umkahlil

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/26/AR2006082600917.html

This will be neither a nice nor a measured post. I am livid that the memory of one of Palestine's most brilliant writers is vilified by a war criminal and his accomplice in the Washington Post. It was just a couple lines in a nauseating article in which we are made to believe that Israel's war criminal generals "anguish" over murdering a people on whom they have sinned against so mightily that only God will forgive them. Yet, the way Blumenfeld tells it, a brainwashed reader feels sorry for these monsters whose business it is to kill Palestinians and take their land.

It really is a shame that Laura Blumenfeld has an audience. It really is a pity that she extolls creeps like Ehud Barak and dismisses someone of whom she's probably never heard as a "terrorist." It really is inconceivable that in the United States of America people are so stupid and brainwashed. But that's how malicious Zionism is able to make such inroads.

But the Zionists weren't able to wipe out Kamal Nasir's beautiful words and so I will illuminate Blumenfeld about the famous poet to whom she in her ignorance calls a terrorist, this famous Palestinian poet,who the war criminal Ehud Barak killed in Beirut in 1972. This is how Blumenfeld refers to Kamal Nasser:

"'It wasn't something new -- we were in this business,' Barak said in an interview. In 1973, in Beirut, wearing high heels and a woman's wig, Barak helped gun down three of the terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. 'I was a brunette, I had a strawberry blonde behind me,' Barak said, with a small smile."

This is the poetry of Kamal Nasser. This is the poetry of Kamal Nasser who never harmed a flea. This is something which uniformed reporters for the Washington Post can not take away nor can the pernicious criminal ethnic cleansing usurpers from Europe and America ever kill the words of this poet, who God blessed:


I will tell you a story
A story that lived in the dreams of people
A story that comes out of the world of tents
Was made by hunger and decorated in the dark nights
In my country, and my country is a handful of refugees
Every twenty of them have a pound of flour
And promises of a relief...gifts and parcels
It is the story of the suffering group
Who stood for ten years in hunger
In tears and agony
In hardship and yearning

It is a story of people who were misled
Who were thrown in the mazes of years
But they defied and stood
Disrobed and united
And went to light, from the tents
The revolution of return
in the world of darkness.

From an earlier post:

Kamal Nasir, Palestinian poet, killed by an Israeli death squad on April 10, 1973 during a time when 1570 Palestinian educators, doctors, and professionals were deported from their homeland as well as assasinated and maimed in botched assasinations. Their crimes: intellect, resistance, leadership This poem was written in 1961.

and from "Kamel Nasir's Last Poem," translated by Abdel Wahab Elmesseri

Beloved, if perchance word of my death reaches you
As, alone, you fondle my only child
Eagerly awaiting my return,
Shed no tears in sorrow for me
For in my homeland
Life is degradation and wounds
And in my eyes the call of danger rings.
Beloved, if word of my death reaches you
And the lovers cry out:
The loyal one has departed, his visage gone forever,
And fragrance has died within the bosom of the flower
Shed no tears...smile on life
And tell my only one, my loved one,
The dark recesses of your father's being
Have been touched by visions of his people.
Splintered thoughts bestowed his path
As he witnessed the wounds of oppression.
In revolt, he set himself a goal
He became a martyr, sublimated his being
even changed his prayers
Deepened their features and improvised
And in the long struggle his blood flowed
His lofty vision unfolded shaking even destiny.
If news reaches you, and friends come to you,
Their eyes filled with cautious concern
Smile to them in kindness
For my death will bring life to all;
My people's dreams are my shrine
at which I pray, for which I live.
The ecstacy of creation warms my being, shouting of joy,
Filling me with love, as day follows day,
Enveloping my struggling soul and body.
Immortalized am I in the hearts of friends
I live only in others' thoughts and memories.
Beloved, if word reaches you and you fear for me
Should you shudder and your cheeks grow pale
As pale as the face of the moon,
Allow it not to look upon you, nor
feast on the beauty of your gaze
For I am jealous of the light of the moon.
Tell my only one, for I love him,
That I have tasted the joy of giving
And my heart relishes the wounds of sacrifice.
There is nothing left for him
Save the sighs from my song...Save the remnants of my lute
Lying piled and scattered in our house.
Tell my only one if he ever visits my grave
And yearns for my memory,
Tell him one day that I shall return
--to pick the fruits.

Another earlier post on Kamal Nasir:What Spielberg Left Out, Said Reveals: Putting Kamal Nasir in Context

A powerful and moving video about two Palestinian refugee girls, filmed by Palestinian-American Mai Masri.

http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2006/08/27/frontiers-of-dreams-and-fears/

And an interview with Mai Masri about the IOF's inhumane brutality unleashed in Dheishe; they killed the grandfather.

http://www.hrw.org/iff/2002/traveling/frontiers-interview.html

And a history of Israel's terrorcracy, an updated story by Palestinian journalist, Khalid Amayreh:

29 August, 2006

One of the most enduring myths about Israel is the often-made claim that it is a democracy. The big lie is marketed effectively in many Western countries where Zionist-controlled or Zionist-influenced media has a definitive stranglehold on public opinion. consequently, the “veracity” of the myth is taken for granted by many politicians, journalists, intellectuals and ordinary people, and is used as a ready-made weapon against Israel’s critics.

The truth of the matter, however, is that Israel is not a real democracy but rather a nefarious religious- ethnic terrorist regime that heavily employs state-terror as official policy.

The recent Nazi-like campaigns of terror and murder in Gaza and Lebanon should leave no doubt as to the terroristic nature of Israel. The Israeli army knowingly and deliberately, even brazenly, targeted innocent civilians fleeing aerial bombing, exterminating entire families. Purely civilian targets such as roads, bridges, colleges, schools, powre stations were bombed and destroyed.

In Israel, terror, with all its evil manifestations, is sanctioned by the law of the land and defended doggedly by a potent propaganda machine comprising hundreds of news outlets from Sidney to California. Even Jewish Nobel Laureates are mobilized to defend and justified Israeli crimes many of which resemble Nazi atrocities in German-occupied Europe.

For skeptics who might still be induced to give Israeli “democracy” the benefit of the doubt, let us consider the following facts.

Israeli leaders from Ben-Gurion to Ehud Olmert committed incalculable crimes against innocent civilians. Some of these crimes assumed genocidal dimensions, such as the Dir Yasin, Tantura, Jenin and Sabra and Shatilla massacres as well as the latest rampage in Lebanon which destroyed the country's civilian infrastructure under the pretext of freeing two captured Israeli soldiers.

The First Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, directed and presided over the utter destruction and obliteration of as many as 500 Palestinian towns and villages. The remains and relics of some of these towns and villages are documented in Walid Khalidi’s masterpiece, “All that remains.”

That was ethnic cleansing on a very large scale, a crime against humanity by every conceivable standard. Needless to say, the Israeli state committed this genocidal crime willfully for the purpose of effecting Zionism, and building a purely racist Jewish state with as few non-Jews as possible.

Another Prime Minister, the infamous Menachem Begin, praised the Dir Yasin massacre, calling it a “miracle.”

Another Israeli Premier, Yitzhak Shamir, masterminded the killing of hundreds of Palestinian and British civilians. His responsibility for the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem prompted the British government to place him on its most wanted list.

Even, Yitzhak Rabin, the celebrated “peace maker” and Nobel Prize laureate, had carried out several atrocities against Palestinian civilians in Lud and Ramleh. And while acting as Defense Minister during the first Palestinian uprising against Jewish colonialism, he ordered his soldiers to break Palestinian youngsters’ bones.

When Rabins’ ideological son, Ehud Barak, sought to convince Israeli Jews to elect him as Prime Minister, he had to remind them of the most graphic details of how he murdered three Palestinian leaders in Beirut in the late 1970s. The grisly reminder worked effectively, and the decorated terrorist became Prime Minister.

Then came the arch-terrorist of them all, Herr Ariel Sharon, Der Fuhrer, a certified war criminal of Hitler’s and Saddam Hussein’s ilk. Sharon, whom the ignoramus of the White House so unscrupulously called “a man of peace,” is responsible for shedding more innocent blood than any other Israeli leader. Here are some of Sharon’s known infamies: The wicked former general slaughtered scores of innocent peasants at the village of Kfar Kassem in the mid 1950s. In 1956, he slaughtered hundreds of Egyptian prisoners of war by ordering them crushed under the treads of Israeli tanks in the Sinai Peninsula in 1956. And in 1982, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Sharon oversaw the mass slaughter of some 2000 unsuspecting boys, women and children.

Sharon never really regretted the killing, and his atrocities eventually earned him the glorious title of “malich Yisrael” or “King of Israel.” Far from trying and punishing him for his diabolical crimes, Israel actually elected him twice as Prime Minister, with a landslide majority.

For the past 30 months, Sharon has been carrying out one of the ugliest reigns of terror in the history of humanity, prompting the former Israeli minister of education, Shulamit Aloni, to remark that “we have become a barbarian people.”

Sharon’s crimes against the unprotected and largely unarmed Palestinians transcend reality and defy human imagination.

Sharon has presided over killing and maiming of tens of thousands of civilians, the destruction of thousands of homes, orchards, farms, fields, and civilian infrastructure, forcing many conscientious Jews and non-Jews to draw comparisons between the Nazi holocaust against the Jews and the Israeli war of liquidation against the Palestinians.

Over a year ago, a Jewish British Member of Parliament, Paul Kaufman, remarked that “Sharon has made the Star of David look like the Swastika of Hitler.”

Oona King, another British Jewish MP and a member of the Jewish Council for Racial Equality, remarked that “Gaza is the same in nature as the Warsaw Ghetto.” She added that “as a Jew, I hoped I would never live to see the day I was ashamed of the actions of the Jewish state.”

The honorable Jewish lady knew what she was talking about. She was referring to Pregnant Palestinian women shot dead or forced to give birth at Israeli roadblocks, having been barred access to nearby hospitals by Zionism’s heroic soldier

She was alluding to hundreds of Palestinian towns, villages, hamlets and refugee camps reduced by the Israeli army to huge, open-air concentration camps, only lacking the gas chambers.

She was talking about the attempted systematic elimination of a people whose only crime is its enduring desire for freedom from a Satanic military occupation unparallel in the human history.

The conscientious Jewish lady was speaking of a helpless and defenseless people forced into very much the same situation that Jews encountered in Nazi-occupied Europe more than half a century ago.

Does a democracy allow soldiers to shoot and kill pregnant women on their way to hospital for no reason other than the fact the poor women adhere to the “wrong” religion and belong to the “wrong” tribe?

Does a democracy instruct soldiers to plant landmines in the vicinity of schools in order to kill and maim as many “children of a lesser God” as possible?

Does a democracy dispatch warplanes to pour death at apartment buildings and crowded streets and neighborhoods under the pretext of fighting terror?

Does a democracy murder suspects and opponents without charge or trial?

Does a democracy practice collective punishment, including hermetic, suffocating and open-ended against their citizens and subjects?

Indeed, does a democracy practice apartheid in its ugliest forms against a sector of its citizens because they happen to belong to the “wrong race.”

Is occupying, tormenting, enslaving and dispossessing another people compatible with democracy.?

Can a racist apartheid be a true democracy? If the answer for these questions is in the affirmative, then Israel is a democracy. If not, we must not hesitate to call the spade a spade.

In short, Israel is a terrorocracy, not a democracy.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=840020255576418273&q=jenin+jenin&hl=en PART I

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-823936317920666449&q=jenin+jenin&hl=en PART II

Thanks Nas, Black Iris

Right of return is the core, the center, the heart, what Zionists of all persuasions want to eliminate from the discourse. According to Annie Annab the real battle being waged is against Zionist ideology which is "Israel versus full freedom and rights for all regardless of race or religion - and regardless of whether or not the form of government is a democracy."

I would like to call readers' attention to an excellent posting recently from a blogger who supports the implemetation of right of return.

From Akram's Bonsoir, a moving song, and a leaflet with pertinent information about universal law and United Nations' Resolutions which pertain to Palestinians' inalienable right of return.

We call upon everyone to pressure Israel to respect
the right of return of all Palestinian refugees, concludes Akram.

Please tell Danny DeVito, who signed this ad in the Los Angeles Times, that since January, according to Defense for Children International, that seventy-five Palestinian children were murdered by Israel's Occupation Forces and settlers and that 44 children have been killed in Gaza between July 7-August 22.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Write Danny DeVito:

Creative Artists Agency LCC (CAA-LA)
9830 Wilshire Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
USA

and write some of the other signatories, whose addresses have been collected at akramawad.com

Israel's Occupation Forces occupied this boy's house and tore up the family photos.

From Annie's Letters:

RE: Clinton's pro-Israel bias disturbing
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060823/OPINION02/608230346/1016Dear Editor,

I quite agree with the letter writer who finds "Clinton's pro-Israel bias disturbing."

Israel itself has taken shame to a new level, and really America should divest emotionally and financially from the institutionalized bigotry, injustice and brutality that is Israel today.

Politicians worldwide that pander to the home wrecking killing machine misnamed the Jewish state should be forced to watch their own home be bulldozed on a moment's notice and their own future destroyed by the removal of all their own basic civil rights and freedoms: Let them be stateless refugees like the millions of Palestinian refugees trapped in poverty and despair, crushed by a concrete apartheid wall and constantly attacked and harassed by Israel's immigrant bigots.

"We will have to face the reality that Israel is neither innocent, nor redemptive. And that in its creation, and expansion; we as Jews, have caused what we historically have suffered; a refugee population in Diaspora." Martin Buber, Jewish Philosopher, addressed Prime Minister Ben Gurion on the moral character of the state of Israel with reference to the Arab refugees in March 1949

Universally, real justice makes peace- racist Israel only makes war... and more and more refugees.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

http://ifamericansknew.org/about_us/gazaw.html

This is what the Zionists did to the Blessed Virgin.



And this is what they did to Jalal Odeh.

Letter to the LA Times in response to its August 20 editorial, "Shun Mel Gibson":

Dear Editor:

Mel Gibson deserves condemnation for his bigoted tirade [Shun Mel Gibson, August 20]. Indeed bigotry in all its forms, including Israel's institutionalized bigotry that precludes a Palestinian within Israel proper from being joined by a Palestinian spouse from outside Israel, that subjects Palestinian-Americans at Tel Aviv Airport to indignities, including handicapped comedian Maysoon Zaid's recent experience in which she was deprived of her sanitary napkin and left naked in an airport room to bleed, that deems Palestinans' rights relative; i.e., one expelled from his or her personal property in 1948, may not return home, while any Jew from all over the world may immigrate to Israel and become an instant citizen. Certainly the effects of state sponsored bigotry are more pernicious than one man's drunken outburst.

Letter to the San Diego Union Tribune that's published in my hometown, in response to the usual Zionist bs. I sing pretty much the same tune in every letter, but right of return is a simple message that must break through. All the rest is really diversion. And Dr. Salman Abu Sitta has shown that return is FEASIBLE!

Dear Editor:

Ruth Livni fails to mention that Arab forces didn't enter Palestine in 1948 until 250,000 indigenous Palestinians had been ethnically cleansed by Zionist terrorist gangs, nor does she mention that no one in his right mind would agree to partition his homeland in order to oblige European and American immigrants, who owned only eight percent of the land. She's right about one thing though; Palestinians will resist Israel's institutionalized bigotry evidenced by its refusal to implement UN Resolution 194 which states that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date...." This is also stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13, Section 2: "Everyone has the right to leave his country and return to his country." Israel is founded on ninety-two percent of land which political Zionists did not own in 1948. This is the personal property of Palestinian refugees, many of whom live within 100 kilometers of their homes. Israel must reverse its ethnic cleansing if it hopes for peace with its neighbors, whose rights are not relative to the rights of Jews from all over the world, who receive instant citizenship upon immigration to historic Palestine.

http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19924&Itemid=147

http://www.mideastweb.org/194.htm

http://www.badil.org/Solutions/solutions.htm

From BADIL: General Assembly Resolution 194(III) reaffirms the right of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to housing and property restitution. The resolution specifically calls for the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes rather than their homeland. General Assembly Resolution 3236(XXIX) reaffirms the inalienable right of Palestinian refugees to return to their properties. Resolution 194(III) also reaffirms the right of Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to compensation for loss of or damage to movable and immovable property. Persons choosing to return and those choosing to resettle elsewhere are both entitled to compensation. A broader set of claims under the resolution may include compensation for human capital losses and psychological suffering.

Letters I Wrote Today:

To: HeraldEd@herald.com
In response to a story about Israeli author David Grossman, whose son died in Lebanon: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15310455.htm

Dear Editor:

"The state of Israel will now begin its soul-searching," says Israeli author David Grossman. If the state of Israel honestly assesses its collective soul it will find that its refusal to implement UN Resolution 194, which calls for the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes of origin, and to abide by Article 13, Section 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to leave his home and return to it, is the source of all the heartache in the region. 7.2 million Palestinan souls are denied this inalienable and individual right. It is indeed high time that the state of Israel does some soul searching.

To the Baltimore Sun in response to letters regarding playwright David Mamet's assertion that anti-Semitism informs persons critical of Israel.

Dear Editor:

Two of your letter writers [August 19, Letters] agree with David Mamet's notion that anti-Semitism fuels opposition to Israel. On the contrary, Israel institutionalizes bigotry by its refusal to implement the inalieanable and individual right of return for the Palestinian refugees, iterated in UN Resolution 194 as well as Article 13, Section 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By way of analogy: I am always happy to return to California every two years after serving the Department of Defense Dependents Schools in Germany. Palestinians, too, long to return to their personal property and home villages in historic Palestine. Or are their rights, many of whom hold deeds to their personal property, relative to a well off American playwright's, who has an option to immigrate to Israel and be assured instant citizenship?

To the Chicago Tribune in response to Alan Schupack of the Anti-Defamation League:

Dear Editor:

Adam Schupack is paid, like many others who appear in the US media, to defend Israel's institutionalized bigotry (Voice of the People, August 19). The Declaration of Independence states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." One inalienable, individual right as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13, Section 2: "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." That's the core of the Middle East conflict. The rights of the Palestinian refugees are not relative to Mr. Schupack's, who as a Jew, may immigrate to historic Palestine, and become an instant citizen, while Palestinian refugees, many of whom who live within 100 kilometers of their personal, stolen property are denied this right.

And finally, to the Philadelphia Inquirer in response to a woman who was offended by bigoted remarks by Cynthia McKinney supporters:

Dear Editor:

Hannah Doughtery Campbell (Slurs unreported, August 19) is right to decry bigotry "toward those of the Jewish faith by [those linked to] an elected official." Even more deplorable, however, is the institutionalized bigotry of the state of Israel, which incorrectly calls itself the "Jewish" state, and which grants instant citizenship to any Jew from anywhere in the world who immigrates to historic Palestine while denying the inalienable and individual right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their personal property. This right, by the way, is iterated in UN Resolution 194 and is also stated in Article 13, Section 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country." Bigotry in all forms must be condemned.

Please watch this video with first hand accounts from those Palestinians who have experienced Israeli prisons.

http://ifamericansknew.org/stats/cap-prisw.html

What follows is the "Statement By Workers in the Public Cultural Sphere in Lebanon, August 15," which was signed by many Lebanese and Palestinian artists and academics including prominant Palestinians Hany Abu Assad, Mai Masri, Karma Nabulsi, Samia Halaby.

We the undersigned declare:

1) Our conscious support for the Lebanese national resistance as it wages a war in defense of our sovereignty and independence, a war to release Lebanese imprisoned in Israel, a war to safeguard the dignity of the Lebanese and Arab people.

2) Our unambiguous refutation of the logic that accuses HizbAllah of having provided the "pretext" for the Israeli invasion. Israel did not invade Lebanon, destroy its infrastructure, displace and murder its populace because of the heroic operation carried out by HizbAllah. Israel has never needed a pretext to breach the sovereignty of Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, or other nations. Rather, the recent Israeli aggression is the latest in a long series extending back to the founding of the Zionist state and motivated by both historical ambitions vis-à-vis Lebanese territory and waters and by a racist supremacist ideology that denigrates the indigenous population, their culture, and their very existence. The most recent aggression is, more specifically, the realization of a long-standing, openly professed desire of Israel to avenge for its humiliation at being driven out of most of Lebanon by the resistance operations that began in September 1982 and had their fruition in May 2000. Israel's very avowal of intent to implement by its own powers UN Resolution 1559 is itself proof that its invasion of Lebanon today surpasses any mere response to the above-mentioned operation and serves an American policy that aims at annihilating all viable opposition in the world at large, and at direct control of the Arab world and its resources in particular. How strange that Israel should wish to be the policeman in charge of executing UN Resolution 1559 when it has not yet executed any of the previously issued UN resolutions addressing its own actions, with the exception of the partial implementation of Resolution 425, which resulted essentially because of strikes inflicted by the armed Lebanese Resistance.

3) Our staunch condemnation of official American support for, and contribution to, the Israeli aggression. The war crimes Israel is currently committing, as well as those it committed in the past and will commit in the probable future, would not have occurred or occur yet without America's political and military support for Israel, that which is unmitigated by its allegedly unswerving espousal of Lebanese freedom, sovereignty, and independence.

4) Our utter rejection of the Lebanese government's decision to "not adopt" the Lebanese Resistance operation, thereby stripping the Resistance of political credibility before the adversarial international powers, when it behooved that government to deem the said operation as consistent with its Ministerial Proclamation in support of the liberation of the Lebanese prisoners in Israel, of Shebaa Farms, and of Kfar Shuba.

We the undersigned, in declaring our intentions, also therefore, call upon:

1) The Lebanese government, which we want to see leading a sovereign, democratic state for all Lebanese, to realize its full responsibilities, especially in terms of embracing the Lebanese Resistance in diverse ways, and particularly after the clarification of Israel's plan to destroy the infrastructure, institutions, and political entity of Lebanon.

2) Arab intellectuals to stand beside the Lebanese Resistance, to expose the Zionist racist, supremacist impetus, and to document Israel's crimes against Arabs since its founding. Likewise, we ask our Arab colleagues to confront the continual calls for capitulation (wrapped in the cloak of "realism"), and to expose both the American bias towards Israel and the complicity of the majority of "rational" Arab governments against the Lebanese Resistance. We, also, ask that you take a stand against all kinds of normalization with Israel, by closing down the Israeli embassies and government offices located in Arab countries, and by boycotting products of Israeli and pro-Israeli companies, whatever their nationality.

3) Lebanese intellectuals, in particular, not to be swayed by the (il)logic that accuses HizbAllah of having destroyed the Lebanese economy, but instead to hold Israel fully responsible for its age-old policy of destruction and war crimes. The principle of the Lebanese Resistance is to be a deterrent force against Israel's ability to pursue that policy with impunity.

4) Free-thinking intellectuals the world over, and advocates of justice and peace, to publicize the history of Israeli aggression and to pressure the American and European governments to halt their military and material maintenance of the Zionist killing machine. Similarly, we call upon our peers in the world to announce a boycott of Israeli products, and of Israeli academic and scientific institutions that do not condemn the Israeli aggression against Lebanon. Furthermore, we invite intellectuals the world over to visit Lebanon in order to stand by the side of their Lebanese colleagues and to view first hand the results of Israeli war crimes against civilians, schools, infrastructure, humane institutions (foremost among them the Lebanese Red Cross), and media (which, in addition to sustaining hits on its press convoys and aerial transmitters, most recently lost to Israeli fire the reporters Layal Najib and Sulayman Shidyak). The solidarity of world intellectuals with the Lebanese people, press, and culture-workers, in such direct terms, would constitute an international declaration of the refusal to permit Israel to treat Lebanon as a mere "military target" for its airplanes, warships, tanks, and "smart" bombs.

Resistance is an intellectual act par excellence. That is because the goal of intellectual activity, like resistance, is to defend the values of justice and equality of all people. For this reason we, the undersigned, consider, regardless of our varying intellectual inclinations, cultural and critical activity an integral part of Lebanese national resistance, indeed of resistance to injustice anywhere in the world..

Signatories in/of Lebanon:

Amine A. Abi Aad (Industrial Eng.)

Fares Abi Saab (Researcher & Editor)

Pierre Abi Sa'b (Journalist)

Sawsan Abdulrahim (Asst. Prof., Health Sciences, AUB, And Cultural Activist)

Gabi Abou 'Atmeh (Journalist)

Abboudi Abou Jawdeh (Publisher & Distributor)

Milia Abou Jawdeh (Journalist)

Nidaa Abou Mraad (Prof., Musicology)

Nicholas Abou Mraad (Prof., Theology, University of Balamand)

Saqr Abu Fakhr (Asst. Editor, Journal of Palestine Studies)

As'ad Abu Khalil (Prof. of Political Sciences, Univ. of California at Stanislaus)

Wadih Akl (Lawyer, Prof.)

Adonis Al-'Akra (Phd, Philosophy, Lebanese Univ.)

Hana Alamuddin (Architect)

Ghada Ali Kalash (Writer & Journalist)

Sa'da 'Allaw (Journalist)

Firas Al-Amin (Writer)

Ibrahim Al-Amin (Journalist)

Adel 'Ammous (Publisher)

Jacques Al-Assouad (Art Critic & Lexicographer)

Wasef 'Awadah (Journalist)

Faraj Al-`Awar (Water Expert & Cultural Activist)

Khodor 'Awarika (Novelist & Political Essayist)

Maysa 'Awwad (Journalist)

Husayn Ayyoub (Journalist)

Omar Al-Ayyubi (Writer & Translator)

Dr.Nassif Azzi (Prof., Philosophy, Lebanese Univ.)

Hala Bajjani (Al-Akhbar Newspaper)

Sulayman Bakhti (Literary Critic)

Jumana Ba'lbaki (Journalist)

Salwa Ba'lbaki (Journalist)

Susan Barclay (Graduate Student in Anthropology, AUB & Political Activist)

Jihad Bazzi (Journalist)

Abe Bazzi (Al-Montada, Dearborn, MI, USA)

Ahmad Bazzoun (Journalist)

Rania Ahmad Berro (Journalist, Qatar)

Karma Bibi (AUB, Instructor of Sociology)

Martine Btaich

Rania Chaaban (Graduate Student)

Jean Cham'oun (Film Director)

Zeinab Charafeldine (Journalist)

Salah Dabbagh (Lawyer)

Abbas Dabbuq (Lawyer)

Eva Dadrian

Camille Dagher (Writer)

Mohammad Dahir (Ambassador, Researcher)

Moataz Dajani (Cultural Activist)

Nabil Dajani (Prof., Sociology, AUB)

Ahmad Dallal (Prof. of Islamic Studies, Georgetown Univ.)

Nada Dallal Doughan (Executive Director, Kitab fi Jarida)

Mahmoud Dandashly (Architect & Activist)

Majdolene Darwish (Pres., Nadi al-Saaha Cultural Club)

Marie Debs (PhD, Writer, Prof. Lebanese University)

Lara Deeb (Asst. Prof., Univ. of California, Irvine)

Ibrahim Desouki (Sports Journalist & Cultural Activist)

`Afif Diab (Journalist, Al-Akhbar)

Gaspard Dadrian (Writer & Lawyer)

Hanan Fadhallah (Journalist)

Albert Farhat (Lawyer)

Tareq Ghaddar (Prof. AUB)

Laila Ghanem (Editor, Bada'il)

Rania Ghosn (Architect)

George Haddad (Writer)

Hala Haddad (Radio Host)

May Haddad (Doctor, Public Health Worker, & Cultural Activist)

Nabil Al-Hage Ali (Engineer and Cultural Activist)

Lamya Al-Haj (University Lecturer)

Wael Al-Hajjar (Journalist, Qatar)

Hanna Al-Hajj (Phd, Sociology)

Ibrahim Al-Halaby (Media Director, Political Activist)

Lara Halaoui (Prof. of Chemistry, AUB)

Jamal Hamdan (Architect, Activist, Writer, Australia)

Hussein Hamiyeh (Journalist)

Ali Hammoud (Television Producer)

Zein Hammoud (Journalist)

Zeinab Hammoud (Journalist)

Sari Hanafi (Assc. Prof., Sociology, AUB)

Charles Harb (Asst. Prof., Psychology, AUB)

Khalil Harb (Journalist)

Mona Harb (Asst. Prof., Urban Planning, AUB)

Paula Hariqa (Psychologist & Researcher)

Howayda Al-Harithy (Assc. Prof., Architecture, AUB)

Mohamed Hashem (Dir., Docudays)

Rida Hashem (Visual Artist, Interior Designer)

Hussam Hassan (Cultural Activist)

Dyaa Haydar (Journalist)

Imad Haydar (Journalist)

Rana Hayeck (Journalist, Al-Akhbar)

Nabil Haytham (Journalist)

Sami Hermez (Graduate Student, Anthroplogy, Princeton Univ. & Social Activist)

Mousa Al-Hindi (Cultural Activist)

Mahmoud Hojeij (PhD, Film-Maker)

Lama Al-Hurr (Poet)

Abbas Al-Husseini (Researcher)

Houda Ibrahim (Journalist)

Samah Idriss (PhD, Al-Adab Magazine)

Suheil Idriss (PhD, Novelist & Lexicographer)

Ghassan Issa (MD, Social Activist)

Najib Issa (Prof. of Economics, Lebanese Univ.)

