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"They are here again!"

Mayssoun Sukarieh Baalback 19 August 2006



“They are here again!” It took just this one sentence for a gathering of people making burghol in a village to the north of Baalback to scatter in all directions, running to check the news on the TV stations. The “they” being referred were the Israelis, who according the first report at ten last night, were raiding an area to the north of Baalback. The villagers left the wheat and the fire and started to follow the news. At almost ten thirty, Al-Jazeera assured them that the five air raids were “mock raids”. The villagers gathered again around the big boiling pot of wheat but anxiety was still in the air with uncertainty. 

Music Video: "Hala" from rappers The N.O.M.A.D.S. and the Philistines

The N.O.M.A.D.S. and the Philistines 18 August 2006



The N.O.M.A.D.S. (Notoriously Offensive Male Arabs Discussiing Sh*t) and The Philistines bring you quality hip-hop with a purpose and the video to their new track “Hala,” directed by JCON. Both groups co-sponsored and performed at the Free the P Hip-Hop and Slam Party in New York City earlier this year, which benefited Slingshot Hip-Hop, a documentary film that focuses on the daily life of Palestinian rappers living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel. Based in the US, the groups are part of the growing Palestinian and Arab hip-hop phenomenon. 

Count the UN Security Council among the losers

Hasan Abu Nimah 18 August 2006



Security Council Resolution 1701 did not come a minute too soon if only because it blew the whistle on an Israeli assault that was killing dozens of Lebanese civilians daily, destroying the country and forcing nearly a million people to seek refuge from its escalating war crimes. The so-called “international community” provided cover for extending the war under the guise of prolonged negotiations at the UN, hoping that Israel would win a decisive victory. But what Israel failed to win on the battlefield, its friends helped to deliver in the UN resolution. 

The land is still there

Paul Larudee Beirut 16 August 2006



By the time we returned to Siddiqine yesterday morning, someone had cleared the dead cows and hopefully adopted the new calf barely standing the night before. Other than that, there is little in the way of good news. Large areas of Siddiqine, Bint Jbeil and many other villages and towns are completely devastated. We spoke to one driver whose car was piled high with foam mattresses. He said he was from the local village but couldn’t figure out where his house had been. I filled my camera with frame after frame of destruction, but soon realized the futility of it all, and limited myself to shots that had a unique and often ironic twist to them. 

The next move

Paul Larudee Beirut 18 August 2006



We almost went south again early this morning. At the meeting yesterday, ISM volunteer Alberto Cruz reported that on his factfinding tour he had come upon Israeli soldiers preventing entry to the village of Maroun al-Ras, not far from the route that my team took yesterday. The mayor, who lived just outside the village, had told him that he had had no contact with the villagers who had remained in the town, mostly old people, for several weeks, and was very worried for their welfare. Alberto and a Venezuelan journalist determined to find out for themselves and were turned away. 

A moving dark cloud

Rami Almeghari Palestine 18 August 2006



In wintertime, we are used to having heavy rains sometimes in some places, while in other places nearby, there is no rain at all. You know why, simply because a cloud might be somewhere else. In Palestine, our climate is arid, dry - normally we only have rain in winter. But this summer, for the first time ever, we have been experiencing “summer rains”. Since June 27, they have been falling very heavily, with a few brief pauses when the cloud moved north to Lebanon, a region with a climate very similar to Gaza. This very dark cloud has moved back to Palestine, where people had just begun to lift their heads after the first deluge. 

Irish tramline forced to cancel contract with Israeli occupation authorities in Jerusalem

18 August 2006



The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) is delighted to announce a small but significant victory in the international struggle against Connex and the illegal Israeli tramline being built by them on occupied Palestinian territory. Connex had been planning to allow the Israeli staff of an illegal tramline project in occupied Easy Jerusalem to train on Dublin’s Luas light railway. Connex (who in Ireland now operate under the name Veolia) also runs the Luas system. The Luas has only been running for a few years and it is likely that the tramline currently being built by Connex in occupied East Jerusalem is a near identical system. 

The stench of death awaits people returning

17 August 2006



Behind a destroyed school, Nabil Chrara sat on a pile of rocks, crying his heart out as he watched a tractor dig up the bodies of four members of his family. “They refused to leave the house,” he said. The village of Bint Jbeil, some 80 km south of Beirut, bore witness to some of the heaviest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. “They have been dead for 25 days now,” said Nabil Chrara. “My neighbour survived, but not my family.” Behind him, Yusef Abdalla Harb looked across from the tent he has erected over his ruined home to Maroun Al-Ras, a hilltop still occupied by Israeli troops. 

Destruction and defiance as southerners return home

17 August 2006



An endless stream of cars filled with families clogs the dusty tracks of southern Lebanon. After the month-long conflict between Israel and the armed wing of Lebanon’s Hezbollah party, displaced civilians are heading home. Lebanon’s Higher Relief Council says some 200,000 of the one million people it estimates were displaced by the conflict, have hit the road since a United Nations-brokered ceasefire began on Monday. On the journey home, some fly yellow Hezbollah flags from their cars. After driving for 12 hours from Beirut, they reach their villages, or at least what is left of them. 

Weekly Report of Human Rights Violations

17 August 2006



IOF have continued to impose a total siege on the OPT; IOF have imposed a tightened siege on the Gaza Strip and there have been shortages of foodstuffs and fuels; IOF positioned at a various checkpoints in the West Bank arrested 8 Palestinian civilians, including two girls. IOF have continued to construct the Annexation Wall in the West Bank; they razed more areas of agricultural land in Qalqilya and used force to disperse a peaceful demonstration protesting the construction of the Wall in Bal’ein village, west of Ramallah. Israeli settlers have continued attacks against Palestinian civilians and property in the OPT; settlers celebrated a Jewish wedding inside the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron.