Endorsement Statement

We, the undersigned, wish to express our enthusiastic support for the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural Project (ORSMP). ORSMP is a powerful artistic statement that touches hearts and minds, encourages critical thinking, and inspires action. ORSMP is also a unique interdisciplinary, interactive, multi-site public art project that uses new media and social networking technologies to increase the strength and visibility of movements organizing for social change in Palestine, Israel, the US and the world.

ORSMP moves from the local to the global by bringing people together across social justice movements. The images in the mural articulate how the social and political struggles in Palestine and Israel connect to local, national and international issues that include environmental justice, racial justice, the rights of indigenous people, and anti-war movements, to name a few.

ORSMP uses creativity in public space to cope with and mourn traumatic losses in resilient and transformative ways. Inspired by Rachel Corrie, an Olympian killed in the Gaza Strip in 2003 in a non-violent act of civil disobedience, the mural serves as a reminder of the thousands in Palestine and elsewhere lost in struggle, and, also, as inspiration for those who carry on quests for justice and for the unity and peace that the olive tree represents.

We agree that making the connections described above–across movements and continents, between the personal and political–is vital to strengthening the struggle for justice.

To sign on to this endorsement statement- send an email to olympia@olympiarafahmural.org or go to Contact page.