The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP)
Posts
Apr 1, 2025
❝Random Quotes❞
Land on the West Bank is slowly being dragged from Palestinian control. Slowly, slowly push “them” back and back until the land is empty ― as some have pretended it was from the start. ― Irena Klepfisz, Yom Hashoah, Yom Yerushalayim, 1989
1:30 – 3:30 pm RSVP to dwallbaum (at) gmail.com Afternoon dessert reception with Medea Benjamin of Code Pink. Come and help us raise funds for our second Gaza water filters project, meet Medea and discuss her experiences in Gaza. This event is at a private residence in Madison. To attend, please RSVP to dwallbaum (at)…
Gal Lugossi will also be a guest on WORT Radio’s A Public Affair with host Esty Dinur, beginning at 12 noon on Wednesday, January 12. UW-Madison Humanities, Room 1651 455 N Park St [Map] 7:00 pm Israeli conscientious objector and activist Gal Lugossi is a member of the Shministim war resisters. She is on a…
Subhiya Awad al-Qawasmeh placed a picture of her husband, Omar, where he was killed. (Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times) Afterward they asked for his identity card ISABEL KERSHNER, The New York Times, January 7, 2011 HEBRON, West Bank — Israeli soldiers shot and killed an unarmed 65-year-old Palestinian man in his bedroom…
We ask you to help us give the gift of Clean WATER for Rafah’s Children Children at the Tuyar Al-Jena Kindergarten in Rafah were excited to receive a Maia Project water desalination and filtration system provided by Madison-Rafah Sister City Project in memory of MRSCP member Ken Coffeen. There is a growing water crisis in…
Alex Kane, December 21, 2010 The world is fed up with Israel, with its continued colonization of the West Bank, its continued ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, its suffocating siege of Gaza and its crackdown on nonviolent Palestinian popular resistance. This major Human Rights Watch report exposes the infrastructure of Israeli apartheid. Israeli intransigence on the…
Hello everyone, Thought you might like to see these pictures of the first water filter installed in the kindergarten in Rafah….from the funds raised over the past year. As we requested, our gift inscription is in memory of Ken Coffeen. Barb O. Hi Barb and Kathy, I just received these photos of the…
Thursday November 11 Madison Central Library 201 W. Mifflin St. [Map] 6:30 pm Film screening and discussion of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Hosted by the Peregrine Forum to mark Veterans Day. For more information, call 442-8399. (Photo: Wikipedia)
(Photo: The Arabic Hour) Gilbert Achcar “The Arabs and the Holocaust: The Arab-Israeli War of Narratives” Wednesday, November 17 UW-Madison (Room to be announced — see “Today in the Union”) 7:00 pm Noted Middle East scholar, historian and intellectual Gilbert Achcar will be speaking in Madison on November 17th. Touring the US to promote his…
Student Progressive Dane and the Middle Eastern Law Student Association present Professor John Mearsheimer Greater Israel’s Bleak Future Wednesday, November 10, 2010 3650 Humanities, UW-Madison 7:00-9:00 PM University of Chicago Political Science Professor John Mearsheimer is the author of numerous books and articles, including most famously, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics and The Israel…
Glenn Greenwald will be on A Public Affair WORT-FM 89.9 with host Esty Dinur on Wednesday, November 3rd, from noon to one. Student Progressive Dane and the Middle Eastern Law Student Association present Wars Without End: The War on Terrorism and Against Civil Liberties in the Obama Era Wednesday, November 3, 2010 2650 Humanities, UW-Madison…
From Afghanistan to Gaza: Obama’s Middle East Policy in Crisis 7:00 pm 180 Science Hall UW-Madison 550 N. Park Street [Map] The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is co-sponsoring a talk by Ann Wright on U.S. Middle East policy. Ann Wright is a retired Army colonel and former US diplomat who resigned from the State Department…
Life in Occupied Palestine provides an excellent introduction — in a down-to-earth, non-alienating way — to the occupation in Palestine and the nonviolent movement for freedom and equality in the Holy Land.
