بآخر النهار 3

الصغار بيكبرو بالمخيم بسرعة

The Old Man and the Army

Last week and as I was heading to Hamra street to go to Ta2 Marbouta cafe, a crowd of people were gathering and the Lebanese police held the traffic. I asked about what's happening, they told me that they are preparing commercials to support the Lebanese army, there were camera staff, director and some weird long-haired people.
they pointed some young people, some were old, to do the military famous salute in front of the camera, I was "lucky" to take some photos of the old guy.

During the shooting

This is how the Lebanese people feel towards the army's involvement in Nahr el Bared.



After the shooting

This is how I feel towards the army's involvement in Nahr el Bared (smoking a cigarette).

Lebanese Army Fires Live Ammunition at Peaceful Protest in Solidarity with Nahr el Bared Refugee Camp

I was as supposed to be there at the strike, but i had some other stuff to do in Beirut. I cannot believe that the army would shoot at activists, these were students and professors, these were peaceful activists, who is the army protecting now? and from whom exactly? this is ridiculous, and what is more ridiculous is the Lebanese people's support to this.
i hope sometime soon the Lebanese people would do something to stop this crazy war on civilians.

Eyewitness Contacts:

Caoimhe Butterly: 961 70 824084

Rasha Najdeh: 961 3 963562

Lebanese Army Fires Live Ammunition at Peaceful Protest in Solidarity with Nahr el Bared Refugee Camp

2 killed, *35* wounded, 7 critical cases shot above their waist

Today, during the second day of a three-day peaceful protest in the Palestinian refugee camp of Badaoui in solidarity with Palestinian refugees from Nahr el Bared, the Lebanese Army opened fire on the protestors in Badawi refugee camp, killing two people and injuring 35, 7 critically.

A peaceful protest began within the Badawi Palestinian Refugee Camp in north Lebanon. The protestors had signs reading “Nahr el Bared is in our soul” and “Nahr el Bared, we won’t forget you.” The protestors were calling for an end to the violence.

Energetic male youth continued the protest outside the camp, against the wishes and attempts of the organizers.

As they proceeded towards the Lebanese army's checkpoint, the army issued verbal warnings telling the protestors to stay away. At this point, women and children raced to the front to try to prevent the army from firing upon the crowd. The Lebanese army shot two warning shots into the air and then immediately responded with machine gun fire at the crowd of approximately 300 peaceful protesters. The army continued firing on people as they were attempting to retrieve the wounded.

A senior official in the Lebanese Army stated that the Army responded in this way to defend itself, and that its response was the minimal response it could have undertaken.

Caoimhe Butterly, an activist and organizer, reported on what she had personally witnessed. “The army first opened fire with 2 to 3 minutes of sustained fire. When there was a lull in the shooting, we rushed in with our hands above our heads. At this stage, the Army started firing on the road again. Thus, people retrieving the wounded were wounded.”

In response to the Lebanese Army’s claim that a “significant number” of the protestors had clubs, Butterly said, “the protestors did not have clubs. Nobody had clubs. We saw the whole demonstration. They weren’t carrying anything. We went from the beginning to the end of the demonstration. We saw it all, and no one was carrying clubs.”

Furthermore, she continued, “the protest was never out of hand. They weren’t throwing stones. At the time the Army opened fire, women were sitting on the ground at the front, and a number of people even had their backs to the soldiers. At the time the Army opened fire, people were getting quieter and had stopped shouting, as if shouting is enough to legitimize open fire.”

In response to the Lebanese Army’s claim that the protestors were 10 meters away from the checkpoint, Butterly said, “We were at a distance where we couldn’t distinguish their faces; we could only distinguish their figures. We were possibly at a distance of a few hundred meters, and definitely not 10 meters. We were far away from the checkpoint.”

Two civilians were killed, and 35 wounded, including 5 women, one elderly sheikh, and 7 children below the age of 15 – including one 3-year-old child. Seven of the wounded are critically wounded, having been shot above the waist.

The protest was held in a response to the ongoing siege of Nahr al Bared refugee camp in an attempt to highlight the worsening humanitarian situation and indiscriminate shelling endured by the up to 3,000 civilians still remaining in the camp. The protest began yesterday by initiating a three-day water-only symbolic hunger strike in solidarity with family and friends in Nahr al Bared who are presently experiencing the hunger, fear and vulnerability of facing a second month under siege. The protest included a silent procession and die-in to highlight the to-date 36 civilian casualties earlier this afternoon and an open mike and opportunity for the press to interview people throughout the day who have recently evacuated Nahr al Bared.

--

press release written by: Rania Masri, 961 3 135279

DAJIJ AND IN CONCERT

Check DAJIJ blog here.

Cordially invite you to attend the launching of the booklet 'For Equality', a guide by women and for women..

The booklet contains compiled data and Q & A's concerning sexual harassment, assault, and services provided by organizations for women seeking help and support.

The booklet will be available free of charge during the launching. Join us to pick up your copy of this useful resource.

With the company of various female DJs

Zicco house, 5th of July, 2007 @ 7pm
For more information please call the following numbers:
03-739304 or 70-917001

ضجيج و إن كو نسرت

ندعوكم للمشاركة في حفل إطلاق كتيّب' من اجل المساواة'.

يحوي الكتيّب على أسئلة و أجوبة عن مواضيع التحرش الجنسي و معلومات عن الخدمات المتوافرة التي يمكن أن تستفيد منها النساء.

يمكن الحصول على الكتيب مجانا خلال الحفل.

بيت زيكو،الصنائع، شارع سبيرز السابعة مساءً في 5 تموز/يوليو 2007

لمزيد من المعلومات الرجاء الاتصال على الأرقام التالية : 03-739304 أو 70-917001

--
DAJIJ Project
A Feminist Response to Art and Culture
Dajijbeirut@gmail.com
00-961-70-917001

Save Freedom of Speech: Make Donatations Now!

Taken from Yaman Salahi's new blog FrontPageMag Watch--- please republish

to know more on Lee Kaplan's threats against a college student please read here.

Fundraiser

The launch of “FrontPageMag Watch” coincides with the beginning of this fundraising campaign to fight the outcome of Kaplan v. Salahi, a case that was heard in small claims court in the County of Alameda (case number BS06288332). The website is both an expression of my opposition to the ruling, as well as a means by which we can organize and act against it.

While I am still exploring legal options, it is increasingly unlikely that there is any legal remedy to what has happened and it is more than likely that I will have to pay the judgment. As a college student, the amount of $7,500 is crippling, and one that I cannot afford. Furthermore, it will continue to be a nuisance for the next several years and will prevent me from spending time on various projects that I have been devoted to.

Because I don’t expect anybody to contribute to this fundraiser out of sympathy or out of trust (I would prefer people actually read this to know the great risk they themselves are at), I will explain the reasons why I believe this fundraiser to be important below. While the relationship between Lee Kaplan and I may be interesting to some, I believe it to be rather mundane and of little importance to the general public. On the other hand, the lawsuit is of the utmost importance to anybody who is politically active, as it threatens our most basic rights.

1- Institutional injustice of the ruling

2- The “merits” of the case

3-What people have said about this case

4- Where the money will go.

حكي نسوان

This is a chat between me and my Palestinian friend Malak this afternoon, her analysis is interesting, for those who are interested in learning more on Fath el Islam and the Lebanese army's bombardment at Nahr el Bared.

You can read the full chat here on her blog. (AR)

ملاك: بعدين طالما هالقد وطني(الجبش): ليش كل الناس كانت تقتل حالها عشان اولادها ما يأدوا خدمة العلم؟

Joke of the Day

Blair is our man to peace in the Arab World.

Sign Petition to oppose Blair as Middle East peace envoy. Total signatures 945.

taken from here.

Tony Blair

www.bloodforoil.org

Greenpeace has produced a deck of cards which parodies the US deck of 'most wanted' Iraqis.The environmental group's cards has Tony Blair as the ace of diamonds and George W Bush as the ace of spades

Blair battles "poodle" jibes, BBC, UK
... Tony Blair is no more than George Bush's poodle.". It is a jibe that
stings the prime minister and which he is desperate to nail. ... [more]

Tony Blair, accompanied by his wife Cherie, waves to Japanese people as he leaves a pizza restaurant after chatting with a Japanese family in the fashionable district of Harajuku in Tokyo, July 19, 2003. Blair toured Harajuku after making a speech to Japanese business leaders. REUTERS/JMPA/Pool [more]

Wanted: Tony Blair

Google Bow to Zionists & Hijacked “Freedom of Speech”, Again!

Taken from Sabbah

(By Latuff)

The following letter is self explanatory. Please read and act:

Dear Reader,

We @ thepeoplesvoice.org need your help! Anti-democratic forces have succeeded in making Google take us off its news list. It is important for web sites like ours to be listed there, so that more people will have access to alternative points of view, not just the Main Stream Media. Below you will find an extract of what we have to say about these negative forces. You will find the rest of it on our homepage. We will later post an extended article about this. As you will understand, we WILL fight back, but we do need your help to succeed in this. Please consider helping us.

“Well, they’re at it again. This time a gang of crazies at the Daily Kos have managed to convince Google News to remove our site. They may have had help from the extremists at ‘Little Green Footballs’ or ‘Elder of Ziyon’, two other sites that want to shut us down. They falsely accuse us of anti-Semitism when we are fiercely opposed to bigotry and racism in all it’s forms. It is our sincere belief that a handful of people who seek to inhibit freedom of speech cannot equal the power of the majority of the people. If you like what we are doing and want more people to see the articles on our site please write a few words or a letter to Google News. Tell them that you like the site and to please put thepeoplesvoice.org back on Google News.”

If you would like to help out, please just enter our homepage and click on “Contact Google News” in the upper right hand corner. This will lead you to Google’s page dedicated to suggestions and / or feedback. Please just fill in your name etc. and whatever you would like to say or use the text / example below. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Schuyler Ebbets &
Ragnar Johannessen
The People’s Voice
thepeoplesvoice.org

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/indx.php

PS: Please don’t send the email addresses above to people you don’t know.

Hello,

It would seem that Google has deleted thepeoplesvoice.org from its news list. I like this web site. The main articles submitted to this site are good, interesting and represent a wide variety of opinions and points of view. The news are fresh and to the point. I would like to see thepeoplesvoice.org back on Google again. Thank you.

[Your Name]

[END]

Need I saw that thepeoplesvoice.org was one of very few websites which never banned “anti-Zionist” authors, unlike the “merciful” Daily Kos. My latest one was this!

Release of Hewar´s Second Album (9 Days of Solitude)

Be There.

ض

so i want to make a tattoo on my back with the letter that is only pronounced by Arabs, dhadh, ض , but i am not sure which Arab font i want to use, any suggestions?

ض

ض

ض

ض

ض

ض

ض

ض

ض

Ten things I Cannot Find in an Arab Guy

1- Arabism.

2- Anti-sexism.

3- Sensitivity.

4- Selflessness.

5- Devotion to the Arab cause.

6- Acceptance of my atheism.

7- Nerdy.

8- Share the same sense.

9- Hot.

10- And single ;-)

انتهاء تحقيق الشرطة الإسرائيلية مع د.مروان بشارة ودون توجيه أية تهمة له

Read Marwan Bishara's article on Dr. Azmi Bishara's case here.

بعد جلسات تحقيق مطولة أنهت «وحدة التحقيقات في الجرائم الدولية» التابعة للشرطة الإسرائيلية، تحقيقاتها الانتقامية والاستفزازية مع الإعلامي والأكاديمي د. مروان بشارة، شقيق الدكتور عزمي بشارة، اليوم الأحد، بدون توجيه أية تهمة له.

وكان د.مروان بشارة قد استدعي صباح اليوم، الأحد، لاستكمال التحقيق معه. وعلم موقع عــ48ـرب أن التحقيق قد انتهى اليوم بدون توجيه أية اتهامات.

يذكر أن د.مروان بشارة قد وصل البلاد يوم الثلاثاء الماضي في إطار عمله الصحفي، في قناة "الجزيرة"، لتغطية الأحداث على الساحة الفلسطينية. وقامت الشرطة باستدعائه للتحقيق يوم الأربعاء وواصلت التحقيق معه يوم الخميس لمدة ثماني ساعات، واستدعي مجددا للتحقيق اليوم الأحد..

وكان التلفزيون الإسرائيلي قد ذكر، اعتماداً على مصادر في الشرطة الإسرائيلية، أن التحقيق له علاقة بقضية د.عزمي بشارة.

وتأتي التحقيقات مع د. بشارة استمرارا لسياسة الملاحقة والتضييق لرموز الحركة الوطنية في الداخل. وقالت مصادر مقربة للدكتور بشارة أن التحقيقات أعاقت عمله ومهمته التي قدم إلى البلاد لإنجازها في إطار عمله في قناة الجزيرة.

يذكر أن د.مروان بشارة يعمل منذ سنوات طويلة كإعلامي ومحلل سياسي ومحاضر جامعي، ويكتب في عدد من الصحف العربية والعالمية. وهو مختص بالعلاقات الدولية.

Palestinians Don't Need Us Anymore

Recently I have been copying pasting posts of other blogs and avoiding writing about what the campaign is doing or what it is happening lately in my life.

I think the best way to describe my silence is what i am about to share with you what I noticed today.

My sister wanted to go to do her hair, so I went with her and sat in the waiting room.

The details in a barber shop are very, undistracting!
The sounds are different, the hair blower's is dominating, the ladies' heels is hitting the silence of my thoughts. I am awaiting inspiration, I miss the camp.

So there I took my notebook and start writing a script on how I am going to interview the refugees. I made a plan, suggestions. I noticed that I needed a blank place to make me think. I needed a place totally different from the camp, totally out of thoughts, totally senseless to make me think.

The camp is about too many infos, too many ideas and new experiences, you get addicted to the life style of the camp that the unusual becomes usual. You change everything about you; your favorite color, your sense of belonging, your type of fears..etc.

Living three years in Lebanon, I was revived in the camp.

I spend two days at Baddaw by myself away from the campaign. I stayed with a Palestinian NGO named Right to Play. These days are unforgettable, indescribable.

I was the only non-Palestinian in this group, we shared 48 hours; we had breakfast together, lunch and dinner. We shared our thoughts, we had our fights, laughters, we were bunch of volunteers who chose to be right here in the narrow roads of the camp.

Saturday night after we ate amazing farroj (chicken) at Abu Ghassan's, we headed to our office, made our sheets, preparing ourselves to go to bed, but before that, we had a discussion till 3 AM about the right of return; should we or shouldn't we get Lebanese nationalities? I was against that. But some supported it.

I love Palestinians, whether they are with or against the right of return, cause either way, all they care about is the good condition of their own people, and how they be stronger to earn their land back.

I thought about it, there is nothing dramatic about "living" in the camp, cause it adds to the typical definition of "to my life already. It is not the camp that needs to be changed, it is our reading to it.

أنا بنت المخيم, أنا بنت الزاروب

In the camp volunteers are known, wherever I go and whatever I ask for in the camp, I get it for free: "you are a volunteer, god bless you" they say. I check my mail for free, I eat and drink for free, I am being taken good care of by the Palestinians.

I cannot express what I feel, I love every single moment I share with them. I am not doing anything "for" them, I am blessed I ever got the chance to be around them.
It is I who need them, it is I who feel attached to them, it is them whom we need.

Their love towards Palestine shows moments after PLO shoot at Hamas in Baddawi, the refugees got down the streets for a demonstration calling for peace between Hamas and PLO:

بدنا نحكي عالمكشوف, مسلحين مابدنا نشوف
بدنا وحدة وطنية, وحدة عالصهيوينة

Palestine has no other name, no other color, it is plain, it is in us.

Palestine, you make me coming back for more.

حول مفارقة الوحدة اللبنانية

انّ ما نشهده في لبنان حول "اصطفاف" شعبي واسع من جمهوري 8 و14 آذار هو شيء يدعو للتساؤل: ما وحدكم؟

بالطبع, إن سبب اصطفاف جمهور 14 وراء الجيش يختلف عن اصطفاف جمهور 8 يختلف بدوره عن مؤيدي سليم الحص, لكن لا خلاف على تأييد الجيش.

قلة من اللبنانين تجدينهم لا يؤيدون الجيش وينددون بما يفعل من قصف عشوائي لمخيم البداوي. بل أن قلة منهم يرى أن "العنصرية" سبب من أسباب اتخاذ هذا الحل العسكري داخل مجمع سكني.

أنا لا أتكلم عن مستوى القيادات بل عن المستوى الشعبي, من المدهش أن نجد الجميع "اللبناني" متكاتف ضد هذا العدو المجهول المعروف.

ما أود قوله في هذه الصفحة هو قراءة شخصية للوعي اللبناني كوني عايشته مدة 3 سنوات.

في البدء دعونا نسأل: "ما الذي جعل من 14 آذار حركه بهذا الحجم من التأييد الشعبي؟

أعتقد كونها الحركة التي قرأت جيدا خاصيّة الوعي اللبناني.

إن السوريين طوال 30 عاما, يذهبون إلى أسواق لبنان أيام الجمعة, غير مدركين من هو اللبناني, ماذا يشعر اللبناني وكيف هي عقلية اللبناني.

حتى محتلّهم الاستخباراتي, نظام الأسد, لم يقرأ جيّدا مكونات الوعي اللبناني.

إن كان شيء قد وحّد اللبنانيين يوم 14 آذار هو ال "ضد" السوري.

كثيرون لم يأبهوا للحريري, أو لجبران وبالطبع ليس للحاوي, الأمر لا يتعلق "بالشهداء" بل بخاصية هي جزء من مكونات الوعي اللبناني: "أنا مضطهد".

اللبنانية تنظر إلى نفسها على أنها ضحيّة زعماء لبنان وان أيّدت احدهم, هي ضحية سوريّة, وبالتأكيد ضحية لإيران وربما تذكر أمريكا وإسرائيل والعالم بأسره. هي ضحية منذ أن تأسس لبنان.

ربما تكون محقة, لكنني أتحدث لا عن فكره بل عن عملية شعوريّة يوميّة يمارسها اللبناني, هو مضطهد من الجميع وهو ما يجعله يتكاتف مع احد ما ضد أحد ما.

إن 14 آذار متوحدين-ضد سورية.

إن اللبنانيين متوحدين-ضدّ الفلسطينيين.

ماذا عن إسرائيل؟ هل هم متوحدين- ضد إسرائيل؟ لا, هم بالتأكيد ضد إسرائيل, لكنهم ليسوا متحدين-ضد إسرائيل.

واليوم وللمرة الأولى منذ اغتيال الحريري, نجد الشغب اللبناني متكاتف وراء من كانوا يذمونه كل يوم, وراء الجيش اللبناني, ضد من هو غير لبناني-عربي.

ما أود قوله هنا, هو انه لا يوجد شيء اسمه 8 أو 14 آذار عندما يتعلّق الأمر بما هو غير لبناني ويمس فكره "أنا مضطهد".

اللبنانيون بالمجمل يحملون ركيزة من ركائز 14 آذار وهي ركيزة "الضد".

أنا لبناني لآني لست سوري.

أنا لبناني لأني لست فلسطيني.

أنا 14 آذار يعني أنا ضد سوريا.

خاصية الضد هي جوهر الوحدة اللبنانية, وربما الهوية اللبنانية.

لا يوجد وحده دون الضد وهنا تكمن مفارقة الوحدة اللبنانية.

اللبنانيون يحتاجون للضد ليكونوا.

اللبنانيون يحتاجون لعدو ليكونوا

ومن هنا اتجرا وأقول

إن ظل لبنان يحتاج عدوا ليكون لبنان

فلن يكون لبنان أبدا.

بآخر النهار 1

لمّا بمشي ببيروت

بلاقي مية يافطة

بتنادي لجيش الوحدة

بمشي كمان فشخة

بلاقي كاميرات

عم بتصور دعايات

كرمال جيش الوحدة

الناس فرحانة

لانو انتصروه* للجيش

الناس زعلانة

لانو مات الجيش

مين الناس؟

وانو ناس؟

هالبلد لناس وناس

*انتصروه هي استعاره من مصطلح لبناني :"انتحروه" استعمل كصفة لطريقة انتحار سياسي سوري يدعى غازي كنعان.

CHECKPOINT 3 0 3 -LIVE IN PALESTINE

Taken from NightS

powered by ODEO
Received from Checkpoint 303:

Dear Checkpoint 303 friends,

After our recent shows in France, Sweden and Belgium, we are pleased to announce a series of live sets in Palestine starting this week, as part of the «Fête de la Musique » festival organized by the French cultural center network and the Al Kamandjati Association.

Checkpoint 303 shows:

Thursday 21.06 @ 9 pm Café Zan, RAMALLAH (yes, that's today !)
Saturday 23.06 @ 5 pm Beit Hanina College, East JERUSALEM
Sunday 24.06 @ 6 pm Annajah University Theater, NABLUS
Monday 25.06 @ 7 pm The Spanish Garden, JERICHO

(Unfortunately, the concert in Gaza city has been cancelled due to last week's sad events)

More info about the «Fête de la musique » event can be found here (french):
http://www.consulfrance-jerusalem.org/article.php3?id_article=594
In addition to these dates in Jerusalem and the West Bank Checkpoint 303 will also be performing in Nazareth on Friday 22.06 at Mary's well square starting at 7 pm.

More info about the Nazareth and Haifa program here (french):
http://fr.ambafrance-il.org/popup.asp?t=agenda&h=Agenda&ind=907

Spread the word !

New tunes (including the track « Gaza Calling ») will be added to our website and new concert dates will soon be announced. So stay tuned.

You can also find us on myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/checkpoint303

Greetings from beautiful Jerusalem.

Checkpoint 303

Save Our Children, Boycott these Companies

Add this banner to your blog.

download this PDF file of detailed list of companies supporting Israel.

Read Norman G. Finkelstein's Why an Economic Boycott of Israel is Justified?

Make some action and join these Boycotts, Divestments, Sanctions of Israel at EI.

ضمّ قانون جديد لسلسة قوانين بشارة

عرب 48

أقرت الكنيست، الاربعاء، بالقراءة التمهيدية مشروع قانون جديد في سلسلة ما بات يسمى "قوانين بشارة". وينص القانون الجديد على أن كل عضو كنيست يدان بتهمة جنائية أو أمنية يحرم من مخصصات التقاعد.

وخلال مناقشة القانون قال عضو الكنيست حاييم أورون من كتلة ميرتس، إنه يعارض مبدئياً المس بمخصصات التقاعد لأنها ملك شخصي لا بل ملك للعائلة والأولاد وليس لصاحبها فقط، وأضاف بأنه يستغرب أن يُسن قانون خاص من هذا النوع لأعضاء الكنيست فقط وليس لكل مواطن يدان في المحكمة.

وعقب النائب د. جمال زحالقة، رئيس كتلة التجمع الوطني الديمقراطي البرلمانية، قائلاً: "لقد فقدوا صوابهم وصاروا يسنون قوانين غريبة لا سابق لها، في محاولة للإنتقام من عزمي بشارة وكأنهم لم يستوعبوا بعد أن بشارة لم يعد عضو كنيست وأنه يرفض قواعد اللعبة الجديدة ولن يسلم نفسه للتحقيق والمحاكم الصورية".

