Posted on Sunday, 2 May, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
ORSMP is expected to be the largest Palestine solidarity mural in the world. It is located on the north side of the Labor Temple building in downtown Olympia. To date, this olive tree, with branches spanning 100 feet, has been completed and is waiting for its leaves to unfold.
Finally, the side of the Brotherhood tavern in Olympia, WA, is something worth looking at:
The Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural is a community building memorial honoring all who have lost their lives in struggle and all who are resisting oppression. I’m looking forward to checking it out this July when we visit folks back home. The project was just getting under way when we there the year before last.
The mural was inspired by the killing of Rachel Corrie, a resident of Olympia who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer while defending the home of a Palestinian pharmacist and his family. The mural tells a tale of two cities linked through tragedy, Olympia WA and Rafah, Palestine. It is the tale of people working together for a better world. The mural uses technology and advancements in printing processes to include artists from Palestine who are forbidden to travel.
Event Marks the Completion of the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural: 6 p.m. Saturday, May 8, Labor Temple, Olympia WA
4,000 square foot Multi-Media project
Collective effort of 150 Olympia locals, national and international groups and individuals
Uses technology to include artists from Palestine – a break in the siege on Gaza
Posted on Sunday, 14 March, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
“Seven years after my daughter Rachel was killed, I was finally able to hear Rachel’s friends, who were with her, testify in a court of law. Despite some disheartening procedural challenges, we remain hopeful that the truth about what happened to Rachel will be revealed, and that the people responsible for her killing will be held accountable.” — Rachel’s mother, Cindy Corrie
I had been following with growing frustration the issue of Israel’s U.S. sponsored occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands since the outbreak of the second Intifada, and my own tepid beginnings as an activist on the issue were spurred by two killings in Gaza, really. The first was the shooting of Mohammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old boy hunkered behind is father as the pair were trapped in the middle of a shooting fight. I watched the boy get killed on TV along with others in the same news room where I worked back then, and it was one of those images that lingered on.
Posted on Friday, 22 August, 2008 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Ships set sail for Gaza | First Rafah tournament kicks off
In between The Job and The Baby, there’s been a couple of projects I’ve been helping out with a little. One is a soccer tournament in Rafah, Gaza. The other is a project for activists to sail to Gaza in defiance of the Israeli blockade at sea. The latter has been a long time in development and the former was hatched in a shorter amount of time. Both are coming into their own now and warrant wider attention. Both speak to the larger problem Gaza faces as it remains a prison due to the Israeli occupation and US foreign policies. They also seek to help remedy some internal issues such as factioning and in-fighting, both resulting from the prison-like situation.
There is no such thing as too much cynicism in analysis of the situation involving Gaza. Take your pick of topics and you can’t really go dark enough. Some of the more macabre stuff out there refers to what Israel is doing to Gaza as “The Experiment.”
Here, we look briefly at The Experiment, and at the two projects I’ve had the good luck to be a small part of:
Posted on Sunday, 2 September, 2007 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
I’ve set up a Robinhood Fund entry for the Life Makers center in Rafah, Gaza, which may have to close if it doesn’t get some income. By voting for this wish, you can help send $500 to this youth recreation and education center located in the middle of the most chaotic part of the Gaza Strip and help give kids there some slice of normalcy in their lives. — Link
Voting on this wish starts in three days, so bookmark the page and head back to it. Life Makers is run by my friend Fida Qishta, an Olympia+Rafah Sister City Project participant. The organization runs a playground, internet center, orchestrates field trips, English study and much more. To learn more about it, check out the official site.
UPDATE: To read more about the center, see this post at the blog, Raising Yousuf.
On 17 April the Olympia, Washington City Council voted 4-2 against official recognition of the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project. Of the few news organizations following the story, that was the headline. But it wasn’t really the news.
Some came and took our land, forced us to leave, forced us to live in camps. I think this is terrorism. Using means to resist this terrorism and stop its effects – this is called struggle. — Leila Khaled
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I’ve set up a 
Some came and took our land, forced us to leave, forced us to live in camps. I think this is terrorism. Using means to resist this terrorism and stop its effects – this is called struggle.
