Madison and Rafah

Debate seems to be heating up over the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, designed to foster ties between the Madison community and Rafah, the city in the Gaza Strip where peace activist Rachel Corrie was killed last year. The Madison Jewish Community Council has come out against the project, which they say is simply a means of attacking Israel, and accused of anti-Semitism the plan's sponsors, many of whom are Jewish. Proponents of the plan say they are not anti-Israeli, but simply want to highlight the problems faced by Rafah's citizens as that community deals with environmental and transportation issues which are of concern to many Madisonians. They have, however, criticized Israeli policies in the Gaza Strip in making their case. The Madison-Rafah group has also set up a web site refuting the MJCC's charges

This article sets out some criteria for sister city relationships, most of which revolve around common community interests. I don't think a sister city relationship with a Palestinian city should necessarily be seen as taking sides in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. As seen from both Israel21c and Jonathan Edelstein's "Good News from Palestine" series, Israelis and Palestinians both have a lot of interests not directly related to the conflict which defines them to the outside world. The MJCC has a point that the Madison-Rafah group does engage in a lot of anti-Israeli political advocacy, which I believe is inappropriate for the sister city framework and has in fact helped create the controversy we are now in. However, I believe that this sister city initiative should go forward as a means of treating Palestinians as more than either victims or aggressors. This is what this resolution does. I would also welcome any movement to create a sister city relationship with an Israeli community on the same terms.