وأضاف زحالقة: "مجرد طرح قانون من هذا النوع يدل على أن المؤسسة الاسرائيلية مستعدة لكسر كل الحواجز القانونية للإنتقام من بشارة. لقد وصل بهم العمى العنصري إلى حد سن قوانين ضد بشارة حتى لو تضرر منها غيره وليس هو شخصياً، فهو لم يدن في المحكمة

The Lebanese Army Continues Abusing Palestinians fleeing Nahr el Bared

LEBANON: Rights group calls for probe into Palestinian abuse claims

20 Jun 2007 12:29:25 GMT

Source: IRIN

Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

BADAWI REFUGEE CAMP, NORTH LEBANON, 20 June 2007 (IRIN) -

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the Lebanese army's month-long siege and shelling of the north Lebanon Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, as its battle against Islamist militants continues. But one 16 year-old Palestinian student told IRIN his worst ordeal began after he escaped the camp. About 10 men he identified as soldiers and police were standing at a junction leading to the village of Muhammara, above Nahr El-Bared. "They asked to see my identity card," said the boy, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution. "As soon as they saw it was blue (for Palestinian), they said 'Take him'." "They tied me up with plastic ties, pushed me to the floor and beat me with rifle butts." The beating occurred there and then, he said, then they took him to a nearby military headquarters where the treatment continued. He held out his wrists, where scars are visible, and showed a long gash below his neck. He lost part of his ear and the blows bruised him all over. The boy, sitting with his uncle in a dark room in the nearby Badawi camp with bandages over his wounded ear and above his eye, said the beating started before any questions were asked.

At the headquarters, his interrogators accused him of lying "like all Palestinians". "One took out a pistol and said 'you're Fatah Al-Islam, we're going to shoot you'. I said: 'I'm not Fatah Al-Islam, I'm not anything'." So beaten and bloodied was his appearance, he said, that men who appeared to be Lebanese plainclothes army intelligence officers made the soldiers sign a form confirming that they had delivered him in that state before accepting him for interrogation. He was released about seven hours after he was apprehended. Alleged abuse It is an extreme, but not isolated tale.

Caoimhe Butterly, a prominent social and human rights activist temporarily based at the camp, said the local rights groups and journalists had between them documented dozens of cases of alleged abuse of Palestinians fleeing the conflict between the army and Islamist militants sheltering in the camp. Old hostilities, failure to differentiate between the militants and Palestinian civilians and mass support for the army risk combining to create an atmosphere of impunity in Lebanon, activists said. Accounts range from slapping, shoving and insults to harsh beatings and death threats, all of which are denied by the army. "It would be unfair to say all Palestinians who leave the camp are being beaten up, but there are enough cases to cause us to be very alarmed," said Nadim Houry of Human Rights Watch, as he gathered testimony in Badawi camp.

Houry said he had met the army and conveyed Human Rights Watch's concerns. The group has asked the army to investigate the claims. The army's battle with Fatah al-Islam began four weeks ago, with a police raid to arrest alleged members in connection with a bank robbery. In response, Fatah al-Islam gunmen overran the army base near Nahr al-Bared camp, where the group has been based since November, and killed 33 soldiers, many in their sleep. The ferocity of the attack, the worst day for the army since the civil war, shocked Lebanese, who have rallied behind the institution seen by many as the only one left in the sectarian country that is capable of uniting society.

General denies allegations Gen Michel Suleiman, commander of the Lebanese army, told IRIN in an interview that all allegations of mistreatment of Palestinians were unfounded. "I deny completely and categorically the lies that were issued about the practices of the Lebanese army," he said, when asked about the alleged abuse. "The army is the most important institution in Lebanon and it is under attack. It has never been recorded in its history, not once, that it breached human rights." In a statement issued last week, Human Rights Watch made clear that interrogating witnesses leaving Nahr El-Bared was the army's right, so long as Lebanese laws banning torture and the Geneva Conventions were upheld. "But the army must issue strict instructions and must be seen to take measures to discipline those who are doing this. There must be an investigation to figure out exactly what happened," Houry said.

Suleiman said guidelines were issued at the start of the conflict calling on soldiers to treat those leaving the camp with respect. Fraught relationship Relations between the roughly 400,000 refugees, about half of whom live in 12 camps, and their hosts are often fraught, with some Lebanese blaming the Palestinians for the outbreak of the country's 1975-1990 civil war.

Palestinians in Lebanon are denied from working in more than 70 professions and from property ownership, among other civil rights. "There must not be an air of impunity because the Palestinians are weak and people can get away with it," said Houry. "There is definitely a criminalisation of civilians happening, a homogenisation of Palestinian civilians with Fatah al-Islam, particularly those who chose to stay behind in the camp," Butterly said. "People are being subjected to mild to severe physical abuse, and I think it's widespread and systematic from the testimony we're gathering," she said.

Most testimony alleged abuse by soldiers, "but local militias have joined in, in at least one case", she added. Many Palestinians, particularly young males, have been held for several hours and slapped and taunted, she said. More severe alleged abuse involved Palestinians being threatened with death, handcuffed in painful "stress positions" for hours and beaten. Some witnesses said medication, food and water were withheld altogether or inadequate. Fear Human Rights Watch said such accounts were deterring some of the estimated 5,000 Palestinians still inside Nahr al-Bared camp from leaving. Rania Masri, a civil rights activist with the Nahr al-Bared Relief Campaign, said fear of mistreatment is discouraging Palestinians from moving around in general. "We personally know that many are not going to work outside Badawi camp, for example because they're afraid of being subject to ill-treatment," she said.

Suleiman expressed surprise about the human rights group's concerns about the Palestinians' accounts. "Allegations of torture are not true or realistic because the army is not their enemy. On the contrary, it has strived to protect them despite losing 74 martyrs from its ranks." Elements that had shot at the army from within the camp had "disguised themselves among the innocent," he said. One 18-year-old youth told IRIN he had been beaten and kicked repeatedly during 13 hours in custody with scores of other Palestinian youths, boys and men. "I'd stayed behind in a shelter in Nahr al-Bared after my family left, but then the shelling got really bad so I had to go," said the youth, who worked in a mini-market before the crisis started. At a checkpoint near the southern exit, he was seized and taken into custody. "Several commandos hit me during the investigation, and I saw others get much worse than I got," he said. "The worst thing was that they insulted Palestine, my people and my mother and sister. No one can tolerate that."

I am not a naïve reader, and I hope you are not too. These children are victims of Iraqi American government, found by the same army that raped Abeer Qassim Hamzaand, killed over million Iraqi children during curfew, not to mention Abu Ghreib prison scandal.

This is not a savior army, this is an occupying army and we Arabs demand its withdrawal right now!!! stay away from my people!

Taken from Telegraph

Starving Iraqi orphans discovered tied to cribs
By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

American troops have found more than 20 emaciated boys close to death in squalor at a Baghdad orphanage.

Staff at the government-run special needs home were discovered to be starving the children, some of whom had been tethered to cribs.
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Officials had apparently been selling their food at a local market.

The chance discovery was made during a daytime patrol in central Baghdad.

A US military advisory team accompanied by Iraqi soldiers looked over a wall and saw what appeared to be corpses.

"They saw multiple bodies laying on the floor of the facility," said Staff Sgt Mitchell Gibson of the 82nd Airborne Division.

"They thought they were all dead, so they threw a basketball to try and get some attention, and actually one of the kids lifted up his head, tilted it over and just looked and then went back down.

"And they said, 'Oh, they're alive,' and so they went into the building."

Footage broadcast by CBS News showed the extent of the deprivation in the orphanage. Several of the children were covered in their own faeces.

The children had been kept this way for more than a month, according to the soldiers called in to rescue the dying boys.

"I saw children that you could see literally every bone in their body, that were so skinny they had no energy to move whatsoever, no expression on their face," said Staff Sgt Michael Beal.

Another soldier, Lt Stephen Duperre, said: "The kids were tied up, naked, covered in their own waste and there were three people that were cooking themselves food, but nothing for the kids."

The soldiers said they found shelves filled with food and new clothes still in their plastic wrapping in the orphanage.

Two security guards were arrested under the orders of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, following the discovery last week.

Other staff members had apparently left the orphanage weeks before.

The children have been moved to another orphanage in the city to recover from their ordeal.

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright.

Iraqi...Figures???

This is Iraqi Life!

Taken from Socialist Worker Online

Iraq in figures

• 2.2million Iraqis have fled their country, and approximately 1.9 million have been displaced internally.
• 50,000 Iraqis are forced to flee their homes each month.
• 100 civilians were killed every day from February to May this year. The number of attacks on both US forces and Iraqis have risen to an average of over 1,000 a week.
• 200,000 Iraqi children are refugees in Jordanian. But only...
• 20,000 Iraqi children are able to attend Jordanian schools.
• 43 percent of Iraqi refugee children in Jordan witnessed violence in Iraq, and 39 percent said they lost someone close to them through violence.
• 54 percent of the Iraqi population are estimated to live on less than 50 pence a day, while a further
• 15 percent live in “extreme poverty”.

  Only 32 percent of Iraqis have access to clean drinking water. Severe malnutrition doubled between 2003 and 2005.

• 8,000 Iraqis have been held in prison for longer than a year, while 1,300 have been detained for more than two years.

  Amnesty International comments that in aggregate “tens of thousands of internees” have been held in arbitrary and extrajudicial detention.

• 20,000 Iraqis are being held in prisons and detention centres, leading to abusive over crowding.

  In April 2007, Iraqi inspectors found 827 prisoners jammed into the Mahmudiya facility built for 300, and in the Muthana air base they found 272 in a jail intended for 75.

• 327 “air missions” by the US Air Force were reported in just one week in March 2007.
• 2,000 Iraqi doctors were killed and about 12,000 left the country between March 2003 and March 2007.

Figures from UNHCR, United Nations, World Vision, Brookings Institution and Global Poverty Forum reports.

---

© Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place.

The danger Kaplan v. Salahi poses to bloggers and activists everywhere

Taken from Yaman's Amateur Ramblings -----please republish

As a student at UC Berkeley, the center for the Free Speech Movement, I never thought I’d find myself at the receiving end of a politically-motivated libel lawsuit. I am the creator of a blog called “Lee Kaplan Watch” which focuses on analyzing the integrity of Kaplan’s published articles. When he discovered the website, Kaplan began a campaign of intimidation, including e-mail threats of legal action and various online smears alleging that I was a Nazi, a Ba`athist, and a member of al-Qaeda. He threatened to harass me and members of my family, and even went so far as to contact the Dean of Student Life at the university. After asking me to stop writing about his work several times, he finally filed a lawsuit against me in small claims court for “tortious business interference,” libel, and slander.

Lee Kaplan, for those who are unaware, is a journalist for David Horowitz’ right-wing, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab publication, FrontPageMag.com. He is also associated with a number of regressive organizations like the Bruin Alumni Association, the United American Committee, StopTheISM, Dafka, and the Northeastern Intelligence Network. Kaplan chooses easy and weak targets and he chooses them well, focusing on students who mobilize on campuses throughout the country in opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands. He is more relevant in the San Francisco area, where his extreme and annoying behavior has often come under scrutiny. He has widespread financial and organizational backing at his disposal, a privilege that others and myself, as college students, are sorely lacking.

So it goes that Kaplan cleverly decided to sue me in small claims court, where standards for evidence are virtually non-existent, procedures occur at the discretion of the judge, and no record of court proceedings are kept. These low standards allowed Kaplan to present misleading and false material as “evidence” that I had defamed him and cost him a job offer writing for SportsBlogger.com, a website which does not even exist and has not for at least the past 2 years. Even more troubling, I had never written the very things he claimed were defamatory. One of the statements was taken from a spoof of my blog on a third-party website that I have no control over. The other simply does not exist. In addition to the lack of evidence, nearly arbitrary procedures meant that three witnesses, including a computer expert who could attest to the fact that my website did not contain those statements, were not able to testify during the 25 minute hearing, and my lawyer was asked not to present legal arguments in my defense.

Despite all of these problems with the evidence, the judge, for reasons I will never know, bought one of Kaplan’s many claims and ordered me to pay him $7,500. I will never know which ones or why because judges in small claims court do not release written opinions explaining their rulings. Furthermore, as far as I know, the decision is not appealable to a higher court. That means I have no recourse against a judgment given without justification despite the fact that it punishes me for exercising my first amendment rights to political speech.

Dave Johnson at SeeingTheForest was right to call this “a freedom of speech and right-to-blog issue.” Ann Althouse, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin, commented on the lawsuit saying that “thinking small [as in, small claims court] looks like an effective way to squelch speech.” But she poses the more serious question regarding the fact that this suit was brought before a court that doesn’t write opinions: “if the court’s opinion doesn’t explain what you did wrong, how can you keep writing? You have to worry about the next small claims lawsuit.”

