The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP)
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They left me in the room for five 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. ― 15-year-old Palestinian, Room No. 4, Nov 1, 2015
As part of the annual World Music Festival sponsored by the Wisconsin Union Directorate and others, an innovative, exciting new film will have its Madison premier. Cultures of Resistance explores how art and creativity can be the ammunition in the battle for peace and justice on a world-wide scale. As a celebration of cultural diversity,…
Passengers Determined to Free Captain and Set Sail Again U.S. to Gaza, July 2, 2011 Contacts: In Athens 30-694-266-3852 In New York Leslie Cagan, 347-581-1782 After a two hour stand off at sea, the U.S. Boat to Gaza The Audacity of Hope was seized by the Greek Coast Guard and forced to return to the…
I want to begin by thanking the members of AIPAC the Jewish Zionist community who are here tonight. I am glad that they decided to set aside time to express solidarity with the people of Palestine. I know that you will listen to the tapes and view the recordings of my remarks tonight and you…
Dear Members and Friends of MRSCP, Here is a special request regarding the upcoming Freedom Flotilla 2, the second effort to break the siege of Gaza by sea which will be heading to Gaza in the next few days. This time, there is a U.S. Boat, The Audacity of Hope, participating in the Flotilla. Please…
Progressive Radio News Hour, Jun 12th, 2011 Jennifer Loewenstein teaches at the University of Wisconsin and is Associate Director of its Middle East Studies Program. She’s also a board member of the Israeli Coalition against House Demolitions-USA branch, founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, and a freelance journalist. Libya, Occupied Palestine and other Middle…
Joe Klein, Time, May 26, 2011 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress in Washington on May 24, 2011 [Jason Reed / EPA] Of all the petty annoyances, misdemeanors and felonies of public life, there is none that Barack Obama detests more than to have his words twisted or oversimplified. It…
Commercial traffic to pass through border points with Israel Adel Zaanoun, Agence France Presse, 28 May 2011 RAFAH, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Egypt on Saturday reopened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, allowing people to cross freely for the first time in four years, in a move hailed by Hamas but criticised by Israel. Among…
The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP) was started in 2003 by a group of concerned citizens in Madison, Wisconsin and Rafah, Palestine. The goals of the project include building wider public awareness of issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and lasting person-to-person relationships between people in the U.S. and in Palestine. MRSCP is…
‘I can continue defending you to the hilt, but if you give me nothing to work with, even America can’t save you.’ HELENE COOPER, The New York Times, May 22, 2011 WASHINGTON — President Obama struck back at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel in a speech to a pro-Israel lobbying group on Sunday, defending…
Mr. Netanyahu Explains, Jeff Danziger, May 22, 2011
EVENT INFORMATION Sat, May 14, 2011 1:00 – 3:00 pm St. John’s Lutheran Church 322 East Washington Ave Madison, WI Background: On September 24, the FBI raided the homes and offices of peace activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. They seized computers, phones, documents and other personal items. The FBI has also been contacting other activists…
Anderson Auditorium Edgewood College Madison 7:00 pm A one-person drama based on the writings of Father Elias Chacour. You who live in the United States, if you are pro-Israel, on behalf of the Palestinian children I call unto you: give further friendship to Israel. They need your friendship. But stop interpreting that friendship as an…
MATC Downtown Education Center 211 N. Carroll Street, Room D240 Madison [Map] 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm Ziad Abbas will speak on Water and Solidarity with Palestine. He will discuss Palestine’s water crisis in the broader context of ongoing displacement, military occupation, and the current political events in the Arab world. He will tell you…
National Lawyers’ Guild Regional Conference Panels University of Wisconsin Law School 975 Bascom Mall, Madison 3:00 – 4:15 pm: Piecing Together Peace: Countering Israeli Apartheid Through Action Featuring Jennifer Loewenstein, UW Professor, and a speaker from Minnesota’s Break the Bonds Campaign, an organization calling for the state of Minnesota to support the breaking of economic…
4 – 5:30 pm Room 336, Ingraham Hall UW-Madison [Map] Ziad Abbas will speak on “Palestine amid the Arab World Uprising: Facts on the Ground and Prospects for the Future”. A Palestinian whose family was uprooted from Zakariah in 1948, Ziad Abbas will discuss his experiences growing up under Israeli Occupation. He will discuss the…
Cash bar/socializing 5:30 pm Dinner 6:00 pm Program 7 – 9 pm Bunky’s Cafe 2425 Atwood Avenue Madison [Map] Film: One Family in Gaza Speaker: Ziad Abbas of the Middle East Children’s Alliance This year’s dinner will be a benefit for the MAIA clean water project of the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA). The program…
Cindy & Craig Corrie: March 16, 2011 Statement from Johan Genberg on Vimeo.
122 State St, Room 407 6:30 pm Palestine History Series continues: “1948 and Its Aftermath: the Palestinian Refugees, the Early Years of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict” will be discussed. Free and sponsored by the Peregrine Forum. For more info, call 442-8399.
Thursday, March 17 Noon Ziad Abbas will be the guest on WORT radio’s A Public Affair call-in show with host Allen Ruff. A Palestinian whose family was uprooted from Zakariah in 1948, Ziad Abbas will discuss his experiences growing up under Israeli Occupation. The call-in number is 256-2001. You can also listen live on-line at…
Amy Goodman in Madison Democracy Now! Executive Producer Amy Goodman and Senior Producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous will speak on “Uprisings: from the Middle East to the Midwest” at the Orpheum Theater, 216 State Street, Madison at 7pm. The event is a benefit for WORT 89.9FM and in solidarity with Wisconsin workers. Sharif Abdel Kouddous has…
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 29 January 2011 We are in the middle of a political earthquake in the Arab world and the ground has still not stopped shaking. To make predictions when events are so fluid is risky, but there is no doubt that the uprising in Egypt — however it ends — will…
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…