Madison — The controversial attempt to make Madison a sister city with the Palestinian city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip ended early Wednesday morning, when the City Council didn’t muster enough votes to approve it.
In a vote that was taken at around 2:00 a.m. after hours of debate and speeches from an estimated 90 members of the public, the resolution that would have authorized the relationship received nine votes in favor, eight opposed and two abstentions, with one member absent.
According to Madison city law, 11 members of the 20-member council would have had to vote in favor for it to be approved.
Even if the council had mustered the votes for approval, Madison Mayor David Cieslewicz told The Capital Times newspaper this week that he would have vetoed the resolution for being “inherently political,” rather than humanitarian as its advocates have claimed.
In a telephone interview Wednesday morning, Steven H. Morrison, executive director of the Madison Jewish Community Council, told The Chronicle, “This divisive, contentious controversial issue is now over.”
The MJCC has been a leading opponent of the idea in Madison, charging that it would have been an exercise in Israel-bashing and justification of Palestinian violence against Israelis.
“The elected city officials can return to running the city, and [the MJCC] can return to what we do: Jewish community-building,” Morrison said.
Amy F. Scarr, a Madison attorney and one of the Jewish people active in the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, which sponsored the effort, told The Chronicle she felt “disappointed that the resolution wasn’t approved,” but she was “pleased that it got nine votes,” the plurality of those cast.
“That shows that there is significant support on the council and in the Madison community for the project,” she said.
Scarr said the MRSCP “will have an informal relationship with Rafah and will continue to work on health, housing, women’s and children’s issues, and we will try to help Rafah any way we can; the same as we have been doing.”
The controversy has lasted several months. Some of the news reports have stated that the issue has been divisive in Madison’s Jewish community.
But Morrison said, “I don’t think there was great division. I think there was diversity of opinion and passion on both sides. Ultimately, the Jewish community is strong [and] I don’t think there is any permanent damage to its vibrancy and strength.”
Scarr, on the other hand, said, “I think that issues related to Israel and Palestine have divided people for quite a while. This project did not create a division, it revealed a division that was already there, particularly among Jews.”
“The positive aspect of all this,” she said, is “that people are talking about Israel and Palestine more …. I think that is very good and the dialogue should continue.”
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