What does this mean? It means that this lawsuit is not only about me, and is not only about Lee Kaplan. It is about the real danger that underhanded legal tactics like these pose to all bloggers and those without the resources to protect themselves from abusive litigation that is aimed at silencing them. For now, it looks like small claims court is a convenient and reliable route for anybody who can dish out $75, the cost of filing a claim, to harass and intimidate those they disagree with. Real evidence and a credible story might not even be necessary to make a hefty return on that small investment. At least, that is what I have learned with this experience.

In the meantime I continue to investigate my legal options to see if there is any way to salvage my free speech rights. To that end I have established a fund to collect donations that will go either towards paying legal expenses in case of an appeal or paying off the lawsuit if there are no other options. But I will also continue to blog about this and other contentious issues, despite the enormous pressure that this abusive lawsuit has put my family, friends, and myself under.

For those who might be fearful to speak up due to cases like this, you have every right to be weary. Indeed, this case is very ominous in its implications. But the worst thing we could possibly do is shy away from continuing to publicly take firm, principled, and dedicated political stands. We should remain courageous enough to embrace and confront contentious political issues, especially those regarding the cause of the Palestinian people in particular and American involvement in the Middle East in general, despite what we have faced and, no doubt, what will continue to come our way.

I have written extensively about my reaction to the ruling and my thoughts on Kaplan’s claims on the blog here and here for those who would like more information about the case. You may also browse the court’s record of documents and filings by clicking here. If you would like further comment from me regarding this case, please feel free to contact me at ysalahi@gmail.com.

I would also like to make a small request that those who are in the least bit outraged by this story please do what they can to publicize it by e-mailing it to friends and listservs, writing about it on blogs, or sharing it on websites like Facebook and MySpace. People need to know about this new method of shutting down dissent so that steps can be taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The Rise of Syrian New Cinema

Taken from Jordanian Indie Films

The Rise of Syrian New Cinema & Industry and Consequences to Jordanian Indie Filmmaking
By Hazim Bitar

Are you a talented Jordanian filmmaker but don't have foreign language skills, financial resources or connections (that's most Jordanians) to study abroad or to even make your first celluloid film with star power?

Don't despair. Two hours north of Amman, Jordan, an Arab Hollywood is emerging, in Damascus, Syria. Along with it, a flurry of digital filmmaking activities is starting to give Syrian New Cinema shape.

Syria is the Arab country with the most developed cinema and audiovisual production infrastructure east of the Mediterranean. Syrian TV drama has dominated Arab TV screens over the last decade with no contender on the horizon. But because of the rift between East and West during the Cold War, much of Syria's cinematic activities were exposed mostly to audiences of socialist countries. Only recently did the new generation of Syrian filmmakers present their talent to the world at large, thanks to the internet and digital filmmaking. And with the relaxation of cross-border movement between Jordan and Syria, Damascus is now poised to become a coveted destination for Jordanian filmmakers seeking cinematic education, experience, and contacts.

With no visa requirements for Jordanians to enter into Syria (as compared to the 15 days minimum for EU), a 20 euros two-way bus ticket to Damascus, and a Syrian National Film Organization that extends local production fees to Jordanian filmmakers, there is plenty of incentive for aspiring Jordanian filmmakers to head north. As for the trip, it's about 2-3 hours on average by ground transportation.

Take this scenario. You are a Jordanian indie filmmaker on a limited-budget seeking to rent a 35mm camera for your first celluloid experience. To the best of our knowledge, one such camera exist(ed) in Jordan. Want to rent a 35mm in Syria? Let's see. How about an Arriflex C2 with tripod, battery, and two magazines and three lenses for about 1500 Syrian Liras per day? I forgot to mention that each Euro is about 70 Syrian Liras. So that's about 21 Euros plus a refundable deposit for the camera package. You think this camera model is too old for your needs? Then, how about an Arriflex 535 B with tripod, three lenses, three magazines, and a battery? That's about 550 Euros per day. At the risk of oversimplification, the Arriflex 535 B is the camera used to film Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. This is all courtesy of the Syrian National Film Organization. And we have not even begun to discuss the private sector.

The Syrian High Institute for Drama has graduated the who's who of Arab cinema and TV drama. Once steeped in Soviet performing arts traditions, the institute's list of luminaries include leading performers such as Ayman Zeidan, Amal Arafeh, Ayman Reda, etc.

You wish to meet Syrian celebrities? No need to wait for the semiannual Damascus International Film Festival. Head to Rawda Cafe, next to Sham Hotel, and be ready to run into Hatem Ali, Ghassan Masoud, Bassem Yakhour, and Gamal Suleiman, etc. Many Syrian stars are known to have soft spots for indie filmmakers and have accepted to act in numerous low-budget indie films. Make sure you have extra copies of your script before you visit the cafe. And don't spell tea on the scripts.

Our first encounter with the Syrian independent filmmaking scene was during the Warda Short Film Festival 2006 in Damascus, directed by film critic Bashar Ibrahim. We had witnessed firsthand the impressive talent of the new generation of Syrian indie filmmakers, writers, and actors. Some of the documentaries were harsh critiques of social injustice, the sort that does not try to sugarcoat misery with good official intentions.

Last year, at the Jordan Short Film Festival, we had plans to screen a full program of Syrian shorts. But due to a mysterious disappearance and reappearance of the Syrian films, during shipping, we had to postpone the screening to 2007.

With Syria's gift for beautiful and varied terrain and landscape, not to mention the mystique of the "old city" of Damascus, some of the films' locations were eye candy. Only Morocco and Egypt on the African side of the Mediterranean are endowed with a similar gift of developed cinema infrastructure, creative energy, and landscape as colorful as Syria. Yet with Syria being a stone throw away from Jordan, it's becoming a viable destination for young Jordanian filmmakers with modest means.

Syrian TV drama, theater, and cinema, over the last few decades, have demonstrated astonishing openness in probing social and political issues unmatched by most Arab countries in terms of intelligence and pan-Arab acceptance. Syrian actor Duraid Lah'ham--former UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in the Arab world--has been an Arab screen phenomenon with his scathing political comedies. Mohamad Maghout, Syrian poet and playwright who passed away recently, is also credited for being the intellectual driving force of the Arab world's most damning criticism of the social and political order, not to mention his unyielding anti-colonialism (a Syrian cultural tradition that earned the country its comical Axis of Evil nickname). His for-TV political comedies such as Estrangement (Ghurbeh) and A Toast to My Homeland (Kaasak Ya Watan) have become Arab classics adorning the video collections of most Arab households. Despite the absence of freedoms in the Arab world that seems to transcend any axis, the Syrian cinema industry is a diamond in the rough and it's within reach of Jordanian filmmakers.

So dust off that film script, sell the motorcycle, give your boss the 24 hour notice, and head north. When you are done, don't forget to send us your film for the Jordan Short Film Festival.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hazim Bitar is the founder and coordinator of the Amman Filmmakers Cooperative and the director of the Jordan Short Film Festival. He is the producer and director of some of Jordan's leading independent films.

RELATED LINKS

Syria's National Film Organization

Amman Filmmakers Cooperative

Jordan Short Film Festival

Alan Johnston Petition

Sign Alan Johnston petition here.

The petition states:

"We, the undersigned, demand the immediate release of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston. We ask that everyone with influence on this situation increase their efforts to ensure that Alan is freed quickly and unharmed."

show your support to Alan Johnston and post this code to your blog:

Word Document

i am now writing this post from Baddawi camp, i was making interviews with Palestinians from Nahr el Bared all day, we were organizing documentaries' screening tonight in the school.
i am now listening to a shooting between Hamas and PLO.
and i listened this afternoon to the Lebanese Army's bombing at the neighbouring camp; Nahr el Bared.

Press Release: The Lebanese Army is Harassing Palestinians at Checkpoints

Read press release in Arabic here.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
12 June 2007

Lebanon: Amid reports of harassment at army checkpoints, continuing concern for civilians affected by fighting at Palestinian refugee camp

Amnesty International has written to Lebanon’s Defence Minister to express its continuing concern over the plight of several thousand Palestinian civilians who remain trapped in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli due to fighting between the Lebanese army and members of Fatah al-Islam, an Islamist armed group. The organization also expressed concern about reports that Palestinian civilians have been harassed and abused by Lebanese army soldiers manning security checkpoints, and called for these and other incidents to be investigated.

More than 130 people are reported to have been killed since fighting broke out between Fatah al-Islam, whose members had established armed positions within the refugee camp and thereby put the security of the local population at risk, and the Lebanese army on 20 May. At least 27 civilians and 60 Lebanese army soldiers have been killed. In the first few days the camp was subjected to prolonged and intense artillery shelling from the Lebanese armed forces, which appeared at times to have been indiscriminate. Thousands of some 30,000 camp residents were able to flee from the camp during an arranged truce on 22 May and small groups have continued to be evacuated since with the help of the Palestinian and Lebanese Red Cross / Crescent and the International Red Cross. Difficulties in leaving the camp were highlighted yesterday when two Lebanese Red Cross workers were killed at the northern edge of the camp. Most of some 25,000 displaced civilians are now sheltering at al-Beddaawi, another Palestinian refugee camp about 15 kilometres away which Amnesty International delegates visited last week, where there is now massive overcrowding and the recently displaced live in schools, empty shops, abandoned buildings and in houses of the local refugee population.

Three weeks after the fighting commenced, several thousand civilians are still believed to remain in Nahr al-Bared, fearful or unable to leave their homes. Conditions for civilians are reported to be dire, with water and electricity supplies cut off and very little food and water now entering the camp. Meanwhile, fighting continues between the remaining members of Fatah al Islam and Lebanese army forces who surround the camp and continue to use artillery and other heavy weaponry against the insurgents.

In its letter to Defence Minister Elias al-Murr, Amnesty International called for the army to take all possible steps to enable the remaining civilians safely to evacuate from Nahr al-Bared and to ensure the safety of any civilians who choose to remain in the camp. It also urged the authorities to investigate two incidents on 22 May in which civilian vehicles appear to have been targeted. In one incident, two people were killed and several others injured when a convoy belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) which was distributing relief supplies inside the camp, was hit by at least one explosive device. In the second incident, a bus driver and a pregnant woman were shot dead as their bus approached an army checkpoint, and a 13-year old boy was shot and paralyzed. Another boy was reportedly taken from the bus by soldiers and tortured with electricity applied to his wrists, and threatened in an effort to make him say that he had been armed and was planning to carry out a suicide attack at the army checkpoint.

Amnesty International also urged the Defence Minister to look into reports that Palestinian civilians, particularly young men, are being threatened and abused by soldiers at checkpoints on account of their identity. The Amnesty International delegation that visited north Lebanon in the past two weeks heard reports of tens of such cases, particularly in the Tripoli area, as well as at checkpoints between the Beqa’ area of eastern Lebanon and Beirut, and in Beirut itself. In one case, a 30-year-old told Amnesty International that on 23 May he was returning from the Beqa’ and detained at the Mafdoum army checkpoint as soon as soldiers saw his Palestinian ID, handcuffed, hooded, thrown “like an animal” into the back of a truck and driven to the Jbeil army barracks where he was stripped to his underpants, forced to kneel, pushed and insulted, but then released uncharged after four hours. In another case, two Palestinian men were detained on 2 June as they left a pharmacy at Bibneyn, had their hands tied behind their backs and were made to lie on the road. One had a soldier stand on his back while another soldier jutted his rifle into the Palestinian’s neck. They were driven in a truck to 'Abdi, where soldiers beat and struck them with rifle butts. Their medicine was destroyed by an officer who questioned them about Fatah al Islam and they were held overnight, then released uncharged next day. In a third case, a 26-year-old man told Amnesty International that he was returning on 3 June to al-Beddaawi from his work in Beirut and taken off a bus by soldiers when they found out he was Palestinian, made to lie in the road, stripped to his underpants and with his hands tied behind his back beaten on his body and neck with rifle butts and an iron bar and kicked, causing him to lose a tooth. He was then hooded and driven to the military barracks at 'Abdi, where he was held in a steel, concrete container with 15 others for four hours before being released uncharged. He now fears to travel outside al-Beddaawi in case he should suffer further harassment and assaults. For many Palestinians in north Lebanon, particularly day labourers, their fear of being harassed and assaulted at checkpoints has meant that they are unable to travel to their places of work and consequently their already precarious standard of living has dropped further at a critical time.

