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The nightmare returns

Laurie King 26 July 2006


It cannot be happening again. But of course, it is happening again — the recurring nightmare from which I cannot awaken. The Lebanon I last visited in 2003 has suddenly been transformed into the Lebanon of 1983. Israel made good on its promise to “bomb Lebanon back 20 or 30 years into the past.” In just two weeks, the death toll is four times higher than the number of those killed in Israel’s 16-day “Operation: Grapes of Wrath” of 1996. It has taken two full weeks for the sorrow, horror, rage and exhaustion of the war in Lebanon to knock me off the rails; two weeks for me to really grasp that this is happening again. The nightmare has returned. 

A self-conscious trip to the supermarket

Zena El-Khalil Beirut 26 July 2006


I finally went to the supermarket. I have been dreading it … didn’t want to see empty shelves. Didn’t want to see people queuing. What I did see: shelves beginning to empty. A priest buying a lot of beer. Long lines. I have never been so self-conscious buying food before. My pride would not let me overstock. I saw long life milk. My hand reached out for a bottle, and then another, and then a third. As soon as I saw them in my trolly, I took one out and put it back on the shelf, and then the second, and finally the third. I did not buy milk. I was so self-conscious about it. I thought to myself, better leave it for a mother who has kids to buy it. 

Two week notice

Zena El-Khalil Beirut 26 July 2006


I have spoken with so much press, but it doesn’t seem to be working. In fact, I feel that I have become just another war victim. Just another story on your radiowaves. Just another blog entry online. The media lives off of stories like mine. I help get their ratings up. I help people tune in to their channel. I help them sell ad spots to make money. I also manage to get my voice heard. I also manage to touch a few people. I am grateful for that. But I do not want to be just another war victim, that perhaps next week you will forget all about me. I don’t want to live a life of war. I did not ask for this. 

How the War Will End

Karim Makdisi Beirut 20 July 2006


There does not appear to be any end in sight to this latest Israeli attack. The Lebanese have reluctantly accepted that the international community - that increasingly cynical euphemism for the Great Powers - have abandoned them, though France, China and Russia at least have made reassuring gestures. George Bush and Condoleezza Rice have backed Israel’s right to ‘self-defence’ and blamed Hizbullah’s very existence for the current violence. Meanwhile, Tony Blair - in an ironic reversal of the Blair Doctrine, which calls for intervention for humanitarian reasons - has called for more UN peacekeepers to be deployed in southern Lebanon ‘to protect Israel’. 

1,500 souls in Bint Jbeil, Nasrallah, and the "New Middle East"

Rasha Salti Beirut 26 July 2006


My siege notes are beginning to disperse. I write disjointed paragraphs but I cannot discipline myself to write everyday. Despair overwhelms me, along with a profoundly debilitating sense of uselessness and helplessness. Writing does not always help; communicating is not always easy, finding the words, deciding which stories should be included, and which should not. The experience of this siege is so emotionally and psychically draining, the situation is so politically tenuous. I miss the world. I miss life. I miss myself. People around me also go through these ups and downs, but I find them generally to be more resilient, more steadfast, more courageous than I. 

Some agreements on aid into Lebanon

26 July 2006


The United Nations has secured agreements with Israel to ship desperately-needed aid into Beirut, the UN’s Emergency Relief Co-ordinator Jan Egeland said on Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem, Egeland said the UN was also negotiating humanitarian sea corridors to bring aid to southern Lebanese cities such as Tyre, Sidon and Tripoli. “We have agreement for a naval corridor for assistance to Beirut. In principle, we also have an agreement to establish sea routes on a regular basis into Tyre, Sidon and Tripoli.” However, the agreements appear to be limited. “I don’t know when Israel will lift the blockade on Lebanon,” Egeland said. 

Annan recommends three-pronged solution to the 'horrendous' situation in Lebanon

26 July 2006


Deploring the “horrendous and dangerous” situation in Lebanon, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today proposed a three-part strategy involving an immediate cessation of hostilities and wide-ranging political and economic commitments to solve a crisis that has killed hundreds of people and forced around 800,000 others to flee their homes. “A cessation of hostilities, a political framework, the deployment of an international force, and agreement on a reconstruction programme would give us the beginnings of a way out of this crisis,” he told delegates at a high-level conference in Rome called to discuss the worsening situation. 

United Nations Staff Council protests attacks on Lebanon mission, calls for full investigation of events

26 July 2006


The United Nations Staff Council’s Standing Committee on the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service said today that the increased attacks directed against United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) personnel, which led to the death of four United Nations military observers yesterday, are unacceptable. The Committee strongly protests these actions and their tragic consequences. The Committee calls on the Secretary-General to suspend UNIFIL operations and pull back its personnel from hazardous positions, until such time as the security situation improves andl to launch an immediate and full investigation of the incident. 

Secretary-General proposes joint UN-Israeli inquiry into Lebanon peacekeeper deaths

26 July 2006


Following yesterday’s killings of three United Nations peacekeepers - and possibly a fourth - during an air attack in south Lebanon, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today accepted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s expression of “deep sorrow” and suggested a joint investigation into the incident. Speaking to journalists in Rome, where he is meeting with world leaders on the crisis, Mr. Annan said that Mr. Olmert believes that the bombing was a mistake. The Secretary-General emphasized that in his own statement he had used the word “apparent” in relation to whether Israeli forces deliberately targeted the attack on the Khiyam base of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). 

On those "birth pangs"

Nora Barrows-Friedman Dheisheh refugee camp, Palestine 26 July 2006


I was in Ramallah over the past two days, visiting friends and documenting a fierce demonstration yesterday morning in the city center as Condoleezza Rice paid a truncated and pathetic quasi-visit to PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Palestinian and international journalists from all over the West Bank crossed humilating checkpoints, braved thick traffic and fought over press credentials only to find out, one hour before the scheduled press conference, that the important question and answer period was canceled by the US handlers. It was just handshakes and rhetoric for the PA president, then off to some other part of this tumultuous region to lie some more.