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Arab delegation to address UN Security Council on draft resolution

7 August 2006


The Arab League is sending a delegation to the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday “to present the Arab point of view” of the French-US draft resolution for a ceasefire in Lebanon after it met in an emergency meeting in Beirut on Monday. Lebanon’s displeasure with the French-US draft was the Arab League’s reasoning to call an emergency meeting in Beirut on Monday to look for consensus on the Lebanese issue and reiterate the seven-point cease-fire solution agreed to by all members of the Lebanese government, including Hezbollah, last week. 

UN calls for end to IDF attacks that hinder relief aid

7 August 2006


The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, David Shearer, on Monday called on the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to end its attacks on civilian infrastructure - including bridges, roads, fuel depots, power stations and hospitals - and to cease all actions hindering the supply of humanitarian relief to the hundreds of thousands of displaced people across the country. “We deplore the continuation of Israeli bombardment of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and call on all parties in this conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law with regard to civilians,” Shearer said. 

Photostory: Thousands March in Brussels Against Israel's War on Lebanon

7 August 2006


Thousands of people marched through the centre of Brussels on Sunday to protest Israel’s war on Lebanon. It was the third consecutive weekend that protestors held a demonstration in the Belgian capital. This week, many more Belgians joined. Protesters demanded an immediate ceasefire. They waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags and chanted “Lebanon burns and the world is watching.” Among the protesters were members of the leftist Belgian Union of Progressive Jews and a group of young children wearing white T-shirts and carrying white balloons walked at the head of the march. 

US/Israeli traps set for Lebanese resistance

Jonathan Cook 7 August 2006


If there were any remaining illusions about the purpose of Israel’s war against Lebanon, the draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a “cessation of major hostilities” published at the weekend should finally dispel them. This entirely one-sided document was drafted, noted the Hebrew-language media, with close Israeli involvement. The top adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked through the resolution with the US and French teams, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry had its man alongside John Bolton at the UN building in New York. In a cynical ploy familiar from previous negotiating processes, Israel submitted to the US a list of requests for amendments to the resolution. 

The refugees' fury will be felt for generations to come

Karma Nabulsi 7 August 2006

***IMAGE1***People walk the dusty, broken roads in scorching summer heat, taking shelter in the basements of empty buildings. In Gaza and Lebanon, in the refugee camps of Khan Younis and Rafah, in Tyre and Beirut, in Nabatiyeh and Sidon, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children seek refuge. As they flee, they risk the indiscriminate wrath of an enemy driven by an existential mania that can not be assuaged, only stopped. Ambulances are struck, UN observers are struck. Warning leaflets are dropped from the sky urging people to abandon their homes, just as they were in 1996, 1982, 1978, 1967 and 1948. The ultimately impossible decision in Gaza and Lebanon today is: where does a refugee go? 

Press under fire as Israeli offensive continues

1 August 2006


As Israel steps up its military offensive into Lebanon, journalists covering the conflict continue to come under fire. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says crews from four Arab television stations told the organisation that on 22 July 2006, Israeli aircraft fired missiles within 75 metres of them to prevent them from covering the effects of Israel’s bombardment of the eastern town of Khiam. The journalists said their convoy of vehicles was chased by Israeli fighter aircraft which fired missiles on the road behind them as they approached a bombed-out bridge. Eventually, the journalists left their vehicles and walked to the village of Hasb Bayah. 

The Beirut blogs: People under siege tell their stories online

Kaelen Wilson-Goldie 3 August 2006


“I don’t want to be a war story … I just want to be me … not what is imposed on me … I don’t want to be another depressing story in your Inbox.” Beirut-based artist Zena al-Khalil began sending email updates to her friends, colleagues and contacts on July 13, the day Israel began bombing her city. Like Khalil, writer and curator Rasha Salti started organizing her thoughts into “siege notes.” Her missives, poignant, personal and rife with pointed political analysis, are now posted online at “Electronic Lebanon” - an offshoot of Electronic Intifada that launched within hours of Israel’s attack of Lebanon’s infrastructure and citizenry. Either way, they are collective memory in the instant, a readymade archive. 

The Case for Boycotting Israel

Virginia Tilley 7 August 2006


It is finally time. After years of internal arguments, confusion, and dithering, the time has come for a full-fledged international boycott of Israel. Good cause for a boycott has, of course, been in place for decades, as a raft of initiatives already attests. But Israel’s war crimes are now so shocking, its extremism so clear, the suffering so great, the UN so helpless, and the international community’s need to contain Israel’s behavior so urgent and compelling, that the time for global action has matured. A coordinated movement of divestment, sanctions, and boycotts against Israel must convene to contain not only Israel’s aggressive acts and crimes against humanitarian law but also, as in South Africa, its founding racist logics that inspired and still drive the entire Palestinian problem. 

Israeli Intellectuals Love the War

Ran HaCohen 7 August 2006


All generalizations are wrong, except this one: Israeli liberal intellectuals are against war. They have always been against it, and they even suffered greatly for their critical views, as they stress proudly. They were against the previous war, they will be against the next war, they are against all wars. There is just one minor exception, though: the present war, every present war, which they always support. Because the present war - well, that’s something totally different from all those other wars! How can you even compare?! The present war is always inevitable, and necessary, and just, and worthy of support. 

War is becoming a way of life

Zena El-Khalil Beirut 6 August 2006


As each day goes by, war is becoming a way of life. And that is so dangerous. People must never get used to this. Today it is Lebanon … but tomorrow, who will be next? Violence begets violence. And all this attack is doing is creating more hate for the West in this region. It didn’t have to be like this. It was only a month ago that I was in the south of Lebanon listening to the radio. The station was being broadcasted from Israel — they were playing great music from the ’80s. I was listening, enjoying the tranquility, and thinking about how similar we were. A part of me wants to just sleep and wake up when this is all over with — however, I am so scared that when I do wake up, things will just be a lot worse.