In its letter, Amnesty International said it recognized the Lebanese authorities’ responsibility to ensure public safety and that army and police checkpoints were intended to deter and prevent further attacks by Fatah al-Islam or other armed groups and to apprehend members of such groups. However, the Minister should take urgent, concrete steps to prevent against further abuse of Palestinians at such roadblocks by reminding all soldiers and police of their obligation to respect human rights and by committing to ensure that all allegations of beatings and other violations of suspects' human rights will be investigated and, if found to be true, punished.

Amnesty International also informed the Minister of its grave disquiet at reports that several Lebanese soldiers were killed in cold blood by members of Fatah al-Islam at the start of the fighting and said that, if true, it utterly condemned such killings.

Palestinians Have Children Too

These pictures are taken during a festival occurred few days ago in Shatilla camp in Beirut. The objective of organizing this festival is to facilitate the connection between the children in Shatilla camp and those of Nahr el Bared. It was cool, there were games, party and lots of colored faces.

This little girl over here is sad because someone hit her :-)

موسيقى سورية

بآخر نزلة نزلت فيا عالشام شفت حدا صرلي مهووسة فيا كم شهر, الخانوم لينا شماميان
كنت بباب توما, بنت كافيه, واز ببنت حلوه جنبي, اتطلعت هيك, لا مو معقول!! قمت سألتا: "عفوا بس انتي لينا شماميان؟" قامت هزّت براسا انو اي
قمت انا مدري شو صرلي, اتجدبنت, وصرت احكي متل هدول "انا كتير بحب البومك وانا من الناس ياللي بتابعوكي" هوه انا عن جد هيك بس انو يعني
قامت قالتلي:"جبتي البومي الجديد؟" قمت انا تبع: "لا!!!" قاتلتلي:"اي ليكو هون بالمحل" قلتلا : "اي هلا بجبو"
والله جبت من عند الزلمه 4 سيديات لفرق سورية وعطاني-الله يرضا عليه- 2 ببلاش
هدول هنه

لينا شماميان

Anas and Frineds, huh??

حوار

اطار شمع بيتنا

هدول هنه ياللي ببلاش :D

Egypt: Another Blogger Arrested

Taken from Freedom for Egyptians

The Egyptian blogosphere scene is still witnessing more clampdowns on bloggers by State Security for different reasons. This week’s most recent incident is the arrest of Egyptian blogger Omar El Sharkawy.

El-Sharkawy was arrested on June 11 while covering Egypt’s Shura Council elections or Upper House of parliament in his constituency in Talkha in North Egypt. Manfe reported that the arrest process was humiliating. El-Sharkawy himself managed to give a phone call from the police station to his friends to report his arrest.

Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah wrote that State Security kidnapped El-Sharkawy and there were no legal procedures to charge him. He also said many lawyers were trying to reach the police station in his town where he is supposed to be detained but they were hampered by the security. Finally, some succeeded, however the police is denying he is in prison and that’s why Alaa believes he was kidnapped.

Tahyyes is reporting there is a difficulty finding his ID information which is making friends, bloggers and lawyers’ mission difficult to report to officials his disappearance after the detention. According to Tahyyes, El-Sharkawy has no one but his friends as his parents had passed away long time ago. You can be Omar’s friend and sign your name here in solidarity with him.

Monem-press (English), Atralnada, egyptwatchman, egymasr, and Ana Ikwan are showing support and expressing surprise at the treatment Omar received when he tried to cover the elections in his town in one of Egypt’s governorates!

Last Saturday, Blogger Mahmoud Abdel Monem was released from prison after being detained for more than 45 days.

On February 22, Egyptian Blogger Abdel kareem Nabil Soliman Amer was sentenced to four years in prison for his writings. He is spending three years in jail for his writings on the Sunni Al-Azhar Institution and one year for writing about the President of Egypt.

Update: Omar Sharkawi has just been released and his friend Tahyyes will report soon on Omar's imprisonment.

Arabs go crazy about themselves

When the Whites go crazy about Arabs.

عزمي بشارة حول "مبادرة" أولمرت للسلام مع سوريا

التعامل مع الإعلام الإسرائيلي بين السذاجة ونظرية المؤامرة
عزمي بشارة

بسهولة غير محتملة يقع الإعلام العربي فريسة أية دعاية إسرائيلية مهما كانت شفافة. فبمجرد أن تنشر "يديعوت أحرونوت" أو "معاريف" أو "هآرتس" أو غيرها خبرا، فإن ذلك يعتبر سببا كافيا لكي ينتشر عربيا مثل النار في الهشيم. الخبر الإسرائيلي ينشر ذاته. فوسائل الإعلام العربية تكرر دون فحص ونقد ودون مقارنة مع ما نشر من قبل، وباتت تتنافس في تكرار ما ينشر إسرائيليا. فالاعتقاد رائج أنه إعلام ديمقراطي تعددي مستقل، وإذا أخطأ فهو يخطئ بحسن نية.

أما أن إسرائيل نفسها قد نشرت أن لديها وحدة في المخابرات العسكرية هدفها نشر الإشاعات في العالم العربي، وأنها مستغربة من سهولة ويسر تحقيق هذا النشر بحاملات عربية ساذجة، فهذا ما يغفل الإعلام العربي أن يكرره.

وقد يتجذر ما ينقل عن إسرائيل كلغة ومعلومة في الثقافة السياسية. ولا يوجد هنا متسع لحصر الظاهرة وتعداد هذا النوع من المصطلحات الإسرائيلية الأصل. ولكن غالبا ما يتبين أن النشر الإسرائيلي مغرض أو كاذب بعد أيام فقط من تكراره عربيا ومباشرةً بعد مباشرةِ التنظير ونشر التعليقات المعتمدة عليه، ونكاد لا نجد صحفيا أو محللا عربيا ممن سقطوا في الفخ يعترف بالخطأ ويحذر نفسه وغيره من الوقوع به مستقبلا. فالصحفيون في الحالات الجيدة يحاسبون السياسيين، ولكن من يحاسب الصحفيين؟ في الحالة الديمقراطية من يحاسب هو النخبة المثقفة من القراء التي لا ترحم في نقدها، والمحاسب هو الأخلاقيات الصحفية لا ترحم في نقدها الذاتي.

دفعني إلى هذا المقال عنوان مفاجئ في "يديعوت أحرونوت" قبل أيام (9 حزيران\يونيو) أن أولمرت بعث برسالة إلى الأسد يبلغه فيها استعداد إسرائيل للانسحاب الكامل من الجولان وانه ينتظر رده، وهل لديه نية بالسلام؟ تداول العنوان يحمل إرادة إسرائيلية مفروغاً منها بالسلام واختبار لا يتوقف للنوايا السورية... وهذا بحد ذاته موقف لا بأس من ترويجه.

ورغم أن هذا العنوان المفاجيء لا ينسجم، لا مع الموقف ولا الواقع ولا الصورة الإقليمية إلا أن هذا لم يحل دون تحوله أساسا لتنظيراتِ نهارٍ صيفي عن مأزق أولمرت ورغبته بالسلام. لقد تم التعامل بشكل غير حذر مع عنوان عن مصدر مجهول في صحيفة إسرائيلية. ولو صدر ذلك عن مسؤول على الأقل، حتى لو كان إسرائيليا، لشفع ذلك للتعامل الساذج. ولكن لا "يديعوت" هكذا "حاف"، ولا "هآرتس" و"معاريف" "هيك" تشكل مصدرا. وما لبثت أن توالت التكذيبات، من سوريا ومن إسرائيل.

وقبل أسبوع من اليوم كتبنا في نفس هذا المكان أنه يتوقع زيادة الإلحاح على سوريا بسياسة العصا والجزرة، واستغلال ما تفترض إسرائيل من دوافع سورية في ظرف إقرار المحكمة الدولية للانفتاح لشروط عليها مواتية لإسرائيل قبل التفاوض، ومنها مثلا جس نبض إمكانية شق تحالفها مع إيران إقليميا... أي الانتقال من شروط سورية للتفاوض إلى شروط إسرائيلية مسبقة. ويتابع المسؤولون الإسرائيليون تسريب الأسئلة الإسرائيلية حول خطط سوريا في المنطقة وأمنها وجيشها وعلاقاتها مع إيران والفصائل الفلسطينية وحزب الله وغيرها، وكل ذلك دون تعهد بالانسحاب الشامل بل بتأكيد إسرائيلي عام يتم تسريبه أن الأخيرة تدرك ثمن السلام مع سوريا.

سابقا جرى التسريب إسرائيليا عن رئيس سوري يكرر رسائل السلام الى إسرائيل كلما قابل أحدا. الوسيلة حاليا هي رمي الكرة في الساحة السورية بأن إسرائيل أرسلت اقتراحات ورسائل. بذلك يريح أولمرت نفسه من ضغط الرأي العام للبدء بمسار سياسي ناجح ما خوفا من تدهور الأمور إلى حرب خاصةً بعد فشل العدوان على لبنان.

ولم يوفر الإعلام الاسرائيلي لا الأتراك ولا الألمان ومؤخرا اليونان..لم يبق أحد. لا يجتمع مسؤول مع الرئيس السوري الا ويدعي الإعلام الإسرائيلي أنه يحمل رسائل من إسرائيل. وطبعا كان أي منهم سيفرح لو أتيح له لعب دور من هذا النوع. ولكن أي كلام يصبح رسالة إذا شاءت إسرائيل أن تسرب. فمجرد أن يستمع شخص إلى تحليلهم ثم ينقل انطباعه هو كما يفعل الناس عادة عن هذا التحليل، فإن هذا يكفي في عرفهم للتسريب أنه يحمل رسالة. مع أن هذا في لغة السياسيين يسمى اجتماعاً، وقد لا يكون حتى اجتماعا وديا، بل مجرد اجتماع يستمع فيه المرء إلى وجهات النظر المختلفة.

الرسالة هي موقف ملزم، الهدف من قوله هو نقله إلى الطرف الآخر والاستماع إلى جواب. أي أن الرسالة تتطلب أن يتفاعل معها الطرف الآخر كأنها رسالة. ولا يفترض أن يدخل السوريون في مثل هذه اللعبة إذا لم يسبقها تعهد إسرائيلي بالانسحاب من الجولان... لأنها لا تعني إلا مفاوضات سرية. وبوجود وزراء خارجية أجانب وفي بلد مثل إسرائيل تعمل فيه التسريبات الصحيحة والعارية عن الصحة من نسج خيال المسرب كأداة في النقاش السياسي الداخلي تعني السرية فقط علنية مؤجلة.

مكتب رئيس الحكومة أو هذا الجهاز الأمني أو ذاك يسرب للإعلام. الإعلام يتواطأ، نعم في إسرائيل أيضا، بل في إسرائيل بشكل خاص. وينشر "الخبر" مقابل الحصول على السبق حتى لو كان الخبر عارٍ عن الصحة. فالإعلام يبرئ ذمته من كذب الخبر بنسب التسريب الى مصدر مقرب، أو يتواطأ مقابل "خدمة" سابقة قدمت له وهكذا. وهنالك صحفيون مشهورون في إسرائيل مرتبطون بأجهزة أمنية، ونكاد نعرف أن فلانا مرتبط مع مكتب رئيس الحكومة، وفلانا مع الموساد وآخر مصادره شاباكية، وآخر يتلقى تسريبات بعين غير فاحصة من وزارة الخارجية. وقد ينشر عن قصد ويكون طرفا واعيا في فبركة شائعة، اذا كان هنالك هدف وطني قومي للإضرار بتنظيم عربي أو دولة عربية أو حتى شخصية عربية مثلا... وثمة صحفيون غير مرتبطين بجهات محددة ولكنهم يندفعون بدوافع مثل الرقابة الذاتية في القضايا الوطنية لعدم نشر أمر مسيء لإسرائيل، أو يدفعون بالوطنية لنشر شائعة أو بالرغبة بالإثارة والشهرة وهكذا. وطبعا هنالك استثناءات، ولكنها قليلة.

