The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project (MRSCP)
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May 21, 2025
❝Random Quotes❞
And now there is blood on my name, on my tree in Israel. Do not speak to me of self-defense, of necessity and nations and history. ― Julia Vinograd, For My Tree in Israel, 1988
Andrea Becker, 04 July 2004 Relatively easy somehow: went through Israeli security ‘lite’: no body massages, or bag checks, and treated my security interrogator to a discussion of Jabotinsky, prompting ‘why are you interested in this stuff anyway? Well, whatever. Have a nice day.’ Early morning arrival at Qalandia checkpoint, north of Jerusalem. Rose and…
A leading UN official has warned US manufacturer Caterpillar that it may be complicit in human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Thousands of Palestinians have had homes and livelihoods demolished. BBC News, 15 June, 2004 The company supplies armoured bulldozers to the Israeli army that are used to demolish Palestinian homes. Human…
11 June 2004 Friends, I have just returned from a trip to Lebanon and Syria leading a group of 18 people to meet with the Palestinian Refugees in both countries. In Lebanon, they live worse than ever. No wild animal would live under such conditions. In the thirty five years that I have been visiting…
6/6/2004 Friends, Last week probably set a record for demonstrations in Israel against the occupation — a result not only of the 37th “anniversary” of the occupation, which we mark in June, but also of the ongoing violence in Gaza: Some 30-40 more Rafah homes were destroyed this week, while many Palestinians were arrested…
The Crossing 1127 University Avenue (University and Charter) 7:00 pm The Mosaic Communities group is presenting two speakers, one Jewish and one Palestinian, and both members of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions. Mosaic builds integrated (Arab-Jewish) housing in Israel. Yasser Akawi, Board member, and Fred Schlomka, Executive Director, will present an update on the…
Paris, 22 May 2004 We, European citizens from ten European countries gathered in Paris for a meeting of the organisation European Jews for a Just Peace, condemn in the strongest possible terms the Israeli governmentís policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and especially in Rafah. Many of its actions amount to war crimes under the…
Mazin Qumsiyeh, 5/9/2004 Here is something to inspire you. Read this. It will help you believe your efforts are all worth it. — Jennifer Loewenstein The UN General Assembly passed a resolution (again overwhelming support) to affirm that the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, remain subject to the 4th Geneva Convention (Israel as the…
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Please check out this site for the latest news on Rafah: www.palestinemonitor.org The Madison chapter of Al-Awda (Palestine Right to Return Coaliton) is hosting a silent march on Tuesday, May 25th, beginning at 7pm in rememberance of the recent atrocities in Rafah. We will meet at Library Mall and parade up state street to the…
May 20, 2004 Attached is the Rafah Update Volume 5. The situation is worsenning so fast in Rafah. IOF invaded new areas in the southeast of the town — Tel Al Sultan is in the west of Rafah — and there are many devastating anecdotes. The humanitarian situation in Tel Al Sultan, however, is so…
Amira Hass, Haaretz, 5/20/04 RAFAH — Suddenly there was a shout from outside: “Leave everything. The Jews have fired missiles at the demonstration. Lots of casualties. Send ambulances.” The man shouting ran into the small hut in the hospital’s yard from where the ambulance drivers leave. It was around two in the afternoon. A…
May 18, 2004 Friends, We need your help. There is an emergency situation right now in the Gaza Strip and the town of Rafah, in particular, with scenes that bring to mind Israel’s invasion of Jenin and Nablus in the spring of 2002. So far today, 18 Palestinians were killed, but the action continues. Last…
18 May 2004 Dear Madam/Sir, I write to you today with the high hopes that your consistent support to the Palestinian People and commitment to the peace process as the only way out of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would translate into immediate and decisive actions to alleviate the suffering of the devastated Rafah families. As you…
Julie McCarthy, NPR, May 16, 2004 Israelis gather for a peace march to urge a pullout from the Gaza Strip. The demonstration follows a week of violence during which more than a dozen Israeli soldiers and 30 Palestinians were killed. NPR’s Julie McCarthy reports.
