Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project
Dear City Council,
I regret that I am unable to attend tonight's meeting, so I wanted to register my opinion via e-mail.
I am in full support of the city approving Rafah as Olympia's sister city.
I understand that some locals consider now an inopportune time to create a sister city relationship in this part of the world. Certainly Israel/Palestine is entrenched a conflict which is deep, in which solutions are not obvious. It is a conflict where both sides state that there is no such thing as a neutral position, which makes reaching out seem like a risky thing to do for a prudent government, so far from the conflict.
But divisive conflicts such as this are precisely what the model of sister cities was created as a response to. The purpose of sister cities is to bridge cultural gaps, not to align oneself with a particular government or political ideology. Some local constituents have suggested that we should have a sister city in Israel, and I would support such a relationship wholeheartedly as well.
Some constituents have argued that formalizing our relationship with Rafah would be divisive, but I disagree. Diplomatic and cross-cultural relationships do not increase prejudice and conflict, they help resolve it. No matter how misguided, depraved, or corrupt the leadership in a certain region may be I think that creating cross-cultural relationships between common peoples is always a prudent, proactive, and positive thing to do.
We may find a lot of controversy in Olympia about what is the greatest wrongdoing in the middle east, where the blame lies, and what the solutions are. But I believe that you will find that what is uniting and mainstream here is so as well in Rafah and throughout Israel: most all of us wish passionately for a world that is peaceful and just.
As a city we have taken this step in the midst of post-WW2 racism and devastation between the US and Japan, post-cold war Soviet paranoia and propaganda, and in the aftermath of the Contra war. None of these were politically neutral actions, but all were optimistic.
I hope that you will choose to take such an action now with Rafah, where optimism is most desperately needed.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Jade Souza
I regret that I am unable to attend tonight's meeting, so I wanted to register my opinion via e-mail.
I am in full support of the city approving Rafah as Olympia's sister city.
I understand that some locals consider now an inopportune time to create a sister city relationship in this part of the world. Certainly Israel/Palestine is entrenched a conflict which is deep, in which solutions are not obvious. It is a conflict where both sides state that there is no such thing as a neutral position, which makes reaching out seem like a risky thing to do for a prudent government, so far from the conflict.
But divisive conflicts such as this are precisely what the model of sister cities was created as a response to. The purpose of sister cities is to bridge cultural gaps, not to align oneself with a particular government or political ideology. Some local constituents have suggested that we should have a sister city in Israel, and I would support such a relationship wholeheartedly as well.
Some constituents have argued that formalizing our relationship with Rafah would be divisive, but I disagree. Diplomatic and cross-cultural relationships do not increase prejudice and conflict, they help resolve it. No matter how misguided, depraved, or corrupt the leadership in a certain region may be I think that creating cross-cultural relationships between common peoples is always a prudent, proactive, and positive thing to do.
We may find a lot of controversy in Olympia about what is the greatest wrongdoing in the middle east, where the blame lies, and what the solutions are. But I believe that you will find that what is uniting and mainstream here is so as well in Rafah and throughout Israel: most all of us wish passionately for a world that is peaceful and just.
As a city we have taken this step in the midst of post-WW2 racism and devastation between the US and Japan, post-cold war Soviet paranoia and propaganda, and in the aftermath of the Contra war. None of these were politically neutral actions, but all were optimistic.
I hope that you will choose to take such an action now with Rafah, where optimism is most desperately needed.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Jade Souza
posted by Jade at 10:01 PM
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