يحتوي الإعلام العبري على معلومات صحيحة وقيمة، وهي لا تحرر من أجل العرب، وبالإمكان ويجب الاستفادة منها. ولكن العقل السليم وحده، وليس معادلة أو وصفة من أي نوع، كفيل بفصل القمح عن الزوان عند تناول خبر. لهذا وجد الحس السليم عند الإعلامي الجدي. وهذه رسالته للجمهور. فالإعلام حتى لو كان خاصا هو جزء من الحيز العام ويحب أن يلتزم بقواعد حد أدنى من المهنية يفرض بعضها القانون في الدول المتحضرة، وتفرض غيرها الأخلاقيات الصحفية، وتعارضها جميعا قوانين العرض والطلب، وتحول السياسة أيضا إلى صناعة التسلية، بما فيها الدراما والمشهد.

لا توجد هنا نظرية مؤامرة، فالإعلام الإسرائيلي ليس نتاج تقسيم أدوار. بل نحن إزاء إعلام تعددي في القضايا الداخلية ومجند في القضايا الوطنية، وتنافسي استهلاكي على سوق التسلية والإثارة والمشهد، نحن إزاء إعلام مصادره غالبا رسمية أو في المعارضة الرسمية، وفي حالة مثل إسرائيل المعارضة هي جزء من الدولة في كل ما يتعلق بالقضايا القومية والأمنية وغيرها. ولا يرى الإعلام غضاضة في التعاون مع أجهزة أمنية، فهو وهي مكونات لنفس القبيلة، والصحفي أو ابنه خدم في الأجهزة أو يخدم فيها، ولا مسافة فعلية تفصله عنها. وأخيرا نحن إزاء إعلام مجند معبأ في زمن الحرب.

ومنذ أن اختارت بعض القوى السياسية العربية السلام "خيارا استراتيجيا" كما تدعي، لم تعد أكثر اهتماما بالتطورات السياسة الداخلية في أميركا وإسرائيل، بل باتت رهينة هذه التطورات للأسف. وتورطت وباتت تبالغ بالاعتماد على تفاصيل وطرف وبدع وفنع وحكايا إعلام هذه الدول وأهوائه، دون أن تكون جاهزة لفرز هذه المعلومات قبل هضمها. والأخطر أنه تم تبني لغته وتعابيره في وصف الحالة العربية والصراع. والقوانين التي تحكم عمل الإعلام في غالبية الدول العربية ليست هي القوانين التي تحكم عمل الإعلام العبري... ولذلك يسقط المستهلك العربي الجديد بين تفسير مؤامراتي لسلوك الإعلام الإسرائيلي وبين تصديق كل ما يرد من هنالك واعتباره مصدرا يعتمد عليه.

ومن مظاهر أوسلو الذي كسر كل المحرمات دون أي مكسب حقيقي، وساعد على التطبيع عربيا دون إنجاز للفلسطينيين أن تنشر الصحافة العربية بشكل منهجي ومستمر دون توقف مقالات عبرية مترجمة إلى العربية لا تعرف الغاية من نشرها هل هي "أعرف عدوك" أم تطبيع؟ وفي الحالتين يرتكب خطأ جسيم، فمثل هذه الترجمات يفترض ان تُعًّد للصحفيين وهيئات التحرير ليستفيدوا منها كمصدر لا لينشروها كما هي لملء الصفحات ويعرضوا الجمهور لفوضى نصوص لها معنى في السياق الإسرائيلي. أما نشرها في السياق العربي دون تعليق أو مقدمة، ودون انتقاء ودون خبرة أو مقاييس ودون تمكين الجمهور من الفصل بين الغث والسمين، فهو تعريض الجمهور للدعاية الإسرائيلية ولغتها فقط.

بشكل يكاد يكون روتينيا ويوميا يتم تعريض الجمهور للدعاية الإسرائيلية دون مساعدته حتى في فهم من الكاتب وهل يسرب إشاعة مخابراتية "شاباكية"، وهل هو يساري "متطرف" معاد للصهيونية أو يمثل طرفا فعليا.

ليس في إسرائيل صحيفة واحدة تترجم وتنشر مقالا عربيا كاملا ولو مرة واحدة في العام. لا بد أن ثمة سبب يدفعها لعدم فعل ذلك، وليس لهذا السبب علاقة بالديمقراطية، فالنشر العربي للدعاية الإسرائيلية ومنع نشر مواقف عربية في الوقت ذاته وشطبها أو تعديلها في نفس الإعلام ليس دليل ديمقراطية عربية.

Release Young Syrian Activists

Taken from Human Rights First

Seven young activists, Husam Melhem (22), Tareq al-Ghourani (21), Ayham Saqr (31), Allam Fakhour (29), Maher Ibrahim Esber (26), Omar al-Abdullah (21) and Diab Siriyeh (21) have been detained for more than one year by the Syrian authorities for being part of an independent pro-democracy discussion group and publishing articles on the Internet criticizing the lack of democracy and freedom in Syria. Some of them were also involved in the creation of an online youth forum.

Since their arrests between January 26, 2006 and March 18, 2006, the seven young activists have been held in incommunicado detention and have been subject to torture and harsh treatment.

On November 26, 2006, the young activists were brought before the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) to face charges of "carrying out activities or making written statements or speeches unauthorized by the government that expose Syria to the risk of hostile operations" and "broadcasting false or exaggerated news that could undermine the prestige of the State."

The final hearing in their case is scheduled to take place on June 17, 2007 when the verdict is expected to be delivered. They could face up to 15 years in prison.

Show your support for these young men, jailed for expressing their non-violent opinions: call on President Assad to release them immediately and to drop the charges against them.

Learn More About These Human Rights Defenders>>

Click Here to Take Action>>

On Being an Arab

Some intellectual arguments go and attack the binary opposition "Us and them" that there is no such thing as two entities, there is no us, and there is no them. Well not really.

You see, I have met A LOT of internationals who are pro- Arabs, pro-Palestinians and all, but being a pro-Arab does not make you grasp one of the most factors that makes an Arab as such- self-consciously; which is abused history.

When we talk about abuse, we talk about the simplest ones, you are not allowed not to put a picture of Assad.

Yesterday I had a chat with a foreigner whom I think he understands Syrians the most, yet he similarizes between my skepticism to speak in public against Assad, and my paranoia from the White (or White consciousness, ex. Rice).

My focus on Arab countries is not because I am an Arab – I am an Arab by a choice, not by coincidence- by siding with the Arab countries, by feeling scared and worried about the Arab countries, I am only reflecting my own worries, my own fears.

It is politics to "them," and our lives to "us." There is us and them, necessarily.

I might sympathize with Katrina's dead, with the Africa's poverty, with China's labor, with the Kurds' suffering, with 9/11 dead, but the Arab world's suffering is personal, not just humanitarian.

Today I was accused by an American tourist that I "hate Syria." That she, as an American, loves Syria and is sorry to "hear"-i don't know where did she get that-me, the Syrian, hate Syria.

She is kind, she is pro-Arabs, pro- Palestine, but her very pro- us remains western, distant, remains "them".

They would never understand how it feels to be under tyranny, how it feels to be under tyranny "and" attacked everyday by threats from Israel and Bush. How we are doubly abused, by local and international.

They will never understand how it feels to see Arabs die in the hands of the White, how homes are replaced by shelters, how memories replaced by potentials of memories, how hopeless? How determined, to hang in there.

They can feel "for" us, but cannot "feel us".

how dare you accuse me of hating the only thing I am living for? the primar thing I match my life accordingly? how dare you?

Being an Arab, is about daring to be.

DePaul University: Norman Finkelstein would not be getting tenure

Taken from FrankelGate.com

Upset over DePaul University's denial of tenure to Professors Norman Finkelstein, and Mehrene Larudee, and after a meeting between 30 student leaders and DePaul President Fr. Dennis Holtschneider at his office, students have taken action to defend academic freedom which is under attack at the nation's largest Catholic institution. After an unsuccessful meeting where their demands were ignored by the administration, DePaul students are continuing their sit-in overnight and through this week at the President's office and plan to escalate action among the student body.

Student leaders called for Fr. Holtschneider to grant the professors tenure. They presented him with a petition of over 700 signatures calling for a reversal of the decision, and engaged in a heated discussion on the legitimacy of the university's decision. The decision made at the secretive University-level overturned the tenure decisions made at the Departmental and College-levels, which approved Finkelstein's position by votes of 9-3 and 5-0, respectively. Students were surprised by Larudee's rejection as she was unanimously approved by both the Departmental and University level tenure committees. The student leaders cite Finkelstein and Larudee's positive peer reviewed scholarship and flaws in the tenure process as reasons why they should receive tenure. Denial of tenure to the professors means their employment at DePaul will be terminated.

Finkelstein, son of holocaust survivors and outspoken critic of oppressive Israeli policy in Palestine, has come under attack from detractors like Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who seeks to silence critics of Israel and has successfully interfered in internal DePaul tenure processes. Despite being in the midst of their hectic finals-week and upcoming graduation, student leaders are currently sacrificing their time by occupying the Executive Offices of DePaul University indefinitely until their demands for the tenure of Professors Finkelstein and Larudee are met.

Listen to Dr. Norman Finklestin on his case here.

A Tribute to THE Lebanese Martyrs

Taken from Dr. Rania Masri*

The mood at the University today is subdued. Heavy.

Yesterday, Boulos Maamari and Haitham Suleiman , from the Lebanese Red Cross, were killed near the northern entrance to the Nahr el-Bared camp when their vehicle was struck by what appeared to be a mortar shell fired by Fatah Islam militants from inside the camp. A third member of the Red Cross was injured.

Haitham Sleiman was an alumnus from the University of Balamand. He graduated a few years ago with a degree in Physical Education, and had been teaching at a local high school.

He was volunteering with the Red Cross.

There will be a prayer-vigil on Thursday at noon at the University.

Sometimes, killing can be explained, justified using political logic. Typically the argument of self-defense is presented, or, more accurately, ‘perceived’ self-defense.

And sometimes, it is simply senseless.

Rania Masri :writer, assistant professor of environmental science at the university of balamand in lebanon. email: rania@ourwords.org


and from Blogging Beirut

Boulos Meameri + Sleiman Haytham

Nahr El Bared, North Lebanon
Lebanese Red Cross Martyrs
Monday June 11, 2007



full resolution image

Algerian Blogger Taken to Court

Taken from Sami Ben Gharbia

Today, June 11th, 2007, will be the first time that an Algerian blogger is being taken to court for articles posted on his personnel blog. Abdulsalam Baroudi is being sued by Tlemcen’s Director of Religious Affairs, who has accused him of posting defamatory material on his personal blog on February 20, under the title “Al Sistani Appears in Tlemcen”

Tlemcen’s Journalism club is backing Abdulsalam Baroudi, and calling for journalists and reporters to rally for his case and struggle for the protection of Algerian journalists and bloggers.

Crucial Eyewitnesses from Nahr el Bared (Audio)

MANY thanks to NightS for helping me posting this audio.

Secret Beiruti Night

I am a complex daughter of complex parents.

S wants to make a documentary and I asked her to join her. She asked me to sleep over her place to wake up early in the morning and interview people. I said ok.

My parents didn't raise me up in this context; invite my friends to sleep over, but I always liked it, and I have never done it before in my life.

So I met her on T Marbouta, we went food shopping, got a nice cold bottle of wine, went to her place and made dinner. It was a lousy pasta, sorry S.

I mean she set a very nice and romantic table, the dishes, glasses and whatever was there, were all blue. It was too much fancy for me, and I am not sure if I was ready to appreciate it, being a bit nervous that I am sleeping at somebody's place.

