Lebanon, O Lebanon

This page contains articles and notices about the assault on Lebanon as well as other items such as poetry and messages - see our home page for current items about Lebanon and other news

6 minute video on Lebanon

More Time To Bomb

Fayrouz 

Fayrouz is an Adelaide woman whose immediate family is in a town that has been heavily bombed by the Israelis

30/07/06, 1.02 am Adelaide time,  Saturday afternoon in Yaroun

14.21 fierce bombing of Yaroun [levelling the ground]

16.25 Tsahal forces withdraw from BintJbeil in order to start air strikes

17.41 From Aljazira: Air strikes on Bint Jbeil [flattening the hills]

Waiting til they burn you all

Waiting til they finish with you

Then we’ll go to the street

We’ll light candles

We’ll look contained and civilised

You will be dead

And we will cry

…

A knot within

Keep typing

Keep breathing

even though you may be not reading

you will read one day

a murder

a mass murder

perpetrated by holocaust victims

…

condemned to silence

people of the new world

I know you’re sharing my wait

....

peaceful friends

forgive my flame

wish me unnatural power

a magic stormy breath

to blow my anger on armies of hate

…

words

only words

…

keep waiting

love 

Fayrouz

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News Archives for Assault on Lebanon 

Refugees Speak of Catastrophic Bombing - Lebanon

July 15, 2006

Refugees fleeing Beirut in the face of Israeli air attacks are speaking of "haphazard bombings" and a crisis situation developing in the city. By Dahr Jamail

Read more...(Iraq Dispatches)

Vatican deplores Israeli attack on Lebanon

14 July 2006

The Holy See has protested Israel's air raids on Lebanon, condemning both terrorist acts and reprisals that violate national sovereignty and strike at innocent civilians.

Read more...(Catholic World News)

Terrorism and War Crimes

Definitions of Terrorism - UN Website

"Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets.

Definition of War Crime - Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

Other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict, within the established framework of international law, namely, any of the following acts:

(i)     Intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians not taking direct part in hostilities;

(ii)     Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives;

(iii)     Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units or vehicles involved in a humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, as long as they are entitled to the protection given to civilians or civilian objects under the international law of armed conflict;

(iv)     Intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated;

(v)     Attacking or bombarding, by whatever means, towns, villages, dwellings or buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives;

What constitutes a war crime? 

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, July 20, 2006, 

Photo Gallery 

Girl at rally held in Melbourne, 22 July 2006

(courtesy, Wayne Coles-Janess)

Melbourne Rally, Flinders Street, 22 July 2006 

(courtesy, Wayne Coles-Janess)

Israelis demonstrating against the war on Lebanon - Tel-Aviv,  7 August 2006

(Gush Shalom)

Young Jewish protesters in Boston stage a "die-in" against Israeli war on Lebanon and Palestine. (Photo: Jonathan McIntosh) from Electronic Lebanon

British demonstration against the war in Lebanon, 5 August 2006

(Stop the War UK)

Dozens of people are feared dead after Israeli warplanes destroyed several houses in a Lebanese border village, 7 August 2006

(Aljazeerah)

Photographs of aftermath of Israeli aerial attack on Qana, 30 July 2006

click to enlage

Lebanese walking to Masnaa border with Syria

Israeli girls writing messages on missiles bound for Lebanon

(Source: SBS)

Southern suburbs of Beirut 

(Source: BBC)

Roads were jammed as some Lebanese risked returning home

(Source: BBC)

			Hezbollah
14 August 2006 Civilians killed: 43 Soldiers killed: 114 Israel damage:$1.1bn        Source: BBC	9 August 2006 Killed: 1,071* Injured: 3,568 Internally Displaced Persons:  695, 762 Displaced to Neighbouring Countries: 220,000 Total Displaced Population: 915,762 Lebanon damage: $2.5bn* Source: Relief Web *Source: BBC	14 August 2006   Killed: 200 approx Injured: N/A Source: BBC	10 August 2006 Killed: 550 approx     Source: McClatchy Newspapers

International Law

    Amnesty International USA      ISRAEL/LEBANON
ISRAEL AND HIZBULLAH MUST SPARE CIVILIANS
Obligations under international humanitarian law of the parties to the conflict in Israel and Lebanon

What is International Humanitarian Law?

