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Besieged Lebanese Turn to Internet

Zeina Karam 6 August 2006


Like many of her compatriots, artist Zena el-Khalil has turned to blogging on the Internet to express her longings and fears amid the fighting in Lebanon. Writing from Beirut, the 30-year-old tells of wanting to have children and worries about Israeli air raids on the capital. “Word on the street is that Israel is threatening to hit Beirut now. I feel so helpless,” she said in a recent entry in her online diary. “I called my husband and told him to come home right away. If I die, I want to be in his arms.” 

PCHR Condemns the Detention of the Speaker of the PLC

6 August 2006


PCHR strongly condemns the detention of Dr. Aziz Dweik, the Speaker of the PLC, by Israeli Occupation Forces. This detention is a continuation of Israel’s targeting of Palestinian Ministers and PLC members from the “Change and Reform List” supported by Hamas. The Centre views the detention of the PLC Speaker as a form of reprisal and collective punishment against Palestinian civilians, which are prohibited in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The Centre views this detention as another step in the attempts to undermine the results of the free and democratic elections held in the Occupied Palestinian Territory on 25 January 2006. 

Six Killed in Vigilante Attack on Jericho Central Prison

6 August 2006


PCHR strongly condemns the gruesome crime committed by gunmen inside Jericho Central Prison on the evening of Friday, 4 August 2006. The crime resulted in the death of six inmates, two of them by mistake, and the injury of three others. PCHR also condemns the failure of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and law-enforcement bodies to fulfill their duty to protect prisoners. The Centre views this crime as an indicator that many insist on maintaining a state of security chaos, undermining the rule of law, and practicing vigilante justice. 

Agriculture in peril as war drags on

6 August 2006


Lebanese agricultural production, badly affected by the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, faces a crisis if the conflict does not end soon, according to government officials. “The sector has been hit very badly because all the roads have been hit, there is no possibility to go from one village to another or from the field to the market, and you can’t reach the fields to harvest because there is always bombing and shelling,” said Talal Al-Sahili, the Agriculture Minister. The death of 33 farm workers in the northern Beqaa valley on Friday highlighted the kinds of risks many in the industry face. 

Camps to address housing shortage

6 August 2006


The Lebanese government’s Higher Relief Committee (HRC) said on Saturday that it will set up temporary tent camps in a bid to alleviate the growing housing shortage in Beirut. The housing shortage is a result of the influx of hundreds of thousands of people who have fled fighting in the south between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party with a military wing. The conflict began on 12 July after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers. “As the number of displaced people increases, we are having to explore alternative ways to meet the basic needs of the displaced,” said the HRC’s Fadi Aramoune, who is coordinating the tent camps project. 

Arrogance of Power

Bernard Sabella 6 August 2006


Neither the horror of history nor the arrogance of power can justify Israel in what it is doing in both Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories. The political leadership in Israel has miserably failed in seeking a long lasting political solution to the conflict that is based on justice and respect for human rights. Instead it has relied on military strategists with a formidable and merciless military machine to prepare the ground for an eventual political solution that would impose a Pax Israeleana in the region. But the prospects of Pax Israeleana cannot be realized without the weight of the US Administration. 

The hardest part is the waiting

Maya Mikdashi Beirut 6 August 2006


We try to get together every night to talk. It helps relax, or distract us. The out-loud questioning, hypothesizing and arguing makes us feel that there is reason, that we can put the previous day’s violence into a chart and then navigate it to some conclusion, logical or otherwise. We guess which roads we could, if we wanted to, drive on tonight. Which areas of which cities we could visit. But we also know that we will not drive on those roads, and we will not visit friends, family, or even favorite restaurants and bars in different parts of the country. Increasingly, we do not mention, or fantasize about going to the south, where one of us has a family house that we visit at least once each summer. 

How can you send love with a missile?

Ussama Abu el-Sheikh Shatila refugee camp, Beirut 6 August 2006


Ussama is 19-years-old, a Palestinian refugee, born and raised in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp. “Although I always dreamt of corresponding with my country and my hometown to see if I still have relatives there,” he writes, “I was unable to because there is no mail between Lebanon and the State of Israel. Ironically, only the missiles of Hizbullah can be sent to Israel. We are not allowed to return, but the missiles go where we cannot.” Ussama reflects on his own life amidst the escalating war, and how the roar of the F-16’s and the missiles has, amidst the worry and devastation, reconnected him to the broader world. 

They were thirty-three men and agricultural workers

Mayssoun Sukarieh Beirut 5 August 2006


They were working in the fields, to save what is left from the season while Israel constantly targets fruit trucks and convoys all over Lebanon. They were men and agricultural workers. They were workers having a break after a long day of peach and plum picking, resting to continue their day of work that extends to the night. They were men, thirty-three of them, who died because they were working at a time when we are supposed to be all sitting home scared or demonstrating against the resistance as the enemy wishes. They were maybe called: Muhammad, Ahmad, Issa, Ali, Hani Fadi, Khaled, Hassan, Tarek … maybe and maybe. 

Road Corridor from Syria Disrupted

8 August 2006


4 August 2006 — The Government of Lebanon’s (GoL) Higher Relief Council (HRC) today reports that 907 people have been killed and 3,293 people have been injured due to the on-going conflict. The HRC also reports that 913,760 people (of which almost half are children), about one-quarter of Lebanon’s population, have fled their homes. Most of the displaced are said to be located in South Beirut, Tyre (Sur), Sidon (Saida), Chouf, and Aaley. Although an estimated 565,000 displaced persons are staying with relatives and friends, the HRC estimates 128,000 are located in schools and public institutions in Lebanon, and 220,000 have fled to neighboring countries, including 150,000 to Syria.