A friend if her called her from beneath, she went to the balcony and gave him the key. He got in, said hi and wanted to have that same blue glass we have. I was happy to give him mine since there was no third one.

I ate my food, slowly, S ate for the third time.

Y, S's friend, is a character. Actually both of them are characters. They are smart, spontaneous, funny in a very smart way, very sensitive and attentive to new people- rare people are so.

I was really having one of a secret Beirut night.

S keeps telling us, every now and then, that she misses her girlfriend. They have been together for over two years now, and they recently moved to this amazing department, next to a horrible neighbor; Junblat.

Y too, was telling us that he is in love with a Saudi guy, whom doesn't know that Y loves him.

These stories were so familiar, so damn straight.

I looked at myself, what so straight about me? here I am haven't finished my pasta, nervous, quite and haven't told them about my "straight" adventures with guys, and you yet call me straight.

We talked politics, a Shiaa guy, a Palestinian girl and a Syrian girl. We shared a lot, we shared passion to save people, we may have disagreed on how, but "people", was our main concern.

I chose to sleep on the sofa, the balcony was facing me, there was some blue sky, and a black building keeping that blueness to appear, but I remember I dreamt about it anyway.

Help Us Voice The Voiceless

Those who are following Nahr el Bared crisis, have an idea about what's going on through the huge analytic articles and coverage on few local TV channels.

I am interested mostly in telling people what is going on IN Nahr el Bared in the mouths of its residence; Palestinian families.

Journalists come and go, they might be right in their observations and reports, but I think we need to give voice for those who are suffering, and have an idea about the sociopolitical background of the camp, since they are the ones who've been living there. Therefore I am going to interview families, to document how exactly did they flee the camp, what happened to their houses, families and neighbors.

I would appreciate your feedback; do you agree that yes, the world doesn't know how families escaped, in details.

What else are you wondering about concerning Nahrl el Bared crisis?

What are the things you like to know?

I will take your feedback into consideration as I am interviewing families from Nahr el Bared.

شركاء في المسؤولية

Friends of mine in Shatilla camp told me that the Lebanese Army came yesterday asking them, aid distributers, to distribute envelops that are shown below. My friends read the statement, and turned off the LA request. The first image is a scan of the envelop followed by the statement. I loved how ironic "شركاء في المسؤولية" can be read ;-)

Lebanese Police Beats Up Palestinians

Dr. Rami Zurayq, a professor at AUB and a member of Nahr el Bared Relief Campaign reports about our coordinator chief campaign who was beaten up, hand coughed and Investigated twice by the Lebanese Army:

I think he was stopped because he is dark skinned, and there is a common perception among racist Lebanese (a significant proportion of the country) that the Palestinians are "dark" while the true Lebanese are fair. Everyone knows the Phoenicians descended from the Norse: they were both sea faring people.

Also read Dr. Rania el Masri's say on this incident.

Dr. Saleh Bhar: Lebanese Goverment Racism Killed My Uncle

Sari Chreih called me and told me that he is going to interview a doctor, a resident of Nahr el Bared, who has information about a mass grave in this refugee camp.

Q: What is your name and profession?

A: My name is Saleh Bhar and I am a pediatrician at American University Hospital (AUH, Beirut, Lebanon).

Q: We learned that you lost a member of your family during the bombings, which day was that?

A: During the first hours of the first day of the bombardment. My uncle died in his home when he was hit by one of the shells, he was with his two sons and one of his neighbors.

Q: How did you learn about his death?

A: My cousins told me that night.

Q: What was your uncle's name?

A: Salim Bhar, he was 75 years old, he used to work at Popular Committee and was working lately at his restaurant.

Q: What about your folks?

A: My parents told me that our house was hit by a shell. I also learned from neighbors that the damage is serious, as it was shelled more than once. They staying at my aunt's in Tripoli.

Q: Where is your house located?

A: In the Saffouri part of the camp, at the Mohammara entrance.

Q: Do you know of any other relatives who may have possibly been injured or died?

A: My uncle's wife was injured. I have many relatives who lost their houses. My cousin Amin Bhar, a dentist, lost his house. My other cousin, also a doctor, lost his house too. My cousins told me that my uncle's neighbor, Raed el Shans, who was with him when his house was shelled, also died with my uncle.

Q: Do you know if anyone in your neighborhood was injured or killed?

A: My cousins told me that there are more than 20 people dead in our neighborhood, including my uncle, and that they were buried in a mass grave.

Q: Do you remember the names of those who were buried?

A: Yes, my uncle's neighbor, Raed el Shans, Jihad Azzam, Mahmud Hussen, Ahmad Attayar, Abd el Latif Kza', Jihad Abu el Ezz, Ashraf el Akel, Nayef el Saleh, Fakhri el Hassan. Among these were children no more than 15-years-old, Moahmud Mansur and Amer Mansur.

Q: Were they among the first who were buried in a mass grave in Saffuri area in the first day of the bombings?

A: Yes.

Q: What were the causes of death?

A: Some of them died when their houses were hit by shells, and some of them died from shrapnel-related injuries.

Q: Can anyone else confirm these causes of death?

A: There is a doctor who was there during the burial, his name is Fath Alla, and you can call him.

Q: What were the political backgrounds of those who died?

A: They had none, they are merely civilians.

Q: How did you first notice the Fatah al Islam militants?

A: They used to buy and rent houses. You know, there is something you should know about Nahr el Bared camp, it is a trade camp. Unlike other camps, it is a market for regional villages and cities, like Akkar and Minyeh. This advantage made it possible for non-Palestinians, especially Lebanese, to inhabit the refugee camp.

These Fatah al Islam militants continued coming to Nahr el Bared, for the past three months, till they became huge.

Q: How was Fatah al Islam’s internal policy?

A: They are trying to impose their policy on us. If they see someone drinking alcohol, they would beat him, and they used to encourage the youth to go to Mosques and pray. Not only that, they were too extreme. More than once, some of our inhabitants were killed by them; it was all over the news and TV. This militia was imposing itself on our camp and the Lebanese government along with the Palestinian officials is silent or cooperated.

Q: How do you explain their silence or cooperation?

A: I think the militia's existence for over three months is not a coincidence, but it is planned. The Palestinian officials have never been seen visiting the Lebanese government before, lately the visits were intense and raised suspicion. I think this may be a conspiracy taking place, against the Palestinian people and against the Palestinian existence in Lebanon.

I would like to ask the following question: why is the camp being bombarded and not Tripoli, though in the latter the army has lost 27 soldiers?

What we are witnessing today is an attack on entire camp, not only on Fath al Islam. I honestly recall Sabra and Shatilla right now. I’m also afraid something serious will happen in the near future.

Q: What about the nationalities of these militants?

A: Some are Lebanese, Saudis, Jordanians, Syrians and some are from North Africa; from Algeria and Tunisia. Most of them are non-Arab, from Afghanistan and Bangladesh, you can easily tell from the weird clothes they wore.

Q: How did they settle at the camp with such an arsenal?

A: Well, they bought and rented houses. They placed pockets of sand in front of their houses, loaded with guns and RBJ weaponry. This prompts the following question: how did this weaponry enter the camp?

Q: A report appeared on ABC which linked the poor living conditions of the Palestinian refugees, in Lebanon and Gaza, with terrorism, do you think to be poor is to be a terrorist?

A: Well, I was poor, and I am still poor, but I am a doctor and not a terrorist. This analysis doesn't make sense. As I recall, Osama Bin Laden is millionaire, is he not?

Q: Are there any organizations working in Nahr el Bared?

A: No, there aren't.

Q: Anything else you want to add?

A: I want to say that though there are many people dying, and it is a tragedy, nobody is talking about them. Another tragedy awaits the survivors, where do they go now? Who is going to rebuild the camp? Are we forever going to stay at other people's houses in the camps?

Q: Do you think that the Lebanese government is responsible?

A: I think the Lebanese government is racist towards the Palestinians, there was not a single school opened to host the refugees.

Sari Chreih is a student at American University of Beirut.
Razan Gh is a grad student at University of Balamand.

Read Arabic version here.

Many thanks to Luis for his editing efforts.

Also published at TLAXCALA in English, Arabic and Italian.

and on Electronic Lebanon.

Blaming the Victims (Yet Again)

for Arabic readers, check Assafir and Al-Akhbar newspapers.

Taken from Dr. Newman

We drove up to Badawi refugee camp this morning at the request of the women of Nahr el Bared refugee camp who are now among the thousands of internally displaced Palestinians (IDPs) in Lebanon. They asked Lebanese and internationals to join them in a die-in at the southern checkpoint of the Nahr el Bared refugee camp. We painted our t-shirts with red paint and we made signs in English and in Arabic; each sign had one of the seventeen known names of Palestinians who have died as a result of the Lebanese army's massacre of the Nahr el Bared camp. The action, which was small but symbolic, began with a march to the entrance of the camp and in the distance we could see black clouds of smoke smoldering. Whehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifn we arrived there were no soldiers around. We stopped a few meters before arriving at the checkpoint and fell to the ground. As we lay there representing the dead Palestinians from Nahr el Bared on the hot asphalt I could feel the vibrations of the bombs going off in the camp and I could hear shots being fired from guns. I wondered how much more Palestinian blood would be spilled onto the streets of the camp.

After about fifteen minutes or so the army arrived with about a dozen soldiers and a tank and they took over the position where we had been lying down. The soldiers began harassing us by taking our posters with the names of the dead Palestinians. One of the people in our group, who is Palestinian Jordanian, was physically harassed by a soldier. Another member of our group, who is Lebanese, was told "if you were Lebanese I wouldn't need to teach you nationalism. If you were really nationalist, you would be on the side of the army." He replied that "there are many Americans who are against the U.S. occupation of Iraq, but they are still nationalist." From the Lebanese army's point of view--and from the complicit media's point of view as well--the only dead who matter are the Lebanese soldiers. These are the people whose names and faces dot the pages of the newspapers, not Palestinian civilians who remain erased from the reality of this massacre. Because the army is the only body reporting dead or wounded we only count the dead Lebanese, not the dead and wounded Palestinians.

The women from Nahr el Bared who rode in my car with me to the demonstration today talked with us about the camp and who they know inside. One woman's husband has been working at the border of the camp and she told us about the people inside and why they have not been able to leave: the handicapped, the elderly, and the sick are those who remain trapped inside not people who support Fatah al Islam as the media would have it. Aid still cannot get inside the camp and journalists are still being harassed by the army and are not allowed to shoot any footage--especially video--from any area near the fighting. Although a few ambulances were able to pick up a few people from Nahr el Bared and take them to the hospital in nearby Badawi camp, inside there remains far more wounded and dead and we can only imagine how dire the situation will be once the fighting stops and we can witness the devastation.
Amidst all of the intensified fighting in Nahr el Bared--and we saw almost forty military trucks filled with soldiers heading in that direction as we drove back to Beirut--new fighting broke out in Ein el Helweh refugee camp in Saida in southern Lebanon today. We heard yesterday that 10,000 Palestinians from that camp fled to Saida over the past few days because of fears that they would be next because of the presence of the militant group Jund al Sham. One member of our relief organization went to assess the situation. He confirmed that these people did leave and that many are living with family in the area. What we found, but did not expect, were 300 families who fled Nahr el Bared who are living in Ein el Helweh. The situation of the Palestinian IDPs is growing worse. And as the residents of Ein el Helweh suspected, they were indeed next. Tonight fighting broke out between the army and Jund al Sham and later between Fatah and Jund al Sham. It seems that these were just minor skirmishes, but fears that the terror being unleashed on Palestinians is spreading over Lebanon.

