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Oil-spill clean-up delayed by conflict

4 August 2006


European and Arab governments are ready to step in with aid and equipment to help Lebanon tackle a 10,000-tonne oil spill that was the result of Israeli air strikes on the fuel tanks of Jiyeh power station, 20km south of Beirut, on 13 and 15 July. However, the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in the south of the country is stopping them from doing so, according to a member of the Lebanese environment ministry, who did not want to be named. “They cannot mobilise their forces until a ceasefire is called,” said the ministry official. “We are operating in a state of war so normal procedure cannot be followed in this situation … a lot of countries are on standby trying to get the aid to us,” she said. 

No time to lose, UN warns as emergency aid supplies to Lebanon cut off by shelling

4 August 2006


Getting emergency United Nations humanitarian aid to the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced by the worsening conflict became even harder today after the UN said that Israeli shelling had severed the vital supply route between Syria and Beirut, as well as forcing the cancellation of all but one convoy to the devastated south of the country. “We do not have the humanitarian access we need for critical and vulnerable communities in south Lebanon … ” UN spokesman Ahmad Fawzi told reporters in New York. 

Southern Lebanon continues to endure intense fighting - UN mission

4 August 2006


More than three weeks after hostilities began, Hizbollah and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) are still exchanging heavy fire in southern Lebanon with little sign of any abatement, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported today. Although the number of rockets launched by Hizbollah from within UNIFIL’s area of operation during the past 24 hours was below the figures of recent days, the numbers remained large, UNIFIL said in a statement issued in the Lebanese city of Naqoura. Some rockets were fired from close to UN positions near Alma ash Shab and At Tiri. 

Holed up in southern mountains

4 August 2006


The road inland from the port city of Tyre, 60km south of Beirut, is riddled with craters filled with mangled cars. A cattle pen is jammed with dead and dying cows left to starve after their terrified owner fled. The road then forks east into the Aamel Mountains where entire towns are deserted, shops boarded up, bridges collapsed, and broken power lines flail in the wind. The once-bustling market town of Nabatiyeh, 30km east of Tyre, is a Hezbollah stronghold, with the faces of those killed fighting Israel emblazoned on flags. Now, just a few grocers and roaming cats are left. 

A European-American, not a Palestinian-American, can visit Palestine

Ben Sharpton West Bank 4 August 2006


As I entered Palestine recently, I saw for myself how Palestinians with American, British, and even Brazilian passports are being turned away from the West Bank and back into Jordan by the Israelis. These are Palestinians with family in the West Bank, or even who themselves were born here, and they are not being allowed a simple visit with their loved ones. And don’t forget the parentheses: under Israel’s “law of return,” any Jewish person from anywhere, with no connection whatsoever to the land aside from ancient and biblical claims, can “make aliya” and start the process of becoming an Israeli citizen simply by showing up at one of these border crossings or the airport. 

Seeds of Crisis: The U.S., Israel and the Middle East

4 August 2006


At a recent Palestine Center briefing, experts analyzed the current developments in the Middle East and addressed the root causes of the conflict. Halim Barakat explained the historical context which allowed for the eruption of the recent events and Electronic Intifada’s Laurie King-Irani discussed the meaning of democracy, terrorism and international law. Sam Husseini pointed out that the media could do a better job in informing the public of the events in the Middle East and Jim Lobe analyzed U.S. Foreign Policy toward the Middle East since 9/11. The briefing was televised on C-Span. 

From Beirut to ... those who love us (Broadband Video)

Beirut 4 August 2006


This video letter was made on July 21, 2006 at the studios of Beirut DC, a film and cinema collective which runs the yearly Ayam Beirut Al Cinema’iya Film Festival. This video letter was produced in collaboration with Samidoun, a grassroots gathering of various organizations and individuals who were involved in relief and media efforts from the first day of the Israeli attack on Lebanon. It was also broadcast at the Biennial of Arab Cinema, organized by the Arab World Institute in Paris. 

Ireland Foreign Affairs Committee Concemns Violence in Lebanon

4 August 2006


The fact that over 600 civilians, including many children have died in Southern Lebanon and in Israel in recent weeks; The damage done to civilian infrastructure in Lebanon on such a scale as to render over 750,000 people homeless; The indiscriminate attack on a United Nations outpost in South Lebanon, involving the deaths of four UN Peacekeeping personnel; Recognising the important role of Unifil and the Irish Defence Forces’ contribution to that body; Appalled at the most recent slaughter in Qana over the weekend just passed … 

Oil Spill Reaches Syrian Coastline

4 August 2006


The oil spill that has already polluted over 80 kilometres of the Lebanese coastline has reached the Syrian coastline and is spreading further north. Satellite imagery from the European Commission (EC) now shows that the oil slick has entered Syrian waters and has already contaminated approximately 10 kilometres of coastline north of the borders between Syria and Lebanon. “It is nearly three weeks since the bombing of the power plant and the initial satellite imagery unfortunately confirms that the oil spill is of a significant magnitude and spreading. …”, said United Nations Under-Secretary-General Achim Steiner, the Executive Director of UNEP, speaking from Nairobi. 

"Justice" Comes to Qana

Patrick McGreevy Beirut 4 August 2006


The attacks of 11 September 2001 gave many ordinary Americans a palpable experience of injustice. Addressing both houses of Congress nine days later, President Bush proclaimed: “Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.” By nearly conflating justice and revenge, the President - and, alas, the vast majority of Americans who applauded him - lost an opportunity to see with new clarity, justice itself cast into relief by the very experience of injustice. Instead, the United States launched an endless war, the first stage of which was to be called Operation Infinite Justice.