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Beirut will never die

Zena El-Khalil Beirut 3 August 2006


Despite the threats of Beirut being blown up today, here were people working … here were everyday people, coming together to help in any way they could. I was filled with so much love, being around such passionate people. Something changed tonight. I guess when you are looking at death, straight in the eyes, you find a new kind of courage. You realize how important it is to hang on to what you have. You fight for life with a new kind of passion. I have spent the last three weeks mourning the loss of Beirut … mourning the loss of my dreams and my work. Now, it’s time to accept what is happening and take charge of the situation. Beirut, she will never die. 

EU Monitors at Rafah Contribute to the Strangulation and Deprivation of Gaza

3 August 2006


PCHR is dismayed by the position of the European Union (EU) monitors at Rafah International Crossing Point (Rafah Crossing) on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This position falls in line with the Israeli position of imposing collective punishment on the civilian of the Gaza Strip by preventing travel in and out of the Strip. The Centre is worried that their role could lead to an escalation of violations of the rights of Palestinian civilians, especially their right to movement and travel in and out of the Gaza Strip. 

IOF Kill 8 Palestinians in Rafah, including a Child, and Injure 20 Others

3 August 2006


In another war crime of disproportionate use of lethal force, IOF have killed 8 Palestinians, including 6 unarmed civilians (one of them a child), and injured 20 others (5 of them children) in land and aerial bombardment. The bombardment accompanied a land attack on El-Shoka community that started during pre-dawn hours. PCHR’s fieldworker reported that most of the victims were torn and charred. The Centre is very concerned over this Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) escalation, which is part of an open aggression on the Gaza Strip that started at the end of June. 

A prisoner in my own land

Sami Hermez Lebanon 2 August 2006


I was just released from prison. It has taken me a few days to sit down and calmly write about this experience as I have been slightly shocked and dazed. For safety purposes I am choosing to leave out the details of my arrest. It is enough to say that the reason for my detention was that I was “suspected of being a spy for Israel.” The ultimate crime: treason. And who but me to be a spy for Israel! I have been trying to tell my story, what I was doing, why I had been here or there, all of it, but every time I begin writing I feel like I am speaking, again, to my interrogators; I don’t like that feeling. 

Video: Lebanon Telethon

4 August 2006


The narrator of this spot exclaims, “I was watching the news with my brother John and it was ba-ad! Israel was bombing the civilians and infrastructure of Lebanon! So we decided to do something. We decided to have a telethon to tell Israel not to bomb Lebanon. We called our favorite celebrities — Goldie Hawn, Michelle Kwan, Kofi Annan, Cheech and Chong, Pokemon, Celine Dion, Gengis Khan (maybe not Genghis Khan) …” 

Human rights orgs. call for fact-finding mission to Gaza

31 July 2006


During a special session on 6 July this year, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution (A/HRC/S-1/3), expressing deep concern at the breaches by Israel, the Occupying Power, of international humanitarian law and human rights law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and decided to dispatch a fact finding mission.In the weeks following the adoption of the resolution, Israeli breaches of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have continued unabated, exacting a massive toll on the Palestinian civilian population. Since the beginning of Israel’s offensive in the Gaza Strip on 27 June 2006, 159 Palestinians have been killed, including 31 children. 

Christianity in Palestine: Misrepresentation and Dispossession

Timothy Seidel 2 August 2006


“You are a Christian?” a foreign tourist inquires with marked disbelief of a Palestinian tour guide in Bethlehem. “When did you convert?” This response by foreigners, Christian or not, is unfortunately not uncommon in Palestine. Even in Bethlehem, the origin to which many trace the very roots of their Christian faith, this disbelief goes hand-in-hand with tourists’ visits to the Church of the Nativity — visits that seem to carry with them some image of a time long past with only archaeological or religious sites remaining with little consideration for the “living stones” that have continuously borne witness to this tradition for two millennia. 

South Lebanon: I still have no words

Muzna Al-Masri south Lebanon 2 August 2006


I just came from the south of Lebanon. I went to Tyre, to Hannaoui, Qana, Siddiqinne, Srifa, Bint Jbeil, Aitaroun, and Ein Ebel and many villages on the way. I so want to write but I still have no words. This was Tyre after all, the lovely city and its beach that I always wanted to call home. These were the villages at which I made friends, aided in tobacco harvesting and drank the best tea ever. I still haven’t cried, I feel I am not entitled too — if I were to cry, what would I leave to the people that have lost loved ones and houses full of memories? 

Edinburgh International Film Festival Returns Israeli Money in response to Boycott Plans

2 August 2006


The organisers of the Edinburgh International Film Festival have cancelled an official Israeli Embassy sponsorship of their programme and returned the Israeli cheque following a huge public outcry over Israeli Embassy involvement. The film festival website carries the following: “this funding was secured some three months ago, well before the commencement of current hostilities in Lebanon. Of course we acknowledge that the situation has altered dramatically since then, and with this in mind, took the decision early yesterday to decline any funding from the Israelis.” 

"There was a massacre at Qana"

Rasha Salti Beirut 2 August 2006


Coming into consciousness of, or bearing witness to, a massacre only a few kilometers removed from one’s being (or home), feels very much like the experience of being in the proximity of a very powerful explosion only at an extremely, extremely slowed motion. Taking stock of the information on time, place, and the toll of victims, watching televised transmission of rescue workers piling a kindergarden in rigor mortis, is identical to the astounding sensation of the air being sucked from all around, that typically precedes the explosion. And at some point, it all sinks in …