And it is not just isolated in the refugee camps. Palestinians--especially men--are being rounded up by Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF), handcuffed, beaten up, and arrested. We had a close call at a checkpoint with a key member of our relief organization a week ago when we made our second aid run to Badawi camp and the army removed him from the car and took him to their holding area where other Palestinian men were handcuffed and detained. Tonight it happened again to the same man who was on his way to our relief campaign meeting. When he left his taxi, the ISF asked for his papers, saw his was Palestinian, slapped him, handcuffed him, and threw him to the ground while continuing to kick and beat him before telling him to leave.
The repression, violence, and harassment of Palestinians in Lebanon is increasing in every crevasse of Lebanese society. While the state uses its power to intimidate and terrorize Palestinians, many Lebanese remain quiet, acquiescent to the military and media's reporting on the situation while further dividing the country. And in the end (and yet again) the victims are those who bear the brunt of this blame and its physical manifestation.

To Be a Palestinian in Lebanon

Electronic Lebanon

To be Palestinian in Lebanon is to be wished a thousand deaths

Sami Hermez writing from Baddawi Refugee Camp, Live from Lebanon, 2 June 2007
1 June 2007

I have been to the Baddawi camp twice now. It is swarming with people and has more than doubled in population. The future of the camp is bleak and according to the World Health Organization the likelihood of disease is high, and there is limited water and electricity. The number of civilian deaths in the Nahr al-Bared camp is difficult to determine due to a media blackout; my last check saw a range between 17 and 40, but today's indiscriminate bombing from land and sea has certainly increased this figure. In the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, on 31 May, there was a single story that only reported the details of the deaths of Lebanese soldiers. The official number from the Lebanese army over last weekend was a resounding one civilian death.

By denying Palestinian civilian deaths we effectively commit a double crime: The first is the indiscriminate death of the victim; the second is the denial of this original crime. I suppose the victim is meant to carry a camera and document her own death to truly confirm it in the public's eyes.

I felt this as I stood in front of two Palestine Red Crescent Society volunteers in the Baddawi camp while they argued about the number of victims and how the army was making it difficult to document the deaths and the situation in the camp. I stood as they tried to prove to me, hoping I would get the word out, that there was more than one death. It mattered so much to them; it mattered more than the world that there was more than one death. In my mind I caught a glimpse of the idealist romantic in me and thought of how the world should react to even one death; that it was not in the numbers, it was in the act itself. But I caught myself and came back to the ways of this world: the numbers do matter; the proof of dead bodies is required, and the media needs pictures, names, time and cause of death before it will believe the story of the victim over that of the state. As it stands, the Palestinian is killed and then denied the recognition of her unjust death. With no recognition of injustice how can people deal with their loss?

And it is not the first injustice denied to these people. It begins with the denial of their right to return to Palestine. Standing in an overcrowded Baddawi camp, I found myself making conversation by asking one man a question about his origins; a painful question for a Palestinian refugee.

To be Palestinian in Lebanon is to be wished a thousand deaths and hunted a million times.

And the man's reply was that his family was originally from a village outside of Haifa. His grandfather fled to Tel al-Zaatar; any Lebanese can tell you about the massacre there in 1976. After which they fled to Chatilla; any Lebanese can tell you about the massacre there in 1982. And so after that they fled to Nahr al-Bared; few Lebanese will tell you what is happening there now or call it a massacre. He is now in the Baddawi camp hoping to return, but if the curse of Palestinian return is any indication, it might be decades before this man, Nasser, returns to anywhere but the UNRWA school he resides in now. And that is probably the real reason why there are still about 10,000 people in Nahr al-Bared who refuse to leave what they now call their homes. They already have experience from the last time they left.

Mona, a woman from the Nahr al-Bared camp, reinforces this idea. She speaks to me passionately: "I care deeply about the camp. It is the symbol of my refuge; it is the place from where I will defend my cause and from where I struggle for my right to return to Palestine." She continued: "If they remove all civilians from Nahr al-Bared the army will completely demolish the camp. I need to defend the camp. In a few days we will all return if there is no solution. People want the civilians out but we will return. We are thinking of this option now if things stay as they are."

She reminds me of the Lebanese in the war this summer speaking in relation to the South: how they wanted to return and how the men did not want to leave. People here value home as an extension of their lives and their bodies. They want to remain because escaping into the uncertain world is an infringement on their humanity and perhaps equal, at that moment of departure, to the finality of death. For some reason the Lebanese expect the Palestinians to just desert their homes as if they were meaningless when they themselves would not and have a history of staying their ground.

At the camp, one of the guys there tells me that in recent years there has been more intermixing between Palestinians and Lebanese, and that this was new. He said this with enthusiasm to show a common ground between us, and that he thought better times were ahead. I suppose the idea is that marriage brings two tribes together, so why not two nations. It doesn't seem to work that way though. No matter how many mixed national marriages there are between the Lebanese and Palestinians or Lebanese and Syrians, the people still fight. Kinship and nation-state politics don't really work in the same way as kinship does with tribal politics. Somehow the relationships don't have meaning in state diplomacy, and it is perhaps because of the firm detachment between the family and the state. So we can intermarry from here till next century but to no avail. The state will adamantly privilege the general population over the family and the general population will remain "purely Lebanese" -- whatever that means.

The Lebanese army is committing crimes in the Nahr al-Bared camp and the Lebanese are silent. Perhaps the Lebanese should imagine the camp was a Beirut neighborhood and Fatah al-Islam was hiding, lets say, in Ashrafieh or the Hamra area. They should then ask themselves if they would be calling on the army to use the same methods to get rid of the group.

Agreed, terrorists should not hide behind civilians, but when they do, state armies also have a responsibility to not destroy the civilian population. Remember, the civilians are victims and now the army is killing the victim. The Palestinians of Nahr al-Bared are hostages. The army is killing the hostage and destroying his town and home. Is there logic to this?

The Palestinians cannot be punished for their leadership's incompetence. Otherwise, we should ask if the Lebanese people should be punished for their leadership's incompetence. The Lebanese army can take a stand but it needs to do so within the rules of war. If it cannot, then it should not fight a battle it cannot win.

Here is where the Lebanese people and government are to fault. The people are to fault for their silence and the government for its unaccountable behavior, its inability to govern its own affairs and then blaming it on everyone else, and its direct or indirect complicity in the arming of Fatah al-Islam. Again, I call for a full investigation of the recent events and into the dealings of the top politicians (Opposition and March 14) in the country. With no accountability there will always be political space for militias to harvest.

Note: In the meantime, tonight we are beginning to hear that things in the Ein al-Hilweh camp in the South are starting to flare up. None of this is making sense; something is definitely not right!

Sami Hermez is a doctoral student of anthropology at Princeton University researching violence and armed resistance in Lebanon and has been active in relief and redevelopment projects in the south of Lebanon. Sami can be reached at shermez at princeton.edu.

Viva Freedom: Monem is Home

Taken from Sami Ben Gharbia

Egyptian blogger and Journalist Abdel Monem Mahmoud, is free. Monem “arrived to his home in Alexandria less than two hours ago after being released from police custody,” said a statement published on the Brothers English website accompanied with recent photos of Monem smiling between his father and friends.
“I just talked to Monem over the phone, state security finally released him at 2am sat the 2nd of June after interrogating him for hours about blogs and bloggers. I’m sure we’ll know more details later from Monem himself, “wrote Alaa Abd El Fattah on Freemonem campaign blog.

Yesterday, Freemonem campaign team was concerned about Monem’s safety when he almost disappeared following his release from the Tora Prison in Cairo.

Hersh: 14th March & US are Behind Fath el Islam

Lebanon's defense minister has said Islamist militants entrenched in a Palestinian refugee camp must surrender or face further military action. The ultimatum followed three days of fierce fighting between the army and the Fatah al-Islam group. The army has laid siege to the Nahr al-Bared camp since the fighting erupted on Sunday, bombarding it with tank fire and artillery shells. At least eighty people have died with dozens more wounded.

On Wednesday, an informal ceasefire enabled thousands of residents to flee the camp. Some headed for another Palestinian refugee camp nearby, while others traveled to the neighboring city of Tripoli. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates between thirteen and fifteen thousand refugees have left Nahr al-Bared. The camp is home to 45 thousand people. The internal conflict is the bloodiest in Lebanon since the civil war ended 17 years ago.

The Lebanese government accuses Fatah al-Islam of having ties with al-Qaeda and the Syrian government. But there's another theory of who is backing the militant group - the Lebanese government itself, along with the United States. Last March, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that the U.S. and Saudi governments are covertly backing militant Sunni groups like Fatah al-Islam as part of an overarching foreign policy against Iran and growing Shia influence. Seymour Hersh joins us now on the line from Washington DC.

THE Left I Believe in

Taken from the Lebanese Leftist Thaer Daem (welcome back)

في الإرهاب ومكافحته: أفكار أوّليّة

كلّما بنينا أملًا في إمكان الخروج من الأزمة التي يتخبّط فيها البلد، هزّنا انفجار جديد ليسقط ركائز تمنّياتنا. ما زالت يد الارهاب تضرب أينما شاءت، في شكل يبدو منظّمًا أحيانًا وعشوائيًّا أحيانًا أخرى. في غضون أيام استُهدف الجيش في جريمة مروعة سقط فيها غدرًا أكثر من عشرين عسكريًا، كما استهدُفت قوى الأمن الداخلي، وتنقّلت الانفجارات والقنابل بين الأشرفية وفردان وعاليه وغيرها...

أصبح للإرهاب مؤخّرًا اسم وعنوان، "فتح الاسلام" في مخيّم نهر البارد. جماعة لا علاقة لها بفتح، ولا صلة لها بالإسلام، وأعضاؤها عمومًا ليسوا من أهل المخيّم. يعيش الناس في خطر دائم، أمنهم الاجتماعي مهدّد في ظل تردّي الأوضاع المعيشية، يأتيهم التهديد الأمني الآن من داخل البلاد كما من خارجها، ويبدو أنّ الهدف هو استسلام اللبنانيين لفكرة أن وطنهم لا ركيزة له مادية ولا معنوية، إذ لا إمكان للحياة الكريمة فيه.

اهتزّت ثقة المواطنين بمستقبلهم، إذ إن التخلّي عن ركائز الوطن بعد تراكم التضحيات من أجل تحقيقها خطر يثير الهلع. إتّفق الجميع على استحالة مرور الجرائم من دون أن يدفع أحدٌ ثمنها. لكن غاب عن البعض أنه يجب محاسبة المسؤولين عن الخسائر البشرية والمادية التي تتكبّدها البلاد ومحاكمة من يشتبه بضلوعهم في الجرائم، فانحازوا الى الانتقام من الذين يعيشون الأوضاع الأكثر هشاشة، كالعمّال السوريين واللاجئين الفلسطينيين.

سكّان مخيّم نهر البارد أصبحوا رهائن مصيرهم في أيدي عصابة إرهابية، وباتوا محاصرين بين نار القنّاصين ونار الجيش. سقط في صفوف المدنيين نحو عشرين قتيلاً على الأقل، ودُمّر نحو خمس مئة منزل جزئيًا أو كليًا، ونزحت أكثر من خمسة آلاف عائلة، في ظل غياب أبسط مقدّرات الحياة.

إنّ كرامة الوطن من كرامة مواطنيه الكامنة في سعيهم إلى تأمين حياة كريمة للجميع. وما التّضامن الفعلي مع أهلنا في الجيش والمخيّمات بالشعارات أو التحرّكات الرمزية، بل بالحدّ من حجم الخسائر البشرية، حتى لا تُهدر التضحيات. والعمل المباشر لدعم من يعانون الأوضاع الأكثر هشاشة هو الأولويّة.

إنّ إيجاد حلول مستدامة لتفادي تكرار الأزمات يأتي عبر التراكم في العمل السياسي، المعطّل حاليًا على كافة المستويات. قد يؤدّي تردّي الأوضاع الأمنية المقرون بتعطيل العمل السياسي المؤسسي إلى حفز البعض على تناسي حقوق الناس الأساسية، أو الدعوة إلى "تأجيل" بعضها، أو استحداث "حقوق" جديدة تشكّل خطرًا على الآخرين. هنا يأتي دورنا في تكثيف الجهود التضامنية والديمقراطية في مواجهة الشرذمة والتسلّط

الحلف وال أولا

سعد الحريري : أنا فخور انّو لبنان أوّلا.

مارسيل غانم : ونحنا كمين فخورين.