Abir Jaber (Journalist)

Tima Al-Jamil (Asst. Prof., Psychology, AUB)

Maher Jarrar (Prof., Chairperson, Civilization Sequence Program, AUB)

Suad Joseph (Anthropologist, UC-Davis)

Zeinab Jumaa (Writer)

Ray Jureidini (Assc. Prof., Sociology & Refugee Studies, American Univ. of Cairo)

Graziella Kallab (Psychotherapist)

Laila Kalot Nassar (Social Activist)

Samih Kawash (Palestinian Poet & Literary Critic)

Assaf Kfoury (Prof., Computer Science, Boston Univ.)

Malak Khaled (School Teacher & Cultural Activist)

Muna Al-Khalidi (Prof., Public health

Juhayna Khalidiyyah (Journalist)

Laila Al-Khatib (Phd, Literary Criticism),

Marwan Khawaja, (Prof., Dir., Ctr for Research on Population & Health, AUB)

Nada Khoury

Raghed Khoury (MIS Analyst)

Firas Kobeissy (Graduate Student & Cultural Activist)

Zeina Kodeih (Graduate Student, Urban Planning, AUB)

Pascal Lahhoud (Phd)

Nasser Lama (Industrial Manager)

Zeina Maasari (Asst. Prof of Graphic Design, AUB)

Jala Makhzoumi (Prof., Argriculture & Food Sciences, AUB)

Mohammad Ali Makki (Elec. Eng. & Cultural Activist)

Jamil Malak (Researcher & Lecturer)

Emma-Jane Maalouf (Entertainment Agency, Netherlands)

Sahar Mandour (Journalist)

'Imad Marmal (Journalist)

Mai Masri (Film Director)

Rania Masri (Asst. Prof., Fac. of Science, University of Balamand)

Sa'dallah Mazra'ani (Journalist & Media Commentator)

Sa'd Mehio (Journalist)

Sabine Menassa (Hotel Management, Ireland)

Hasna Reda Mikdashi (Editor, Nur Magazine)

Hilmi Mousa (Political Analyst)

Ahmad Al-Moussawi (Journalist)

Ali Munaim (School Teacher & Political Activist)

Abdallah Naaman (Writer)

Ammar Naameh (Journalist)

Omar Nashabeh (PhD in Criminology)

Chadi Nasrallah (Graphic Designer, Al-Jazeera TV, Qatar)

Husayn Nasrallah (Journalist, Al-Kifah Al-'Arabi Newspaper)

Najib Nasrallah (Journalist)

Anwar Nassar (Doctor, Prof. of Obstetrics, AUB)

Ghassan Nasser (Architect & Cultural Activist)

Kholoud Nasser (Performing Artist)

Rana Nawfal (Publisher)

Nemer Nemer (Writer, Composer, Radio Show Host)

Karen Pinto (Asst. Prof., Civilization Sequence, AUB)

Amin Qammuriyyeh (Journalist)

Wafiq Qansoh (Journalist)

Nada Al-Qara (Cultural Activist & Health Worker)

Faysal al-Qaq (Doctor, Prof., AUB)

Hashim Qasem (Journalist)

Adib Qa`war (Writer & Researcher)

Fatin Qubaysi (Journalist)

Eliane Raheb (Film-Maker)

Sharif Al-Rifa'i (Architect)

Michel Riyachi (Cultural Activist)

Ussama Saab (Architect)

Lara Saade (Arab-American Activist, US)

Rima Saba (Planning Consultant, Anthropologist)

Nader Sabbagh (Journalist)

Tania Safieddine (Artist)

Khalid Saghiyyeh (Asst. Prof., AUB & Journalist)

Adnan Al-Sahili (Economist & Journalist)

Atallah Al-Salim (Leftist Activist)

Ali Salman (Journalist)

Hanady Salman (Journalist)

Rabi'a Salman (Journalist & Teacher)

Talal Salman (Al-Safir Newspaper)

Georges Saliba (Prof., Islamic Sciences, Columbia Univ.)

Hana Samadi (Lawyer)

Joseph Samaha (Al-Akhbar Newspaper)

Madonna Sam'an (Journalist)

Hala Sayegh (Collections Librarian, AUB)

Nasri Al-Sayigh (Writer)

Rosemary Sayigh (Anthropologist)

Nadya Sbaiti (Graduate Student in History & Cultural Activist)

Kirsten Scheid (Asst. Prof., Anthropology, AUB)

Muhammad 'Ali Shamseddin (Poet)

Fatima Sharafeddine (Children's Author)

Walid Sharara (Journalist)

Zaynab Shawraba (Editor of Al-Muntaliq al-Jadid)

Stephen Sheehi (Asst. Prof, Civilization Sequence Program, AUB)

Hanadi Sleiman (Assc. Prof., Chemistry, McGill Univ., Canada)

Mounzer Sleiman (Political-Military Analyst, USA)

Amira Solh (Urban Planner)

Sami Souaydane (Literary Critic, Prof., Lebanese Univ.)

Rafif Srour (Res. Assc, Civil & Environmental Engineering, AUB)

Rasha Steitieh (Graduate Student)

Mayssoun Sukarieh (Cultural Activist)

Mohammad Bassam Sukarieh (Prof. of Education, Lebanese Univ.)

Rabih Sultan (Prof., Chemistry, AUB)

Shadi Takieddine (Sales Manager & Activist)

Bisan Tayy (Journalist)

Jihad Touma (Phd, AUB)

Fawwaz Trabulsi (Prof., Political Sciences, LAU)

Najah Wakim (Political Essayist and Activist)

Ali Anis Wehbe (Poet, Rashad Printing Press)

Zaynab Yaghi (Journalist)

Hassan Yatim (Visual Artist)

Ranwa Yehya (Coordinator of a Youth program)

Zeina Zaatari (PhD, Social Researcher)

Khalil Zahreddin (Geologist & Cultural Activist)

Samar Zebian (Asst. Prof., Psychology, AUB)

Omar Zein (Assistant Secretary General Arab Lawyers Union)

Ahmad Zeineddine (Journalist & Writer)

Ra'fat Zibdawi (Social Activist)

Rami Zurayk (Prof. of Agriculture, AUB)



Supporting Signatories Outside Lebanon:

Mona Abaza (Prof., Sociology, AUC, Egypt)

