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Lebanese deaths, and Israeli war crimes, kept off the balance sheet

Jonathan Cook 16 August 2006


During Israel’s war against the people of Lebanon, our media, politicians and diplomats have colluded with the aggressors by distracting us with irrelevancies, by concocting controversies, and by framing the language of diplomacy. In the fragile truce that is currently holding while Lebanon waits for Israel to withdraw, we are simply getting more of the same. One example of the many distractions during the war that neatly reveals their true purpose is the “faked Reuters photograph” affair. The far worse photography scandal, which is not talked about, is that the images of the war we saw over the past month in our Western media were constantly doctored, day in, day out. 

Confronting the Zionists Where they Live

Kate Raphael 14 August 2006


11 August - Tonight a small group of mostly Jewish activists disrupted a talk by the Israeli consul general to a group of about 300 hard-core Zionists at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. It was a surreal experience, and I’m still wondering how worthwhile it was. The best thing about it was that we did it with almost no planning. We met about 40 minutes before we needed to be there. Some people felt we should just stand up and hold up a banner, while others wanted to try to speak out. We agreed that we would do both, which worked out to be an excellent strategy. 

PNA Required to Act Against the Kidnapping of Internationals and Attacking of International Organizations

15 August 2006


PCHR strongly condemns the kidnapping of two international journalists, an American and a New Zealander, in Gaza City yesterday evening. The Centre views this act as a flagrant attack on freedom of expression, and a continuation of the security chaos plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The Centre reiterates its call to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), represented by the Attorney-General, to seriously investigate this crime and other kidnapping crimes, and to bring the perpetrators to justice. 

Three Palestinian Civilians Killed and 3 Others Wounded in North Gaza

15 August 2006


PCHR strongly condemns the killing of three Palestinian civilians and the wounding of three others by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) that fired at a crowd of civilians in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. IOF used excessive and indiscriminate force against these civilians. A number of boys living in the area moved into the school through the same hole in the fence to take the rocket launcher left by the resistance activists to sell it as scrap,[1] but a number of residents of the area attempted to prevent them. As Palestinian civilians gathered, IOF fired a missile at these civilians, killing three of them 

Call for release of two Fox News journalists kidnapped in Gaza

15 August 2006


Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern today about the kidnapping of two journalists working for the US TV network, Fox News, reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who were abducted by gunmen in the centre of Gaza City last night. “We appeal to the kidnappers to release these two journalists,” the press freedom organisation said. “They were just doing their job and can in no way be held responsible for US policy in the region or the Israeli army’s operations in the Palestinian Territories or in Lebanon. We also call on the Palestinian authorities to do everything to find Centanni and Wiig and to ensure they return safe and sound to their families.” 

PNGO applauds Venezuela's decision to withdraw ambassador from Israel

14 August 2006


The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) applauds the decision of the Venezuelan people and government to withdraw the Venezuelan ambassador from Israel. On August 3, 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated that he has withdrawn his country’s ambassador from Israel to show his ‘indignation’ over the military offensive in Lebanon. Chavez stated, “It really causes indignation to see how the state of Israel continues bombing, killing … with all of the power they have, with the support of the United States” regarding the Israeli assault on Lebanon. 

Unexploded bombs bring new dangers

15 August 2006


BEIRUT - Lebanese who had fled air strikes during the month-long conflict with Israel, are facing a new danger as they head home: unexploded bombs and shells left behind. “If any civilian touches them or tries to move them, they will explode,” Allen Kelly, liaison for United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Beirut, told IRIN. Israel’s military has stated that during its attacks on Hezbollah militias, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers, its air force hit 7,000 targets in Lebanon, and its navy carried out more than 2,500 bombardments along the Lebanese coast. 

Bombed southern suburbs spring to life

15 August 2006


BEIRUT - A mass southbound movement of displaced Lebanese continued on Tuesday as the United Nations-brokered ceasefire between Hezbollah militias and Israel’s defence forces entered its second day. “We’re leaving,” said Shams, who comes from Nabatiyeh, 80 km south of Beirut, but has spent the past month living in a Beirut park. “We know it might not be safe, but we want to know whether or not our house is still standing. And we’re tired of living like this, in such unsanitary conditions and in the open air.” 

South Beirut after a month of bombing

15 August 2006


BEIRUT - At first, heavy silence hang over Haret Hreik and other areas of south Beirut early on Tuesday morning as scenes of an apocalypse emerged from the thick smoke and smell of fresh gunpowder. Then one could discern signs of life - women weeping as they inspected what were once their homes and other fragments of their lives, all destroyed by heavy bombing by the Israeli army during the 34-day conflict between Israel and the armed wing of the Lebanese political party Hezbollah. 

Israel's freeze of familiy unification in the Occupied Territories splits tens of thousands of Palestinian families

15 August 2006


Today, B’Tselem and HaMoked: Center for the Defence of the Individual, are publishing Perpetual Limbo, a report on Israel ‘s policy freezing family unification for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories . Although the policy affects almost every Palestinian family living in the Occupied Territories , it is unknown to the Israeli public.