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Letting Lebanon Burn

21 July 2006


Israel is raining destruction upon Lebanon in a purely defensive operation, according to the White House and most of Congress. Even some CNN anchors, habituated to mechanical reporting of “Middle East violence,” sound slightly incredulous. With over 300 Lebanese dead and easily 500,000 displaced, with the Beirut airport, bridges and power plants disabled, the enormous assault is more than a “disproportionate response” to Hizballah’s July 12 seizure of two soldiers and killing of three others on Israeli soil. It is more than the “excessive use of force” that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan decries. 

ICRC calls on Israeli army to immediately leave Palestine Red Crescent premises in Nablus

20 July 2006


During a military operation in Nablus that began on the night of 18 July, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) occupied the premises of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), blocking the entrance and hindering the movement of ambulances, patients and staff. This action shows grave disregard by the IDF for its obligation to respect and protect medical units. Since 19 July, the ICRC has repeatedly raised this issue with the Israeli authorities and called on the IDF to immediately leave the premises of the PRCS. The PRCS runs emergency medical services and a rehabilitation centre for disabled children on its premises in Nablus. 

Western media fail to tell the real story in Lebanon

Marc J. Sirois 21 July 2006


One has to assume that what the decent Western journalists report is being heavily edited somewhere along the line before it gets to the consumer. This is presumably intended as a prophylactic against the inevitable charges of “anti-Semitism” and resultant drops in advertising revenues that will follow unvarnished coverage of Israeli brutality. The product of this regime of fear has been a generation of biased reporting that portrays the Jewish state as weak when it is very strong, moderate when it is frequently extremist, democratic when it is often theocratic, liberal when it is commonly draconian - in short, “Western” when it is anything but. 

Why We Are Staying

Patrick McGreevy Beirut 21 July 2006


It will be an emotional scene tomorrow saying “yalla bye” to our friends who are evacuating from this nasty little war. Most swear they will return. The campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) will seem a different place then, though it is hard to imagine what it will be like. A handful of non-Lebanese faculty and staff have decided to remain. Betsy and I are among them. We have been together since 1972, and we made the decision together to stay together here. What could we be thinking? We do feel anger at what is happening to Lebanon. We don 

Thousands isolated in a sea of destruction

Olfat Mahmoud Borj El Barajneh refugee camp 21 July 2006


I am the director of the Women’s Humanitarian Organization in the camp. As the war started, people rushed to the supermarkets to supply with food but the supermarkets and shops were empty during the first hours. Immediately, the first idea that came up to my mind was how to aid my people in the camp and provide them with prompt assistance in response to the severe conditions the Palestinians were living before and during the war. Eighty percent of them are unemployed or have part-time jobs and sometimes seasonal jobs. They earn their livings on day by day basis. So the critical question is how they could manage through this hard situation. 

Israeli soldiers use civilians as human shields in Beit Hanun

20 July 2006


B’Tselem’s initial investigation indicates that, during an incursion by Israeli forces into Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip, on 17 July 2006, soldiers seized control of two buildings in the town and used residents as human shield. After seizing control of the buildings, the soldiers held six residents, two of them minors, on the staircases of the two buildings, at the entrance to rooms in which the soldiers positioned themselves, for some twelve hours. During this time, there were intense exchanges of gunfire between the soldiers and armed Palestinians. 

"Every night the bombing starts at ten past one"

Hanady Salman Beirut 21 July 2006


“The Israelis love to start their raids at ten past one, sometimes at five past one. That’s when I’m in bed. Every night, when they start, I rush out to the balcony to see where the smoke comes from. I live on the twelfth floor. Every night, when I go out, I see the moon, my lovely moon, shyly hiding behind the clouds caused by the fires that are surrounding my Beirut.” Hanady Salman recounts her experiences and thoughts as her family from the south arrive in Beirut after a harrowing escape from the Israeli offensive. As the bombardment of Lebanon continues, villages in the south are without electricity, food, water or contact with the outside world. 

OCHA: Lebanon Response Update (1)

20 July 2006


One week after the start of the hostilities, the humanitarian situation in Lebanon is worsening with the civilian population particularly affected, notably in southern Lebanon, Beirut and the Beqaa Valley. Over 300 people have reportedly been killed (30% of which are children, according to UNICEF), and over 860 wounded. Current planning figures suggest that there may be 500,000 conflict-affected people (including IDPs and those unable to relocate). 

Radio Tadamon! Israel Attacks Gaza & Lebanon

Tadamon! 20 July 2006


As the Israeli military launched a major military assault on Lebanon and the ongoing siege of the Gaza Strip Radio Tadamon! visited the Palestinian refugee camps of Beirut. Voices featured in this episode of Radio Tadamon! draw parallels between the escalating military attacks on Lebanon and the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Over 300 civilians have lost their lives in the Israeli assault on Lebanon which has targeted the national infrastructure of the country including all major highways and bridges throughout the south of the country. 

Dovetailing violence

Zachary Wales 20 July 2006


As Israel destroys Lebanon, the words of right-wing pundits, however indicting, crude or inhumane, do not necessarily warrant the most concern. They hail from a realm intellectual poverty, hatred and from the most unimaginative strain of racism. What is more concerning are those who purport to represent a liberal pacifist left, but who exploit catastrophes to advance subtle agendas; those who recoil at the words of Likud party hawks, then meet them for lunch an hour later. If the name Yossi Beilin comes to mind, then read no further.