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The article below from NYTimes.com 

Proposal to Adopt a Palestinian City as a 'Sister' Creates a Family Feud for Madison

May 29, 2004
 By JO NAPOLITANO 

MADISON, Wis. - Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said he thought his
job would be limited to deciding issues like whether to
build a municipal pool in this city of 215,000 residents or
add a light-rail system. Instead he finds himself in the
middle of a debate over Middle East peace. 

A proposal for Madison to form a sister-city relationship
with the Palestinian city of Rafah has divided Jews and
others in this college town and prompted personal attacks
and accusations of anti-Semitism. The mayor and members of
the Common Council, the city council, have received scores
of impassioned letters, e-mail messages and phone calls
from angry constituents. 

While some of the city's 5,000 or so Jews say people here
should reach out to the people of Rafah, in the Gaza Strip,
to help send aid to the tens of thousands of refugees
there, others see the city as a hotbed for Hamas and other
militant groups. Any partnership with the city, opponents
say, would be a condemnation of Israeli foreign policy and
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. 

Madison, a left-leaning town in the middle of a swing
state, has had sister cities for more than two decades. The
sister-city program, meant to foster peace and
understanding across the globe, is financed with $10,000
budgeted annually. Under the program, leaders from both
cities often visit one another and share ideas about common
problems. Madison's sisters include Ainaro, East Timor;
Arcatao, El Salvador; Bac Giang, Vietnam, Camagüey, Cuba;
and Managua, Nicaragua. Though some of those caused a stir,
none proved as divisive as Rafah. 

Jennifer Loewenstein, founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister
City Project, the group that presented the idea to the
Common Council, said Rafah exemplified the Palestinian
struggle and deserved help. 

"It's a place that desperately needs to be understood where
suffering needs to stop," said Ms. Loewenstein, who is
Jewish. 

But she acknowledged that the enmity between Israelis and
Palestinians had made her proposal a hard sell, especially
in a country that generally supports Israel. "It would be
easier to have a sister city with Baghdad than with Rafah,"
she said. 

Shirin Ezekiel, a 28-year-old Israeli who has lived in
Madison for two years, said the contemplation of a
partnership with Rafah sent her a troubling message - that
only Palestinians suffer because of the conflict. 

"It hasn't been a picnic for the Israeli side either," said
Ms. Ezekiel, who added that she had collected more than 500
signatures from students and visitors at the University of
Wisconsin who oppose the plan. Making Rafah a sister city
"doesn't acknowledge any of the suffering on the Israeli
side," she said, adding, "It doesn't foster peace and
understanding." 

Ms. Ezekiel and other opponents say the group in Rafah, Al
Mezan Center for Human Rights, that has worked with the
Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is anti-Semitic, an
accusation the group denies. 

A number of people who support the sister-city proposal do
not deny that members of Hamas and other extremist groups
work in Rafah. In fact, these supporters say, this only
amplifies the need for a partnership to curb the influence
of extremists. 

"The more we isolate ourselves, appear partisan or appear
to condone violence, we serve as a recruiting method for
these radicals," said George Arida, a member of the
Madison-Rafah project. 

In a letter to the Common Council, a local rabbi, Laurie
Zimmerman, wrote that her support for the sister-city
proposal did not negate her "love for Israel." 

"Our hearts must be big enough to hold the tears of both
peoples," Rabbi Zimmerman wrote. 

Steven Morrison, executive director of the Madison Jewish
Community Council, which opposes the proposal, said
supporters of the sister-city project exaggerated the
effect they would have on Middle East peace. "This ideathat Madison could have an impact on the war and peace
issues in the Middle East through a people-to-people
program is fundamentally naïve and borders on being
foolish," Mr. Morrison said. 

That did not deter a Palestinian expatriate from arguing
her point with her alderman. The expatriate, Leila Nijim,
who has lived in the United States since the 1960's, grew
increasingly frustrated as the alderman, Zach Brandon,
refused to budge from opposing the proposal. Ms. Nijim
asked why the Common Council would not embrace Rafah as it
had other cities. 

"In my book, this is racism," she told Mr. Brandon. "If you
support one and not the other, that's racist. When we are
negligent and not caring, oh man, somebody's going to have
to answer to the guy upstairs." 

Mr. Brandon told her that he did not support any of the
other sister-city programs either and that the city should
stay out of such an emotional and political debate. 

When the rift became clear, the Common Council put off
deciding about the sister-city ties so that discussions
could continue. Members of the Common Council have been
meeting with the Jewish Community Council and the
Madison-Rafah project to work out a compromise, which could
include adding a sister city in Israel. 

The mayor has, for his part, withdrawn his support for the
Rafah proposal because it became so divisive, he said. 

"The council and I got elected to get the garbage picked up
and get the streets plowed," Mr. Cieslewicz said. "We
didn't get elected to act on matters of international
policy. It's a debate that we don't have to have in the
city of Madison, and it's also one that's dividing the
community." 

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/29/national/29cities.html?ex=1087275013&ei=1&en=31967641be876a4a 


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