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

The Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project finds its orgins in the aspirations of Rachel Corrie, a young human rights activist from Olympia, WA, who was killed while attempting to protect a family’s home from demolition in the Gazan city of Rafah on March 16, 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. Since 2003, both people in Rafah and Olympia started in 2003 to work towards making that vision of a sister city relationship a reality.

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.

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.

Join the project: 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.

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