Gil Halsted, Wisconsin Public Radio Monday May 10, 2004 (EAU CLAIRE) New Homeland Security rules may prevent a Palestinian Fulbright Scholar from completing his research at UW-Eau Claire. Mohammed Riffi, a mathematician from the Islamic University of Gaza, was deported last month when he tried to return to Eau Claire after visiting family in the…
Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 19:30:43 +0200 From: “Gila Svirsky” (gsvirsky@netvision.net.il) Subject: Anarchy in our souls To: “Gila Svirsky” (gsvirsky@netvision.net.il) Friends, I just spoke to Molly Malekar on her way to the hospital from a demonstration in Bidu, and here is what she reported: “We were about 60 women, only women: roughly 1/3 Israeli, 1/3…
Gila Svirsky, www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org4/21/2004 Dear Alice, You were signature number 2,750 on the petition “Open the Gates to Allow Food into Gaza”, and you added after your name, “This won’t do any good, but here goes.” Thankfully, Alice, you were mistaken: The gates to Gaza have now been re-opened to regular UNRWA emergency food shipments, following…
STOP CATERPILLAR CAMPAIGN — PROTEST IN PEORIA APRIL 23 — BUS INFO BELOW stopcat.org, April 20, 2004 The “Stop CAT” Coalition invites you to join us in standing up for Palestinian human rights and to demand that Caterpillar cease all sales to Israel. This demonstration is part of the April 23 “International Day of Action…
Grainger Hall Morgridge Auditorium UW-Madison 7:00 pm Situated midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam is a village established jointly by Jews and Palestinians, all of Israeli citizenship, who are committed to work for peace, equality, and understanding. Aside from the bilingual bicultural primary school of 300 students, the village is home to…
Immanuel Lutheran Church 1021 Spaight Street, Madison 1:00 – 3:30 pm: East High School students 4:00 – 6:00 pm: Benefit Perennial Plant Sale 6:30 – 9:30 pm: Main Program and Bake Sale 8:00 pm: Film and Discussion WORT’s The Morning Buzz with Linda Jamieson at 8 am will discuss the display with one of the…
The Crossing 1127 University Ave., Madison 7:00 pm Muli Linder, an Israeli refusenik who is touring the United States as part of the Courage to Refuse movement, will speak to the public on the costs of war and peace in Israel. Dr. Linder, a medical doctor, was an officer in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF)…
UNRWA Press Release 1 April 2004 UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Headquarters Gaza website: www.unrwa.org Press Release No. HQ/G/06/2004 The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced Thursday it stopped distributing emergency food aid to some 600,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip. UNRWA said…
Tanya Reinhart, Yediot Ahronot, 31 March 2004 — An extensive discussion has already taken place in Israel regarding the cost-benefit ratio of [Hamas leader Ahmad] Yassin’s assassination. But the question of justice has hardly been raised. According to international law, the execution of any person in an occupied territory is not allowed. The Geneva convention,…
William R. Polk, March 28, 2004 Before a few days ago, few people in the West had ever heard of Shaikh Ahmad Yasin, but among Muslim Arabs he had long been a major figure. Who was he, why was he important, why was he killed and what can be predicted as the aftermath of…
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, Mar 14, 2004 A new species of officer is achieving greatness in the Israel Defense Forces. These people did most of their service as occupation officers, and their excellence is a function of the degree of violence and brutality they exercise against the Palestinians. The most striking example of this trend is…
Tuesday, March 9 The Crossing 1127 University Avenue (University and Charter) 7:00 pm Wednesday, March 10 Grainger Hall Morgridge Auditorium (University and Park) 7:00 pm The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is hosting the Madison premiere of The Killing Zone, a 45-minute British documentary about conditions in Rafah and the murders of International Solidarity Movement workers…
Ghadi Karmi, CounterPunch, February 20, 2004 The Sharon government is widely regarded, even by Israel’s friends, as a negative force in the current politics of the Middle East. Its brutal repression of the Palestinians, its intransigence over engaging in the peace process and its defiance of world opinion on such matters as settlement expansion and…
Jennifer Loewenstein, The Electronic Intifada, 17 February 2004 Pictured, Maha, the wife of Ibrahim Aoda Abu Shatat, sits together with baby Zyad in her house during shooting at 3:30 AM. Their house is 40 meters from the border. (Johannes Abeling) The border between Gaza and Egypt passes through a city called Rafah. Israeli tanks regularly…
They’re all women, all Israeli and every day they go to West Bank checkpoints to try to stop soldiers harassing Palestinians. Linda Grant went with them. Linda Grant, The Guardian, 1 February 2004 When I came to Tel Aviv last July to find an apartment to rent for a few months, an estate agent…
Gabriel Ash, The Electronic Intifada, 27 January 2004 Israeli historian Benny Morris crossed a new line of shame when he put his academic credentials and respectability in the service of outlining the “moral” justification for a future genocide against Palestinians. Benny Morris is the Israeli historian most responsible for the vindication of the Palestinian narrative…
Rana El-Khatib, Arizona Republic, January 25, 2004 “Israel good!” were the last words my husband and I heard as we left the final checkpoint within Erez, the border crossing maintained by Israel to control all entries and exits to and from Gaza. I turned back to get a closer look at the soldier. I saw…
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 24 January 2004 Sunset over the Jordan Valley, looking west towards Occupied Jerusalem from Mahis, Jordan (Photo: Ali Abunimah) When does the banishment of an entire people become morally justified? That such a question can even be posed in today’s Israel is dismal testament to the transformation of Zionism into…
Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 19 January 2004 Abu Dis — Fatina Zen stayed until the end, peering down her street through the lashing rain as towering concrete slabs were slotted into place one by one across the middle of the road. She wondered if her son might suddenly appear on the other side to wave…
The entire border of Gaza is surrounded by heavily-patrolled walls and fences. A network of Israeli checkpoints tightly controls movement in and out of the Strip, and between population areas within the Strip. (Jamal Wilson) Laura Gordon, The Electronic Intifada, 15 January 2004 Following the suicide bombing at Erez Crossing that left four Israeli soldiers…
I found these items side-by-side today. The first account of the event is from AP wire services. This is what would be picked up by the Capital Times or State Journal, if they report it at all. The second account is an eyewitness report by a member of the ISM, posted at The Electronic Intifada.…
This article states that the accused shooter of Tom Hurndall has also been charged with smoking pot on duty. For another report of marijuana use by Israeli Occupation Forces, see Kelly Bornshlegel’s Resistance under Occupation. Chris McGreal in Nablus Friday, January 9, 2004 The Guardian In a three-week occupation of the biggest Palestinian city the…
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, 1/9/04 The twin girls died one after the other. The first to die was the one who was born first, at the checkpoint. Several hours later came the death of her sister, who was born a few minutes after they finally left the checkpoint, and who managed to reach the hospital alive.…
The Geneva accord won’t bring peace because it signs away the rights of Palestinian refugees Karma Nabulsi, The Guardian, 7 January 2004 This year is the 250th anniversary of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s legendary Discourse on the Origins and Foundations of Inequality. In its dedicatory epistle to the Republic of Geneva, Rousseau, citizen of that virtuous city,…
Mustafa Barghouthi, Palestine Monitor, December 2003 Last week, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon declared that if the Palestinians did not soon take significant steps to curb “violence”, he would begin a unilateral “separation plan” to disengage entirely from any negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. This ultimatum represents the summation of the Israeli government’s skillful media…
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 07:48:29 -0800 (PST) From: Kelly Bornshlegel Subject: Resistance Under Occupation Ringing In The New Year In the midst of an already month-long invasion, the Sheiks announced over the mosques for everyone to yell from their windows and their roofs “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) together for an hour. It began…
Al-Awda, 5 December 2003 The Geneva Accord was signed Monday, December 1, 2003, amid great media and political fanfare. The 50-page document lays out a plan for a presumed “peace agreement” between Israel and the Palestinian people. We, the undersigned, consider this initiative as inconsistent with the prerequisites of a just and durable peace for…
Gideon Levy, Haaretz, Nov 30, 2003 Quietly, far from the public eye, Israeli soldiers continue killing Palestinians. Hardly a day goes by without casualties, some innocent civilians, and the stories of their violent deaths never reach the Israeli consciousness or awareness. If there is one consistent piece of data in the current intifada, it…
David Grogan, American Booksellers Association, Nov 12, 2003 On Thursday, November 6, Madison, Wisconsin’s Rainbow Bookstore Cooperative and a local newsweekly were able to convince Madison Area Technical College (MATC) to reverse its decision to impose restrictions on a speaking event about the Middle East, featuring noted writer and University of Chicago researcher Ali Abunimah.…
Palestinian farmers seek protection against settlers The Globe and Mail, 12 November 2003 Einabus, West Bank – Men with chainsaws turned Fawzi Hussein’s olive into a wasteland overnight – 255 trees cut down at the trunks, fruit-laden branches wilting on a West Bank slope, at the height of the harvest season. The suspected culprits: militant…
Uri Avnery, CounterPunch, November 7, 2003 In the Six-Day War, hundreds of Israeli soldiers were murdered while storming the Sinai desert, the West Bank and the Golan heights. In the Yom-Kippur War, more than 2000 Israeli soldiers were murdered in the defense of the conquered territories. In the 18 year long Lebanon War, more than…
AFP, 04 Nov 2003 BRUSSELS (AFP) – The European Union scrambled to contain the fallout from a public opinion poll that — to Israel’s fury — labelled the Jewish state the biggest threat to world peace. The United States was just behind Israel in the global danger league, in joint second place with North Korea…
World Food Programme Report, 28 October 2003 . . . Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that she had been in the occupied Palestinian territories last week. The situation in that region continued to deteriorate. A WFP study showed that more than 50 per cent of the inhabitants of the occupied territories lived…
Rabbis for Human Rights delegation physically attacked by settlers while documenting cut trees Rabbis for Human Rights, 27 Oct 2003 This morning a RHR delegation was attacked by settlers while documenting cut trees. Well known journalist John Ross, age 66, is on his way to Beilinson Hospital. RHR executive director Rabbi Arik Ascherman was also…
October 25, 2003 Thank you for your continuous support and committment towards Rafah City and Rafah People. From the start of the Intifadah, Rafah has suffered more than any other Palestinian city, Since the start of the Intifadah to date, Rafh has suffered ofthe follwing: 271 Martyrs were killed by the Israelis, 75 of…
“My People are American. My Time is Today.” Lenni Brenner, CounterPunch, October 24, 2003 A friend once got a bit of a reputation by pointing out that “you don’t need the weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.” But you do need a demographer to know which way the Jews are going. Some…