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Annan calls for immediate end to conflict

20 July 2006


Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Thursday for an immediate halt to the escalating conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia but said there were “serious obstacles to reaching a cease-fire.” Annan addressed members of the Security Council during a meeting on the situation in the Mideast at United Nations headquarters in New York. He condemned Israel’s “excessive use of force” and collective punishment of the Lebanese people, saying it had triggered a humanitarian crisis. He urged the members of the Security Council to take firm action towards ensuring peace and stability in the Middle East region as mandated by the Charter of the United Nations. 

South African lawyers condemn Israel's flagrant breach of humanitarian law

20 July 2006


The National Association of Democratic Lawyers of South Africa condemns the flagrant breaches of international humanitarian law and the violations of the human rights of Palestinians further exacerbated by the latest attack by Israel on the residents of Gaza in Palestine. We associate ourselves with the views expressed by our allies in the struggle against apartheid, the South African Council of Churches and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. By virtue of our history, we have an obligation to support the just struggle of the Palestinian peoples right to self-determination. We call on the South African government to immediately recall the South African ambassador. 

"Because This Is the Middle East"

20 July 2006


The media assumption is that in withdrawing from Gaza in September 2005, Israel ended its conflict with at least that portion of Palestine and gave up, as Schieffer put it, “what the Palestinians supposedly wanted.” In reality, however, since the pullout and before the recent escalation of violence, at least 144 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed by Israeli forces, often by helicopter gunships, according to a list compiled by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem. Only 31 percent of the people killed were engaged in hostile actions at the time of their deaths, and 25 percent of all those killed were minors. 

As civilians bear the brunt of the armed conflict, the ICRC steps up its humanitarian action in Lebanon

19 July 2006


One week after the start of the latest armed hostilities in Lebanon, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is extremely concerned about the grave consequences that military action is still having on the civilian population. Hundreds of civilians have been killed or wounded, and it remains difficult to organize medical evacuations and to maintain health services. All across the country, large numbers of people are fleeing the conflict zones in dangerous circumstances. There has also been widespread destruction of public infrastructure. The first emergency supplies from the ICRC reached Lebanon on 18 July. 

The fear is growing in Beirut

Hanady Salman Beirut 20 July 2006


“The fear is growing in Beirut. Beirut is sad, scared, wounded and … left alone,” writes Hanady Salman. “Today has been an exceptionally calm day: the US marines are evacuating US citizens. By tomorrow, the country will be left to its own people and Israeli shelling. In Beirut, by Saturday, there will only be those who have nowhere else to go and the very few who deliberately decided to stay. There were also be those who managed to flee the south and the southern suburb of the capital. What will happen to us on Saturday? Worse than not knowing what will happen is knowing that whatever the Israelis decide to do, nobody wants or can stop them.” 

Israeli army fires on Al-Jazeera crew in West Bank

19 July 2006


Reporters Without Borders has voiced strong condemnation of a 19 July 2006 Israeli army attack on Al-Jazeera TV reporter Jevara Al-Budeiri and her crew in the West Bank town of Nablus, in which one of the crew’s technicians, Wael Tantous, was hit in the foot by rubber bullets. The crew was broadcasting live at the time. “We are very concerned about repeated, deliberate acts of violence against the staff of the satellite TV news station Al-Jazeera,” the organisation said. “We call on the Israeli authorities to give clear orders to stop these acts of intimidation and harassment. The army has no right to prevent this station’s journalists from covering the current clashes.” 

1,500 New Yorkers Demand End to Israel's Attacks on Lebanon and Palestine

Patrick O'Connor 18 July 2006


Issa Mikel, a spokesperson for the ad hoc coalition against Israeli aggression, said, “Israel must be held accountable for its grave violations of international law, reminiscent of those of the South African apartheid regime. For peace, based on justice, we call on international civil society organizations and people of conscience around the world to carry out broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives against Israel, and demand their governments impose sanctions on Israel until it ends its apartheid system, respects the sovereignty of its Arab neighbors and the right of refugees to return to their homes and lands, and fully complies with international law.” 

The Politics of Proportionality

Remi Kanazi 19 July 2006


For many Americans, the recent assault on Gaza and Lebanon makes perfect sense. Two attacks on Israeli soldiers by groups in Gaza and Lebanon, and the subsequent capture of three Israeli prisoners, were “unspeakable provocations.” But a sordid feeling overcomes all those who have been closely watching the events unfold in the Occupied Territories and Lebanon. The Israeli government, reinforced by American steadfastness and the international community’s capitulation, set the rules for the one-sided catastrophe. 

The Sanayeh Park: The Lawn are Mattresses and the Trees Ceiling

Marie-Claire Feghali 19 July 2006


The smell of displacement and poverty emanates from the Sanayeh Park ten meters before we reach it. At first sight, the children’s view, running after a flock of pigeons nibbling the bread crumbs, doesn’t tell that those children hadn’t have any sleep for days, after they have been ripped off from their little pillows and toys. Mahdi, a young kid at the age of six, complains, while devouring his “Mankousheh” (thyme sandwich), only from the mosquitoes and fleas that are biting his little body and the strong heat. His brother Ali, eight years old, looks more in control. He says firmly “our house is just below the bridge leading to the Airport, when Israel attacked us, we came here..” 

Reconnecting the Displaced: An Update from Lebanon

Muzna Al-Masri Beirut 19 July 2006


It is Tuesday and Mariam has a smile on her face this afternoon; something that I haven’t seen since Saturday. She finally heard from her family. They are safe, she says, after a hard trip from Tyre to Sidon. She has been staying at my house since Thursday morning, trapped in Beirut after the roads to her native village Siddiqine, just 12 kilometers west of Tyre were blocked. Her only alternative refuge was an apartment in Haret Hreik, too close to Hizbullah’s headquarters to be safe. I am relieved that she is here, out of harm’s way in my house that now hosts many other friends. I think of her family, this one is not their first escape. They fled Siddiqine last week and stayed with relatives in Tyre.