, a 27-year-old man from…
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, May 06, 2015 John Dugard, former U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories. He’s now emeritus professor of international law at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He was born in South Africa. As Palestine joins the International Criminal Court, former U.N. Special Rapporteur John Dugard talks…
Desolation and destiny in a land in limbo Banksy artwork on the ruins of a building destroyed by Israeli bombardment in Beit Hanoun (Alice Su) Alice Su, The Atlantic, May 2, 2015 BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip—Eight months after last summer’s war between Israel and Palestinian militant groups, Gaza remains in ruins. Drive five minutes into…
A Palestinian girl in the northern Gaza Strip this month. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters) Matthew Duss and Michael A. Cohen, The Washington Post, March 27, 2015 Matthew Duss is president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Michael A. Cohen is a fellow at the Century Foundation. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process — the one that is supposed…
(See Funding Campaign for Filmmaker Fida Qishta) Sunday, March 15 First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall 203 Wisconsin Avenue Madison [Map] 7:00 pm Join us for “Dessert and a Movie” at this year’s Rachel Corrie commemorative event with Rafah filmmaker Fida Qishta and her ground-breaking Where Should the Birds Fly? The event is free and…
Thursday, March 12 Educational Science Building, Room 204 UW-Madison Campus [Map] 7 pm Dr. Norman Finkelstein, well known speaker and scholar, will address recent events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the future of Palestine. All students, faculty, and guests are welcome to attend. Sponsored by UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine, in cooperation with the…
Friday March 13 Memorial Union UW-Madison Campus 6:30 pm [Map] Gaza film-maker Fida Qishta will speak and show her groundbreaking film “Where Should the Birds Fly”, the first film about Gaza made by Palestinians living the reality of Israel’s siege and blockade of this tiny enclave. Sponsored by UW-Madison Students for Justice in Palestine, with…
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, Playgrounds for Palestine-Madison, the Peregrine Forum and the Madison Infoshop Free Skool are partnering to host this book discussion in Madison. The first session of the Mornings in Jenin book discussion was held at the Madison public library on January 28, in coordination with similar discussions around the world. The second…
First presentation and book signing by author Patricia Martin Holt Tuesday, November 18, 7 pm Madison Central Library, Room 301 201 W Mifflin St, Madison, WI [Map] The Wisconsin Book Festival, in partnership with the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, presents Patricia Holt to discuss her book Committee of One. Free and open to the public.…
BBC News, 14 November 2014 Dr Gilbert, pictured here in 2009, has been a frequent visitor to Gaza. (Getty Images) A Norwegian doctor has been permanently banned from entering the Gaza Strip by the Israeli government. Dr Mads Gilbert says he was stopped trying to cross into Gaza in October. He called the move “totally…
Searching for Peace The Capital City Hues October 30, 2014 From Barbara Olson and The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project: Do you feel baffled and disturbed by what the major media variously describe as "an age-old religious conflict" or "the endless cycle of violence" between Israel and Palestine? Did the pictures of the terrible bloodshed, destruction…
The Madison Times, October 22, 2014 In a year when enduring images have been burned into our collective memories of the great loss of life and indescribable destruction that occurred in the Gaza a few short months ago, a landmark national conference is coming to Madison on Nov. 7-8 that seeks to chart the path…
Biweekly Wednesdays, October 1 – November 26 “Palestine Reading Group” The Lakefront on Langdon, Memorial Union, UW-Madison [Map] 7 to 8:30 pm The International Socialist Organization and Students for Justice in Palestine-Madison are hosting a discussion group on Ali Abunimah’s new book The Battle for Justice in Palestine. The first meeting will discuss the Preface…
Israel’s Jews and Arabs and the Ghosts of Catastrophe By Jo Roberts Friday, October 10 JO ROBERTS will be reading from her critically acclaimed book Rainbow Bookstore Co-operative 426 W. Gilman St, Madison 7:00 pm [Map] NOMINATED for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2014 1948: As Jewish refugees, survivors of the Holocaust, struggle toward the…
Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, September 26, 2014 The Senate is warning Palestinians against undertaking any “negative” unilateral actions re Israel at the United Nations, and look who isn’t signing on to the letter that AIPAC has endorsed: Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Folks have been pressing Warren and her staffers not to sign this letter – and she…
Michele Bahl, Cap Times, Sep 20, 2014 Dear Editor: For three days, at the Barrymore Theater Sept. 12, Fighting Bob Fest Sept. 13 and at the Willy Street Fair Sept. 14, I stood with a large cardboard panel of horrific and gruesome pictures of children who were wounded and killed in Gaza in July by…
Madison Central Library, Rm. 104 201 W. Mifflin Thurs. Sept. 25th 6:30 pm The Zionist Colonization, The British Colonial Regime, and the 1948 War and Founding of Israel Thurs. Oct. 30th 6:30 pm A Dispossessed People, the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Wars of 1956, 1967, and 1982, and Evolution of the Palestinian National Movement Thurs. Nov.…
[pdf-embedder url=”http://madisonrafah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BobfestShameflyer.pdf”]
With Clare Norelle Sunday, September 28, 4 – 6 pm The Brink Lounge, 701 E Washington Ave, Suite 105 $10 at the door – proceeds benefit Gaza emergency relief and scholarships for children of Arcatao, El Salvador DAVID ROVICS grew up in a family of classical musicians and became an early fan of populist regimes.…
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 10 September 2014 Destruction everywhere UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs A new United Nations assessment published this week lays out the massive scope of the needs facing the nearly 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza following the “unprecedented” destruction wreaked by 51 days of Israeli bombing in July…
Alex Kane, Mondoweiss, August 26, 2014 Holocaust survivors printed an ad in the New York Times condemning Israel’s attacks on Gaza. (Photo: Alex Kane) A group of Holocaust survivors and descendants of those targeted by Nazi Germany have harshly criticized Israeli actions in Gaza and called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Following…
http://madisonrafah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/circle-of-grief-announcement-for-Aug-12.pdf
Palestinians evacuate a survivor of an Israeli air strike that hit the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2014. At least 40 people were inside the Al Ghoul family building in Rafah Camp when it was targeted by Israeli jet fighters, according to the Red Crescent and Gaza health…
http://madisonrafah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/VIGIL-FLYER.pdf
The Lancet, Volume 384, No. 9941, p397–398, 2 August 2014 [pdf-embedder url=”http://madisonrafah.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Lancet-Mads-Gilbert-PIIS0140673614610448.pdf” title=”Lancet Mads Gilbert PIIS0140673614610448″]
JUDITH LAITMAN, Cap Times, Jul 25, 2014 I’ve learned a few things during my more than seven decades on this planet. One of the most important is that when we are witness to evil and we do nothing about it, then we are complicit in that evil. As a Jew born in 1942, I was…
Broadcast on the WORT 89.9 FM program Third World View: Mahmoud Abu Rahma, the Communications and International Relations Director at the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights – Gaza, and Mimi Rosenberg & Ken Nash of Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report Mahound Abu Rahma recently wrote in “Understanding Israel’s Actions”: “It is essential…