Lebanon: Humanitarian Crisis, Open for Civil Resistance

I have been meaning to write, but more than ever before have felt truly at a loss for words by the scale and magnitude of the death and destruction in the war against Lebanon. We sit here enraged, and watch the Arab media as it shows the bloodied images of children dying in their parent’s arms, and the opposite scenario in Lebanon and in Gaza. Then this morning I was truly inspired by the letter I received (below) from our friends who brought us the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine. They recently sent out a call to Internationals to join the civil resistance in Lebanon. Although the Lebanese people are being killed indiscriminately, displaced by the million as food and water rations are running out, creating a humanitarian disaster; the people are fighting back! The problem of food getting to the desperate is well documented over the past month. Only yesterday addressing the emergency session in Geneva the UN's human rights chief, Louise Arbour, stated "Israeli attacks affecting civilians continue unabated," she told a special session of the UN Human Rights Council.

Everyone knows that in war the rich are the first to flee, while typically only the poor, helpless and unable to go anywhere if they wanted to, are left behind to die. This is true in Southern Lebanon, as in Beirut and Haifa, especially for the Arab residents. As BBC recently reported, many of the Palestinians in Israel do not even know where the bomb shelters are, and when located they find that access is quite limited to them. Incidentally, the relief efforts in the respective countries newspapers online, speak volumes. In the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz they are encouraging people to donate to the city’s ‘vulnerable in Haifa’ for the following: “1) Thousands of Haifa children which usually spend the summer in municipal day camps are now stuck indoors. The city has made arrangement to send these children to the south to special summer camps setup for this purpose in southern Israel. This will allow parents who need to remain in Haifa the peace of mind that their children are safe while at the same time allowing the children to resume normal summer activities.” Excuse me? The fact that they even have safe summer camps under ground for the JEWISH-Israeli children, much less are trying to receive humanitarian aid for them, strikes me as bizarre and twisted! As, the Daily Star relief effort (Lebanon’s major news media) reminds us, nearly *1 MILLION PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DISPLACED*, as a result of this brutal war. Remember that many of these are refugees who have already been ‘transferred’, repeatedly and suffered gravely from Israeli massacres and war crimes.

Ha’aretz relief effort number two states “Many of Haifa's most vulnerable citizens have been severely impacted by the situation. Many elderly and sick have been left without food or medical care. In addition, people who have relied on homecare for medical or food assistance are now unable to receive such help.” This for the Lebanese is perhaps the most daunting issue - besides the cruelty of the aerial Israeli bombardment. The Lebanese government has NO SAY whatsoever in allowing any medicine, water or food to be delivered to people, much less the ability to allow donations to be funneled to those in need. As is well documented, the Israelis are purposely targeting aid workers, even when the relief efforts are given permission by Israel, there are many examples of them having been killed! In fact, the efforts of ISM in Lebanon are being set up primarily for the cause of simply bringing food and aid to these displaced, isolated and vulnerable communities…at great risk to their lives. Tomorrow is their first planned action.

The Daily Star relief efforts go on to note that at least: 1,056 Lebanese, mostly civilians, are known to have been killed, (while 123 Israeli casualties, mostly soldiers, are reported) and at least 3,600 injured by this cruel war! Suffice it to say that the entire country has experienced death and destruction intimately, not to mention displaced and injured among in whose mind will be forever engraved with the memories in the entire future generation of Lebanese for many years to come. Is it any wonder that the entire country of Lebanon and Arab world, who regularly see these graphic images playing on their TV’s all day long largely support and are extremely proud of Hizbollah’s ability to stand up to the bully of an army and resist like no other Arab country has done before.

The last point I believe is very important to make is that most major news media almost unanimously blames Hizbollah for the destruction and mass killing of the war. Despite, and never mentioning the fact that over the past six years the IDF has crossed into South Lebanon on almost a daily basis. And, can anyone really believe that all of this is because Hizbollah kidnapped a few Israeli soldiers? Recent meetings with top US and Israeli officials turns this lame excuse upside down. On July 12 at least 3 weeks before the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers Wayne Madsen, former U.S. Naval officer reports that “The Israeli invasion of Lebanon was planned between top Israeli officials and members of the Bush administration. On June 17 and 18, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud Knesset member Natan Sharansky met with Vice President Dick Cheney at the American Enterprise Institute conference in Beaver Creek, Colorado. There, the impending Israeli invasions of both Gaza and Lebanon were planned.”

Anyway, who is speaking of the Israelis who regularly cross into Gaza, not to mention the dozens of the Palestinian Authority officials who have been KIDNAPPED all over Palestine, by Israel! As I write, the ongoing massacre of hundreds of civilians in Gaza has been completely ignored while attacking Hizbullah and destroying Lebanon.

The media goes on to say that the international community has agreed on a cease-fire, Israel continues to ‘Widen Air Strikes’ and ‘Expand Offensives’. There are those who are no longer relying on the intervention of the international community to stop the insanity, and are taking charge of their lives, and are boldly and bravely taking matters into their own hands!

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IT IS TIME FOR ORDINARY CITIZENS TO ACT:
A Testament to the Power of Civil Resistance

Tomorrow’s action will have more than 100 participants, mostly Lebanese, but also from all over the world, including a delegation from Egypt, as well as individuals from other Arab countries. Look for the news coverage, as there will be at least 15 journalists coming with the group. At least 15-20 countries will be represented, with perhaps 13 or more Americans.