International Committee of the Red Cross

UN Resolutions 

Resolution 1701 - Text: UN Lebanon resolution (BBC)

New York, 11 August 2006 - Secretary-General's statement to the Security Council on the adoption of a resolution on Lebanon

Draft U.N. resolution on war in Lebanon - AP at: seattlepi.com

Bush happy with U.N. resolution on Lebanon  ABC - USA

 

Lebanon rejects draft U.N. resolution on ending fighting Ya Libnan

Resolution 242 - The situation in the Middle East (22 Nov 1967) UN website

Resolution 425 - Israel-Lebanon(19 Mar 1978) UN website

Resolution 465 - Territories occupied by Israel (1 Mar 1980) UN website

Resolution 476 - Territories occupied by Israel (30 June 1980) UN website

Security Council Resolution 1559  - The situation in the Middle East (2004) UN website

Security Council Resolution 1680 - The situation in the Middle East (May 2006)

US - Israeli UN Resolution Hypocrisy 31 July 2006 by Stephen Lendman in ZNet

All UN Security Council Resolutions

Recent Adelaide Events 

 12PM SATURDAY

 22 JULY 

STEPS PARLIAMENT HOUSE ADELAIDE 

This rally has been organized by NoWar, Australian Friends of Palestine, Members of the Lebanese Community and others to protest the assault on Gaza and Lebanon in the last several days.  

Speakers will be drawn from the Lebanese and Palestinian communities of South Australia as well as from representatives of the parliament and university academics. 

This tragedy grows with the hourly increase in the number of dead and injured Palestinian and Lebanese, as well as Israelis as Hezbollah hits back.  Appalling repeated aerial bombardments over Lebanon have destroyed buildings, power supplies, bridges, roads, and the international airport.  The harbour off Beirut is blockaded.  According to Robert Fisk, the British Journalist and author who has lived in Beirut for decades, whole families have been vaporized in their cars by Israeli aerial bombing into streets, roads and homes in the suburbs of the city.  25,000 Australian citizens, both Lebanon residents as well as visitors, are caught up in this dreadful onslaught.

Protest this appalling collective punishment!

Join with other South Australians in demanding that the Australian Government speak out against this escalation in the Middle East! 

Come to the steps of Parliament House on Saturday to show solidarity with those people who are suffering this terrible situation.

Media Releases 

Depleted uranium weapons pose threat to Lebanese civilians

 

30 July 2006

 

Depleted uranium bombs and weapons, now being deployed by Israel, pose a new threat to the civilian population of Lebanon, according to the Victorian Peace Network.

 

Read more...(Victorian Peace Network)   

Australia’s humanitarian agencies call for permanent ceasefire in Middle East

31 July 2006

 

Australia’s leading humanitarian agencies have today called for a permanent ceasefire in the Middle East to allow over three million people unrestricted access to humanitarian relief as a result of the deteriorating situation in Lebanon, Gaza Strip and Israel.

 

Read more...

 Israeli Peace Movement and Protests

Women's Protest in Jerusalem - 29 July 2006: Video spoken in Hebrew

On Saturday, we held an extraordinary mass march of "Women Against War" in Tel Aviv.  Women came from 17 sponsoring women’s organizations*, and we estimate about 3,000 participants (including men).  It was a dramatic sight marching through the streets dressed in black as a sign of mourning for the victims on both sides.  While the tabloids ignored us, Ha'aretz published a photo and detailed caption, and NRG, one of Israel's biggest news portals, told the whole story.  The Arabic press gave us front-page coverage, and some of the foreign press also captured the story.  This was an important action in a society in which the voices of women are always marginalized – and entirely erased during times of war.  Our gratitude to the Urgent Action Fund for helping make it possible.
 
For a real sense of the event, click into this 3.35 minute video done by "Social TV".  It's in Hebrew, but you’ll get the idea:

Israeli protesters hold signs during a demonstration against offensives in Lebanon.  Source: ABC 

Message from GUsH Shalom

31 July 2006

 

Day 20 of the Lebanon carnage. And more than a month since the tanks rolled into  Gaza.  

 

Read more...

Links

Ya Libnan - leading specialized source of Lebanese news with unmatched high-quality content

How can we stand by and allow this to go on? Robert Fisk: 31 July 2006

They wrote the names of the dead children on their plastic shrouds. " Mehdi Hashem, aged seven ­ Qana," was written in felt pen on the bag in which the little boy's body lay.

Empire: war and propaganda - John Pilger 31st July 2006 (New Statesman)

The US role in supporting Israel’s military assault on Lebanon falls into a pattern of imperial tyranny, where history is rewritten to suit America’s needs while Europe stands cravenly by. John Pilger provides a personal assessment from Washington

Electronic Lebanon - A project of The Electronic Electronic Intifada

Young Jews stage "die-in" in Boston to protest Israeli war.  1 August 2006

 

Human Rights Watch: Israel - Lebanon Conflict

This page pulls together all the work done by Human Rights Watch on the latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, including reports, news releases, a Q and A on the hostilities, and opinion articles. Human Rights Watch has an important role to play in meticulously documenting the actions of all parties to the conflict and evaluating them with objectivity under the requirements of international humanitarian law (the laws of war).

http://www.inesap.org/bulletin21/bul21art05.htm#t13