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Photostory: The Irish Intifada - is Israel's latest war the tipping point?

16 August 2006


As the conflict bore itself out feelings on the streets of the West escalated in response. Anger, frustration and the belief that something must change has brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets of Europe. No where has this been more obvious then in Ireland where Trade Unions, NGOs, Solidarity Campaigns and Anti-War groups have been bringing people onto the streets in their thousands. All across Ireland people are out on the streets, cultural institutions are refusing to take sponsorship from the hafrada (apartheid) state and senior members of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) are calling for sanctions against Israel. The Irish Intifada has finally arrived. 

We're not just fighters, says Hezbollah

14 August 2006


A hot, daily meal from a Hezbollah-run soup kitchen in Noueiri, south-east Beirut, was how Zeina Khawle managed to feed her children throughout the long weeks of the Lebanese crisis. A widow, and mother of three, Zeina hosted a displaced family from southern Lebanon in her Beirut home. “There is nobody to help me and I have no money,” she said, flanked by her nine-year-old son Hassan, who on the day IRIN visited, was disappointed that lentil soup was not on the aid menu. Across Beirut and its devastated southern suburbs, a relief effort organised and financed by Hezbollah has been helping hundreds of thousands of displaced people, according to one of the Islamist party’s officials. 

"Butcher of Qana" finds No Safe Haven on Capitol Hill

16 August 2006


WASHINGTON DC — Former Israeli General Moshe Ya’alon, the “Butcher of Qana”, found it nearly impossible to deliver a briefing on Washington DC’s Capitol Hill Monday, August 14th, as he was disrupted again and again by Washington DC based activists. Members of the Coalition for Justice and Accountability drew attention to Ya’alon’s leading role in the 1996 shelling of a United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) compound in Qana, Lebanon. Under the supervision of Ya’alon, Israeli armed forces repeatedly targeted the compound, killing 106 civilians and wounding hundreds of others. Ya’alon is currently facing a civil suit in US Federal Court on charges stemming from his involvement in the Qana attack. 

Lebanese deaths, and Israeli war crimes, kept off the balance sheet

Jonathan Cook 16 August 2006


During Israel’s war against the people of Lebanon, our media, politicians and diplomats have colluded with the aggressors by distracting us with irrelevancies, by concocting controversies, and by framing the language of diplomacy. In the fragile truce that is currently holding while Lebanon waits for Israel to withdraw, we are simply getting more of the same. One example of the many distractions during the war that neatly reveals their true purpose is the “faked Reuters photograph” affair. The far worse photography scandal, which is not talked about, is that the images of the war we saw over the past month in our Western media were constantly doctored, day in, day out. 

Confronting the Zionists Where they Live

Kate Raphael 14 August 2006


11 August - Tonight a small group of mostly Jewish activists disrupted a talk by the Israeli consul general to a group of about 300 hard-core Zionists at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center. It was a surreal experience, and I’m still wondering how worthwhile it was. The best thing about it was that we did it with almost no planning. We met about 40 minutes before we needed to be there. Some people felt we should just stand up and hold up a banner, while others wanted to try to speak out. We agreed that we would do both, which worked out to be an excellent strategy. 

PNA Required to Act Against the Kidnapping of Internationals and Attacking of International Organizations

15 August 2006


PCHR strongly condemns the kidnapping of two international journalists, an American and a New Zealander, in Gaza City yesterday evening. The Centre views this act as a flagrant attack on freedom of expression, and a continuation of the security chaos plaguing the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The Centre reiterates its call to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), represented by the Attorney-General, to seriously investigate this crime and other kidnapping crimes, and to bring the perpetrators to justice. 

Three Palestinian Civilians Killed and 3 Others Wounded in North Gaza

15 August 2006


PCHR strongly condemns the killing of three Palestinian civilians and the wounding of three others by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) that fired at a crowd of civilians in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun. IOF used excessive and indiscriminate force against these civilians. A number of boys living in the area moved into the school through the same hole in the fence to take the rocket launcher left by the resistance activists to sell it as scrap,[1] but a number of residents of the area attempted to prevent them. As Palestinian civilians gathered, IOF fired a missile at these civilians, killing three of them 

Call for release of two Fox News journalists kidnapped in Gaza

15 August 2006


Reporters Without Borders voiced deep concern today about the kidnapping of two journalists working for the US TV network, Fox News, reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig, who were abducted by gunmen in the centre of Gaza City last night. “We appeal to the kidnappers to release these two journalists,” the press freedom organisation said. “They were just doing their job and can in no way be held responsible for US policy in the region or the Israeli army’s operations in the Palestinian Territories or in Lebanon. We also call on the Palestinian authorities to do everything to find Centanni and Wiig and to ensure they return safe and sound to their families.” 

PNGO applauds Venezuela's decision to withdraw ambassador from Israel

14 August 2006


The Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) applauds the decision of the Venezuelan people and government to withdraw the Venezuelan ambassador from Israel. On August 3, 2006, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated that he has withdrawn his country’s ambassador from Israel to show his ‘indignation’ over the military offensive in Lebanon. Chavez stated, “It really causes indignation to see how the state of Israel continues bombing, killing … with all of the power they have, with the support of the United States” regarding the Israeli assault on Lebanon. 

Unexploded bombs bring new dangers

15 August 2006


BEIRUT - Lebanese who had fled air strikes during the month-long conflict with Israel, are facing a new danger as they head home: unexploded bombs and shells left behind. “If any civilian touches them or tries to move them, they will explode,” Allen Kelly, liaison for United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in Beirut, told IRIN. Israel’s military has stated that during its attacks on Hezbollah militias, following the capture of two Israeli soldiers, its air force hit 7,000 targets in Lebanon, and its navy carried out more than 2,500 bombardments along the Lebanese coast.