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.

This is, by the way, not a task for the American government, alone. Our nation needs the help of all of our citizens — of our schools and our universities, and of institutions like this one, the U.S. Institute of Peace. All of us must play a vital role in this dialogue.

— U.S. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice,
in a speech to to the U.S. Institute of Peace
in Washington, D.C.

Live in the Olympia area? Get tickets for this. Learn about what is going on in the middle east, how U.S. foreign policy plays out “on the ground” in Palestine, from those who were there for three months. Rochelle Gause and Serena Becker are bringing back photos, stories, anecdotes and can answer questions about what the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project is doing, everything they saw while in Rafah as well as the West Bank and Jerusaelm, and about our new ORSCP members in Rafah who now outnumber our board by like 2 to 1.

___________________________


An Evening for Rafah
Presented by the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project

At the Eagles Ballroom
805 4th Ave E
Olympia WA 98506
(here’s a map)
February 26, 2006 @ 5 p.m.

Come join us for an evening of fine Mediterranean cuisine and cross-cultural reflections. With an enlightening report from Olympia delegates just arriving back from three months living in Rafah, Palestine. Enjoy slide shows and traditional Arabic dancers; exclusive fair-trade goods direct from the Gaza Strip will also be available for purchase. All proceeds benefit the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, a non-profit charity working to promote and foster friendships between the people of Olympia, Washington and Rafah, Palestine, for the purpose of strengthening cultural awareness and understanding, international cooperation, justice, and peace.

The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project is a 501C(3) tax-exempt public charity and the cost of admission is tax-deductible.

Tickets Info: $30
tickets@orscp.org
360.867.0290

Public Relations Contact:
Rana Shmait
rziads@yahoo.com
206.799.3125
___________________________

People there are excited about this project. As the more reactionary factions of our own government and society continue to demonize and seek to ostracize these people, they continue to keep a hand out and hold hope that people in the U.S. will listen to their stories and know what it’s like to live under a constant military bombardment aimed at driving them from their homeland. Come see how you can get to know them.

To print and handout:

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