The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project

About Me

Watch this space for further updates. This text will change over time.

Mission: The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project actively promotes and fosters friendships between the people of Olympia, Washington and Rafah, Palestine, for the purpose of strengthening cross-cultural awareness and understanding, international cooperation, justice, and peace.

Vision: The sister city project that bonds Olympia, Washington and Rafah, Palestine was envisioned by local peace activist and friend, Rachel Corrie (1979-2003). Through her dedication to social justice and acute cognizance of the Israeli military occupation, she believed that cultural exchanges between our two communities could result in significant social change.

Following in Rachel's footsteps, we will collaborate with the people of Rafah to create lasting friendships across borders and bridge cultural gaps through popular education, advocacy, communication, and community exchange. These friendships help us to educate ourselves, increase awareness, and demonstrate solidarity in a common struggle for a just and prompt peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Participate: Meetings are on the 1st Thursday of each month at The Olympia Center (222 Columbia Street) at 7 p.m. Get updates, find out how to participate and share your ideas.

QUOTES

"I continue to believe that my home, Olympia, could gain a lot and offer a lot by deciding to make a commitment to Rafah in the form of a sister-community relationship. Some teachers and children's groups have expressed interest in e-mail exchanges, but this is only the tip of the iceberg of solidarity work that might be done. Many people want their voices to be heard, and I think we need to use some of our privilege as internationals to get those voices heard directly in the US, rather than through the filter of well-meaning internationals such as myself. I am just beginning to learn, from what I expect to be a very intense tutelage, about the ability of people to organize against all odds, and to resist against all odds." --Rachel Corrie, in an email to her family from Rafah, Palestine, February 7, 2003

"Americans also need to hear the stories of the people of the Muslim world. We need to understand their challenges and their cultures and their hopes; to speak their languages and read their literature; to know their cultures in the deepest sense. Our interaction must be a conversation, not a monologue. We must reach out and explain, but we must also listen. Student exchanges and sister city programs and professional contacts helped forge lasting ties of friendship and understanding across the Atlantic and across the barriers of tyranny during the Cold War. Similar efforts today can achieve similar results between Americans and Muslim peoples throughout the world." -- Remarks by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice to the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. in August of 2004

My Interests

+ Olmpia-Rafah Sister City Project + Rachel's Words + The Rebuilding Alliance + Gaza Community Mental Health Programme + Oly Cat Campaign + U.S. Campaign to End the Occupaton + Gush Shalom + Palestinian Centre for Human Rights + This Week in Palestine + UNRWA report on Rafah Refugee Camp

I'd like to meet:

Anyone in Olympia or Ragah, or interested in direct connections between Olympia and Rafah. Anyone interested in starting a sister city project between their own community and one in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Anyone who realizes that humanity can reach beyond walls, closed military zones, curfews, economic strangulation, armies and hatred.

WHERE RAFAH IS

WHERE OLY IS

Music:

+ Slingshot Hiphop + Philistines + DAM + Suheir Hammad + Free The P + The Nomads + Sabreena

Movies:

+ Paradise Now + Planet of the Arabs + Divine Intervention + Arna's Children + WALL + Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land + Jenin, Jenin

Television:

+ Aljazeera's English website: English-language station in the makings and soon to be blocked by U.S. government. + Dispatches: The Killing Zone + Rebuilding Hope: Rebuilding the Nasrallah Home + Jim Page: "I'd Rather Be Dancing"

Books:

+ Sharon and My Mother-in-Law by Suad Amiry + One Palestine, Complete by Tom Segev + Palestine by Joe Sacco + No Man's Land by Larry Towell + The Gun and the Olive Branch by David Hirst + Drinking the Sea at Gaza by Amira Hass + Occupied Voices by Wendy Pearlman + Searching Jenin by by Ramzy Baroud + Peace Under Fire by The International Solidarity Movement + The Politics of Anti-Semitism edited by Alexander Cockburn + My Name is Rachel Corrie by Rachel Corrie + Welcome to the Bethlehem Star Hotel by Ben Granby OTHER READING + Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer by Phyllis Bennis + Razing Rafah: The report by Human Rights Watch CAMPAIGNS & ORGS. + Campaign to End the Occupation + Campaign regarding Caterpillar bulldozers + B'Tselem + Gaza Community Mental Health Programme + Middle East Children's Alliance + The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project + Rachel Corrie Foundation + The Rebuiling Alliance

My Blog

Questions and answers about the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project

The following was compiled to address questions raised by Olympia City Council members and some members of the community regarding the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project and official recognition of the...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:48:00 PST

A letter from Adnan Abu Al Su'ud

To: Members of the Olympia City CouncilFrom: Adnan Abu Al Su'ud ORSCP member in Rafah and Assistant coordinator of projects and programs of the Palestinian Association for Development & Reconstruction...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:34:00 PST

Help get ORSCP a cool $10 grand for continuing work in Rafah without dropping a penny

Keen social networking site with money involved has one of the Oly+Rafah sister city project's plans up for a possible cash payout. Go over there and vote for the ORSCP delegation project while voting...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:36:00 PST

Makin' it Legal

Friends,The board of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project (ORSCP) has applied to the City of Olympia for recognition of formal sister city status between Olympia and Rafah, Palestine. The City Counci...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:01:00 PST

Oly+Rafah Community Mural Projects Event: January 26

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice& The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project presentBreak the Silence Mural Project: Art and ActionWhen: Friday, January 26 Where: The Olympia Center, 222...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Sat, 20 Jan 2007 08:29:00 PST

Olympia's delegation to Rafah in 2007 - Help ORSCP in Rafah

THE OLYMPIA-RAFAHSISTER CITY PROJECTP.O. Box 6275Olympia, WA 98507http://orscp.orgDear sister city project friends,I'm writing to you in support of continuing The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project's w...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:42:00 PST

An Evening of Peace - a community benefit for the Lebanese people

When: Saturday, September 30, 2006, 7:30pmWhere: United Churches of Olympia, 11th & Capitol, Olympia, WashingtonOn Saturday, September 30th at 7:30 pm at United Churches of Olympia, Olympians for Peac...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Thu, 28 Sep 2006 01:41:00 PST

When emperors and popes get along, it's usually trouble for the rest of us

A column by Uri Avnery during Rosh Hashanah,from the fault-line of the War of CivilizationsA Gush Shalom ad in Haaretz, Sept. 22: eve of the Jewish New Year / HebrewTranslation:The essence of peace i...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Sun, 24 Sep 2006 03:23:00 PST

Palestinians brace for bleakest Ramadan yet, as Gaza sinks deeper into poverty

Image Credit: Mohammed Omer, Rafah Today 2006-09-03.The situation in Gaza now is so- I am at a loss for the word - i justmakes me want to scream. 60,000 new people went on the UN World FoodProgram ju...
Posted by The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project on Sun, 24 Sep 2006 02:39:00 PST