Gareth Porter, Truthout, 27 September 2010 Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was aboard the Mavi Marmara when he was killed by Israeli commandos. (Photo: freegazaorg) The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza…
Israel and Palestine: A Progressive View This workshop, sponsored by a large number of Wisconsin groups including the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and the United Nations Association Dane County, represents one of the first times that Fighting Bob Fest has ventured into the area of international social justice. This groundbreaking presentation, moderated by Progressive Magazine…
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice 122 State St, Rm 407, Madison 6:30 pm Organized by the Peregrine Forum and supported by the Wisconsin Network for Peace Justice (WNPJ). The first class will provide broad historical background of the Middle East and the Abrahamic religions up to the 19th century and is a Prologue to…
Goodman Community Center 149 Wabesa St, Madison Room Bolz B 5 7 pm [Map] Free and open to all — light refreshments A report on the Christian Peacemaker Team (CPT) work in the south Hebron hills, as part of an ongoing project in the small town of Tuwani, providing witness and support to Palestinian children…
Karl Vick, Time, September 2, 2010 Jerusalem Heli and Eli sell condos on Exodus Street, a name that evokes a certain historical hardship in a neighborhood that suggests none at all, the ingathering of the Jews having entered a whole new realm here. The talk in the little office is of interest rates and panoramic…
ALI ABUNIMAH, The New York Times, August 28, 2010 (Chicago) GEORGE J. MITCHELL, the United States Middle East envoy, tried to counter low expectations for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations by harking back to his experience as a mediator in Northern Ireland. At an Aug. 20 news conference with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, announcing…
Agence France Presse, 29 Aug 2010 WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Sunday condemned as deeply offensive remarks by an influential Israeli rabbi who said he hoped Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas would vanish from our world. We regret and condemn the inflammatory statements by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in…
O you who believe, stand up firmly for justice as witnesses to Almighty God. (Holy Quran, al-Nisa The Women 4:135) We bear witness to the absolute horror and tragedy of the Holocaust where over twelve million human souls perished, including six million Jews. We condemn any attempts to deny this historical reality and declare such…
We ask you to help us give the gift of Clean WATER for Rafah’s Children Children at the Tuyor Al-Jena Kindergarten in Rafah were excited to receive a Maia Project water desalination and filtration system provided by Madison-Rafah Sister City Project in memory of MRSCP member Ken Coffeen. There is a growing water crisis in…
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2010 THE RACHEL Corrie Foundation and Break the Silence Mural Project unveiled the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural on May 8 at Labor Temple building, in downtown Olympia, WA. The mural tells a tale of two cities linked through tragedy: Olympia, WA, where Rachel Corrie grew up and attended Evergreen…
Madison Area Peace Coalition, Cap Times, Jun 13, 2010 The Madison peace community condemns the Israeli murder of nine activists aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31. Nineteen-year-old U.S. citizen Furkan Dogan was among the slain. Other unarmed activists, including American and Israeli citizens, were illegally arrested in international waters. Though the activists’ ship flew…
President Hosni Mubarak caught between Arab solidarity and pragmatic approach to Israel, his country’s neighbours Palestinians carry their luggage to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. Photograph: Eyad Baba/AP Jack Shenker, The Guardian, 2 June 2010 Rafah — From the donkey carts trundling down near empty roads in the afternoon heat, you would…
Israeli navy stormed the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of a flotilla of vessels crewed by pro-Palestinian activists An Israeli naval vessel patrols beside one of six ships bound for Gaza. Photograph: Reuters Robert Booth, The Guardian, 31 May 2010 They came by sea and air, shattering the peace of a Mediterranean night. Shortly after 4.30am…
Hard questions were asked about speaker’s views toward Israel Bill Lueders, Isthmus, May 6, 2010 Steve Horn admits he was drawn to bringing in a Palestinian speaker to a campus-based celebration of Israel in part because he “didn’t want to be part of propaganda.” Horn, a UW-Madison junior majoring in political science and legal studies,…
Cecil and Helen Findley at Fighting BobFest Cecil Findley Public adviser, endorser and defender during the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project debate From the Wisconsin Network for Peace & Justice We say goodbye to two dear friends of the Network who both fought tirelessly for peace and justice. We remember their work in the shape of…
Josh Brollier and Sister Pat Chaffee. Photo courtesy of Phil Haslanger. Phil Haslanger, Cap Times, Apr 1, 2010 Josh Brollier and Sister Pat Chaffee are in many ways a study in contrasts with each other and with the way most Americans live — and those contrasts make this unlikely pair thought-provoking. Chaffee is a 72-year-old…
Juan Cole, Informed Comment, March 16, 2010 On March 10, I posted on the humiliation heaped on Vice President Joe Biden by the Israeli government of far-right Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu. Biden went to Israel intending to help kick off indirect negotiations between Netanyahu and Palestine Authority president Mahmoud Abbas. Biden had no sooner arrived…
Jeffrey Heller, Reuters, 15 March 2010 JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected any curbs on Jewish settlement in and around Jerusalem, defying Washington in Israel’s deepening crisis with U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration. “For the past 40 years, no Israeli government ever limited construction in the neighborhoods of Jerusalem,” he said in…
