OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - By a vote of 4-2, the Olympia City Council has voted against adopting the Gaza Strip city of Rafah as a sister city.

An overflow crowd of about 150 turned out for Tuesday night's public hearing before the vote, with 83 signing up to speak. Of those, 55 supported the proposal and 28 opposed it.

Proponents of adopting Rafah, a city of about 150,000, said doing so would result in cultural exchanges and friendships.

Opponents, many of whom identified themselves as Jewish, said picking Rafah was tantamount to picking sides in the Middle East conflict, and the city should stick to issues closer to home.

"This conflict is not objective or neutral," said Rabbi Seth Goldstein of Temple Beth Hatfiloh in Olympia.

"Don't do this to our community," said Naomi Obie of Olympia. "It is going to further divide us."

Council members Laura Ware and TJ Johnson voted in favor of the ordinance, while members Karen Messmer, Doug Mah, Jeff Kingsbury and Mayor Mark Foutch voted against it.

"We are not going to change the world if we do not honor the person-to-person relationships in our local cities," Ware said.

Mah said the city should choose a relationship with both an Israeli city and a Palestinian city.

Olympia already has one sister city: Kato City, Japan, formerly known as Yashiro. And after the Rafah proposal failed, Johnson moved to dissolve the Kato City relationship, which has been in place since 1981. Johnson said Japan is becoming increasingly militaristic, and if Rafah is turned down because of the political situation there, than Kato City should be turned down as well.

The dissolution measure also failed by a 4-2 vote.