Please support the brave Lebanese and internationals to resist the conquest and destruction of their land and murder of the Lebanese people. To the Power of the Lebanese People’s Strength, Resolve and Steadfastness against the Israeli War Machine! When the power of the worlds “greatest” armies and “smart”est bombs are used to wreak havoc and wanton destruction, on civilian masses, the people shall rise with all the force they have as their only weapon, their humanity.

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We, the people of Lebanon, call upon the local and international community to join a campaign of civil resistance to Israel’s war against our country and our people.

We declare Lebanon an open country for civil resistance.

From Huwaida:

Friends,
I haven’t written much since arriving in Lebanon, and we’re afraid this will be short. It is now hours before our convoy to the south of Lebanon takes off. Our eight days here have been sad, frustrating, infuriating, and inspiring all at the same time. As many of you know, I came here as part of a small group, which included my husband, Adam, to explore the utility of establishing an international civilian presence in Lebanon to support the people of Lebanon in confronting Israeli aggression against their country. After a week of lots of debate, organizing, politicking and arguing, we held our final preparation meeting at a café called Taa Marbouta. This is a café that was due to open on July 20th, but because of the attack on Lebanon, the owners changed their plans and instead converted the café into a relief center. In the same building, which still has a brothel on the 4th floor, there are 5 other floors of Lebanese citizens from the south forced to flee by Israeli bombardment and destruction of their homes. Tonight, well over 100 people came to participate in the final reparations, receive instructions, and pick up the rations of food and medicine that we will carry to villagers in the south. While not much in terms of sustainable relief, this effort is meant as a political act to reject Israel’s efforts to impose its will and challenge the international community’s complicity in the suffering of the Lebanese people.

Every night we hear the bombing by F-16 fighter jets, unmanned aircraft and missiles fired from unseen Israeli ships off the coast as the bombs smash into Beirut and its suburbs. Last night Israeli rockets brought down 3 apartment buildings in the Shayyah suburb of Beirut. While these buildings were empty, because Israel had warned the residents to leave the day before, is this not terrorization? Israel seeks to absolve itself of responsibility for the death of innocent civilians by dropping leaflets on entire villages, towns and cities telling people to leave or die.

Should we consider this humane? Many of the 900,000 Lebanese civilians forced to flee their homes in the south and southern Beirut don’t have homes to go back to now. Over 1,000 Lebanese civilians who did not or could not flee have been killed. Monday night the Shayyah neighborhood was hit without warning – one building took a direct hit causing an adjacent building to collapse. Over 20 dead bodies were pulled from the rubble. I think that I have become somewhat immune to devastation. Last week we were in Al-Dahiya suburb of Beirut – normally home to tens of thousands of mostly poor Lebanese. Many of these residents first moved to Beirut as a result of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. As I walked through the rubble and looked down streets of destroyed buildings, I was reminded of the remnants of the Jenin refugee camp in Palestine, also reduced to rubble by Israel back in 2002. For pictures of Al-Dahiya, see:
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/aishabain/album?.dir=/8a5cre2&.src=ph&.tok=phYB7TFBkGAFSzjJ

While the situation here in Lebanon differs from our experience in Palestine – aerial bombardment of the country versus occupation soldiers brutalizing people on the ground – the aggression I’ve witnessed is the same, the destruction of lives and livelihood is the same, the war crimes committed are the same, and the impunity with which Israel carries this all out is the same.

A few hours ago we learned that the Israeli military hit a convoy leaving Marjayoun (in the south) under UN ‘protection’, killing three. It had received Israeli permission to move. The people here do not have any reason to believe that Israel will not hit a purely civilian convoy carrying relief. Indeed, UN workers have been killed by Israeli strikes, ambulances have been hit, and civilian homes have been targeted. But this initiative tomorrow represents the resolve of Lebanese civilians to reject

Israel’s dictates and stand up for their country and their people. We are all going knowing full well that Israel might hit us. And yet, one thing that we agreed upon is even if we are hit and suffer casualties, this campaign continues. If the convoy can continue on the same day, it will, if it cannot, we will reorganize and advance again another day.

We reject, on principle, any kind of coordination with the Israeli military, but we’ve done as much as we can to make it known to Israel that this is a civilian convoy. On CNN this morning I reiterated our plans and asked, in the face of this civilian act of resistance, “what will Israel do?”

Tonight a journalist asked me, “aren’t you scared?” I answered honestly, “no.” I really don’t think about it. While this is a dangerous initiative,

I believe that doing nothing is more dangerous. The United States, instead of backing an immediate ceasefire that could have saved hundreds of innocent lives, expedited a weapons transfer to Israel. For the past 4 weeks, the United Nations has been paralyzed; every day innocent civilians are being killed. When governments and international bodies fail to act, average civilians must. And so I am honored to be part of this convoy.

I am heartened by the love and dedication of the dozens of civilians from all over the world who traveled to Lebanon answering our call to join the civilian resistance; I am strengthened by the tens of thousands that will be demonstrating all over the world tomorrow; and I am proud to have worked with amazing people that are the spirit of Lebanon that will not be defeated.

If you’d like to reach Adam or me on the convoy:

Adam: +961-70-974-462
Huwaida: +961-70-974-452
If you cannot reach us, check our website for updates at:
www.lebanonsolidarity.org
For media, our Beirut media contact will be Rania Masri at:
+961-3-135279

In solidarity & struggle for justice,
Huwaida & Adam



NO000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!

RESIST ISRAELIS!
At least two Israeli fighter pilots have reportedly deliberately missed bombing targets in Lebanon because they were concerned they were being ordered to bomb civilians, and several have refused to serve in Lebanon earlier this week, and were sent to jail. Also, increasing in numbers are Israelis refusing to join in this war. For the full story see: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/09/1422204