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…
Photo: Laura Durkay Edgewood College Predolin Humanities Center [Map], Room 307 Madison 7:00 pm Josh Brollier, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, will give a talk with slides about this historic January 2010 march where 1300 delegates from 43 countries tried to break the siege of Gaza from Egypt. Sponsored by Pax Christi, Madison-Rafah Sister…
Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010 7 pm, Room B1B Lowell Center, UW Madison [Map] Aziz Abu-Sarah is a former Fatah Youth Member and now a veteran Palestinian peacebuilder. Kobi Skolnick is an ex-Kahana settler turned Israeli peacemaker. Together they talk about their path-breaking peace work across enemy lines. National tour sponsored by The Center for World…
United Nations Association of Dane County Speaker: Jennifer Loewenstein Tuesday, January 12, 2010 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM Friends Meeting House 1704 Roberts Ct, Madison [Map] Please join us for our first meeting of 2010 to hear our Global Citizen of the Year award winner, Jennifer Loewenstein. Free parking is available at the Friends Meeting…
Mike Murray, Capital Times, Jan 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.…
Saturday, November 14 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center 953 Jenifer Street, Madison [Map] A workshop by the Madison Area Peace Coalition Israel/Palestine Task Force on how to talk about the conflict. We will be viewing and discussing a DVD of the workshop presented by American-Jewish peace activist Anna Baltzer across the U.S.…
Editorial, Cap Times, November 6, 2009 Dear Editor: In Cairo on June 4, President Obama promised “to work aggressively to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” This week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted that she has not been able to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to meet face-to-face. Perhaps, when…
www.thedailyshow.com Part 1 Part 2
Patrick Moser, Agence France Presse, Oct 27, 2009 JERUSALEM (AFP) – Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Israel of denying Palestinians adequate access to water while allowing Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank almost unlimited supplies. Israel, the human rights group said, restricts availability of water in the Palestinian territories “by maintaining total control over…
Ilene R. Prusher, The Christian Science Monitor, Oct 23, 2009 Jerusalem – In the first ruling of its kind, Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the Israeli army on Thursday to allow Palestinians to travel on a West Bank road they had been banned from using. The case, filed by the Association for Human Rights Israel (ACRI)…
Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza Written by Caryl Churchill & directed by Andy Somers Saturday, November 14 Madison Socialist Potluck Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center 953 Jenifer Street, Madison Potluck supper 5:30 pm (bring a dish to pass) Announcements 6:30 pm Play and discussion following Seven Jewish Children is Caryl Churchill’s response to the situation…
October 7, 2009 Dear Governor Doyle: According to The Business Journal of Milwaukee, you plan to lead a trade mission to Israel this November on sciences, water technology and agriculture. You will speak at a water conference and are urging Wisconsin businesses to join you. You have directed the Wisconsin Department of Commerce to promote…
Decision an Insult to the Victims Al Mezan Center For Human Rights, 3 October 2009 A Joint Press Release from Adalah * Addameer * Aldameer * Al Haq * Al Mezan * Badil * Civic Coalition for Jerusalem * DCI-Palestine * ENSAN Centre * Independent Commission for Human Rights * Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human…
Madison Children’s Museum Warehouse 8830 N. Greenview Drive, Middleton [Map] 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM A new Fair Trade Crafts sale has been added outdoors to the Madison Children’s Museum Annual Benefit Sale of American Girl Returns & Seconds. The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project and other local groups will be participating. Annual Benefit Sale of…
Stories from Occupied Palestine Prairie Meeting House 2010 Whenona Drive, Madison [Map] 10:00 AM As part of the Sunday service at 10 am on July 19 there will be a presentation on Palestine organized by the Social Action Committee of the Prairie Unitarian Universalist Society. The presenters will be Nathan Beck and Sol Thea Kelley-Jones,…
FOR ONE WEEK ONLY! The Lemon Tree | Shajarat limon | Etz halimon (Israel-France-Germany). Based on true stories behind the ‘separation wall’. Sundance Cinemas Madison (NR) Screening Room; Arabic, Hebrew, English dialogue; Subtitled Fri: (1:25), (4:40), 7:10 Sat: (4:40), 7:10 Sun – Thu: (1:25), (4:40), 7:10 Salma Zidane refuses to let the Israeli military destroy…
Thursday, April 23th 7:00 to 9:30 PM 107 Psychology Building UW-Madison Dr. Najat Rahman will give a lecture about the late Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and the significance of his poetry. The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session. Friday, April 24th 7:30 to midnight On Wisconsin Room, Red Gym UW-Madison This…
Goodman Atwood Community Center 149 Waubesa Street 6:00 – 8:00 pm Sponsored by Madison East High School Students for Justice in Palestine. A vegetarian Middle Eastern dinner will be served at 6 pm, simultaneously with a cooking demonstration by Chef Sabi Attiyeh – baklava and dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) – followed by a presentation with…
Still image from Rachel; inset: Simone Bitton I think they had a pro-Palestinian agenda, and I don’t think that having a pro-Palestinian agenda means having an anti-Israeli agenda. Actually, as an Israeli, I have a pro-Palestinian agenda, and I think that when life will be normal and reasonable for Palestinians, it will be much better…