Salam Abboud (Iraqi Novelist, Sweden)

Afaf Abdelmoaty (Continuing Education Inst., AUC, Egypt)

Mohammed Abed (Prof., Philosophy, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, US)

Shadi Abed (Cultural Activist, Palestine)

Osama Abi-Mershed (Prof., Georgetown Univ., US)

Mohammad Abdel-Karim (Poet & Writer, Syria)

Hany Abu Assad (Film-Maker, Palestine)

Bassam Abu Ghazale (Palestinian Writer, Jordan)

Yehya Abu Zakaria (Writer & Journalist, Algeria)

Nasr Hamed Abu Zayd (Theorist, Egypt)

Fawzia Afazl-Khan (Prof., Montclair State Univ., New Jersey, USA)

Munir Akash (Editor, Prof., Humanities, Suffolk University, US)

Jawad Alasfoor (Member Altajdeed Cultural Society, Bahrain)

Essam `Ali (Children's Rights Consultant, Documentary Director, Egypt)

Tariq `Ali (Pakistani Writer in Britain)

Ala' Allami (Iraqi Writer & Poet, Geneva)

Jumaa Allami (Novelist, Iraq)

Mirza Mohamedd Aman (Media Expert & Writer, Bahrain)

Kindy Amin (Graduate Student in IT, Jerusalem)

Nabil Anani (Visual Artist, Palestine)

Wassan Hadi Al-`Anbaki (Computer Eng., Iraq)

Dima Al-Ansari (Palestinian Film Director, Dubai)

Sinan Antoon (Iraqi Writer, Prof., Arabic Literature, New York University, US)

Miriam Aouragh (Prof., Anthropology, Amsterdam)

Masad Arbid (Arab Physician & Writer, US)

Radwa Ashour (Novelist, Literary Critic, Prof., Egypt)

Hussein Al-Awadat (Writer & Journalist, Syria)

Usama Al-Azm (Syrian Administrator, Kuwait)

Sayyed Al-Bahrawy (Prof., Egypt)

Mona Baker (Prof., Linguistics, University of Manchester, UK)

Salwa Bakr (Novelist, Egypt)

Shadi Bakr (Graduate Student, Palestine)

Chris Bambery (Editor, Socialist Worker, UK)

Reem Banna (Singer, Palestine)

Tayseer Barakat (Visual Artist, Palestine)

Gaby Baramki (Prof., Birzeit Univ., Educational Consultant)

Majeed Barghouthi (Poet & Writer, Palestine)

Omar Barghouthi (Choreographer, Independent Researcher, Palestine)

Suha Barghouthi (TV Host, Palestine)

Widad Barghouthi (Prof., Journalism, Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Mourid Barghouti (Palestinian Poet, Egypt)

Tamim Barghouti (Palestinian Poet, Egypt)

Javier Barreda (Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Alicante, Spain)

Golbarg Bashi (Graduate Student, Bristol University, UK)

Mahmoud Al-Bayati (Iraqi Novelist, Sweden)

Moustapha Bayoumi (Assc. Prof. English, Brooklyn College, US)

Faisal Ben Khadra (Banker, Member of Arab Nationalist Congress, Jordan)

Ahmad Ben Maymoun (Poet, Morocco)

Sherna Berger Gluck, (Prof. Emerita, California State University, US)

Rana A. Bishara (Palestinian Visual Artist)

Kamal Boullata (Palestinian Visual Artist)

Hisham Boustani (Dentist & Cultural Activist, Jordan)

Sarah Bracke (Prof., Women's Studies, Utrecht Univ./Univ. of California Santa Cruz)

Haim Bresheeth (Prof., University of East London)

Alex Callinicos (Prof., European Studies, King's College, London, UK)

Antonia Carver (Editor & Film festival Consultant, Dubai & UK)

Dalia Chams (Journalist, Egypt)

John Chalcraft (Prof. of History, London School of Economics, UK)

Majed Chergui (Prof. of Chemistry, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland)

Catherine Cobham, (Prof., Univ. of St Andrews, Scotland UK)

Hamid Dabashi (Prof., MELAC, Columbia University, US)

Ibrahim Dakkak (Chair, Board of Trustees, Birzeit Univ.)

Bucker Dangor (Prof. Emeritus, Physics, Imperial College, UK)

Lamis Jamal Deek (Palestinian Grassroots Activist & Attorney At Law, NY, USA)

Herman De Ley (Prof. Emeritus, Ghent Univ., Belgium)

Samar Dudin (Cultural Activist & Theater Director, Jordan)

Tareq Al-Dulaimi (Iraqi Researcher, Syria)

Mohammad Elagati (Writer & Researcher, Egypt)

Abdeljawad Elaoufir (Writer, Morocco)

Hamdi Elbatran (Novelist & Retired Office, Egypt)

Khalid Elkhayri (Physician, UK)

Hoda Elsada (Prof. of the Contemporary Arab World, Manchester University, UK)

Furat Esber (Syrian Poet, New Zealand)

Reem Fadda (Curator, Palestine)

Nadia Fadil (Graduate Student, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium)

Suleiman Fahed (Writer, Politician, Iraq)

Fatin Farhat (Director, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Palestine)

Hana Farid (Writer, Egypt)

James Faris (Prof. Emeritus, Anthropology, Univ. of Connecticut, US)

Nader Fergany (Dir., Almishkat Ctr, Cairo, Lead author, Arab Human Development Report)

Norman Finkelstein (Prof. History, Depaul Univ. & Writer, Chicago, USA)

Ellen Fleischmann (Prof., History, Univ. of Dayton, USA)

Ahmad Founouni (Iraqi Architect, Canada)

Bassam Frangieh (Prof. Arabic Literature, Yale Univ., US)

Luz Garcia Gomez (Senior Lecturer, Universidad de Alicante, Spain)

Humam Ghassib (Prof. Physics, Univ. of Jordan, Dir. Of Studies & Programs, Arab Thought Forum, Jordan)

Burhan Ghalioun (Syrian, Researcher, College de France, Paris)

Muna Giacaman (Instructor, Birzeit Univ.)

Rita Giacaman (Prof., Public Health, Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Vladimir Giertli (Mechanical Engineer, Slovakia)

Jorge Gimeno (Poet, Spain)

Aiman Hana Haddad (Palestinian Translator and Cultural Activist, New York)

Ziad Haidar (Journalist, Syria)

Mohammad Khodr Al-Hajjar (Educational Trainer)

Khaled Al-Haj Saleh (Syrian Writer, Netherlands)

Samia A. Halaby (Palestinian Artist, New York)

Jinan Jassem Al-Halawi (Iraqi Writer, Sweden)

Sondra Hale (Prof. Anthropology & Women's Studies, UCLA, US)

Inas Hamad (Palestinian Visual Artist)

Abdelqader Hamida (Poet & Novelist, Algeria)

Miloud Hamida (Poet & Story-Writer, Algeria)

Iman Hammouri (Cultural Activist, Palestine)

Ahmad Harb (Writer, Academic, Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Maan Al-Hasbane (Syrian Artist, Belgium)

Sabri Hashem (Iraqi Novelist & Poet, Berlin)

Hadi Hassan (Economist, Iraq)

Nizar Hassan (Film Director, Palestine)

Ubayy Hassan (Writer & Journalist, Syria)

Abe Hayeem (Architect, London, UK)

Rosamine Hayeem (Teacher, London, UK)

Dina Heshmat (Journalist, Egypt)

Nadia Hijab, (Writer & Human Rights Advocate)

Pol Hoste (Writer, Belgium)

Mohamed Hussein (Sales Manager & Activist, Egypt)

Haggag Hussein (Iraqi Researcher, UK)

Sawsan Hussein (Researcher, UK)

Jumana Husseini, (Organization Development Consultant, Jordan)

Information & Rehabilitation Center for Human Rights, Yemen

Sunallah Ibrahim (Novelist, Egypt)

Nihat Ilhanli (Turkoman Iraqi Writer)

Colin Imber (Writer & Researcher, Manchester University, UK)

Ibrahim Istanbouli (Doctor, Translator, Activist, Syria)

Georges Jabbour (Doctor, Syria)

Islah Jad (Asst. Prof., Political Sciences and Gender Studies, Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Shilpa Jain (Active Learning Facilitator, India)

Bakr Al-Jallaas (Graphic Designer, Egypt)

Shamil Jeppie (Prof., History, Univ. of Capetown, South Africa)

Khaled Jubran (Musician & Composer, Palestine)

Fady Joudah (Palestinian Physician, Poet, Translator, US)

Amal Al-Jurf (USA)

Tarek Kamel (Visual Artist, Translator, Egypt)

Melody Kemp (Australian Editor & Journalist, Laos)

Bashir Khadra (Prof., Jordan)

Mohammad Ata Khattab (Artist, Palestine)

Ahmad Mahmoud Al-Khalil (Journalist, Syria)

Ahmad Al-Khamisi (Writer, Egypt)

Umaiyeh Khammash (Public Health & Population Advisor, Palestine)

Mohammad Mahdi Al-Khusaibi (Iraqi Prof. of Punitivie Law, Netherlands)

Eyad Kishawi (Palestinian Biomedical Researcher & Social Activist, US)

Imad Kishawi (Palestinian Engineer & Activist)

Moopelo Kungwane (Engineer, Cape Town, South Africa)

Loula Lahham (Journalist & Photographer, Egypt)

Regina Lark (Programs Director, UCLA, US)

Nadia Latif (Pakistani Graduate Student, Columbia Univ., US)

Peder Martin Lysestøl (Prof., Sør Trøndelag State Univ., Norway)

Domenico Losurdo (Prof. of Philosophy, Urbino Univ., Italy)

Arab Lotfi (Egyptian-Lebanese Film-Maker)

Ali Al-Madlouh (Cultural Journalist, Saudi Arabia)

Sami Mahdi (Poet, Iraq)

Sayed Mahmoud (Egyptian Journalist, Bahrain)

Umme Leila Mahmoodi (Development Researcher, Pakistan)

Maher Makhlouf (Engineer & Activist, Egypt)

Khaled Malas (Architect, Syria)

Suleiman Mansour (Visual Artist, Director of Al-Wasiti Cultural Center, Palestine)

Omar Masri (Office Manager, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Washington, DC)

Mohammad Mazloum (Poet, Iraq)

An Muylaert (Medical Doctor & Activist for Palestine, Belgium)

Kathem Mohammad (Writer, Iraq)

Ziad Mouna (Writer & Publisher, Syria)

Kathem Al-Moussawi (Iraqi Writer & Journalist, London)

Kaiser Moustafa (Prof., Algeria)

Hassan Musa (Sudanese Artist & Writer, France)

Patricia Musa (Oral History Researcher & Teacher, France)

Shakir Mustafa (Asst. Prof., Modern Langauges, Boston Univ., US)

Karma Nabulsi (Academic and Writer, Oxford Univ., UK)

Najwa Najjar (Film Producer, Palestine)

Ali Nassar (Film Director, Palestine)

Jamal Nassar (Managing Dir. & Activist, Dubai)

Lama Nassar (Research Manager, US)

Ahmad Al-Nassari (Journalist, Iraq)

Ibrahim Nawar, (Journalist, Arab Press Freedom Watch, UK)

John Newton (Writer & Journalist, Australia)

Moustafa Nuwaysir (Prof., Algeria)

In'am El-Obeid (Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Sufian Obeidat (Lawyer, Jordan)

Hamid Oqabi (Yemeni Film-maker, France)

Azzeddine Qanun (Theater Director, Tunis)

Khalid Qattamesh (Artist, Palestine)

Ekram Quraan (Palestine)

Malek Qutteina (Health Worker, Palestine)

Ussama Qutteineh (TV Correspondent, Jordan)

Nasser Rabbat (Agha Khan Professor of Architecture, MIT, US)

Wissam Rafeedi (Researcher & Lecturer, Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Maya Al-Rahabi (Doctor & Social Activist, Syria)

Naji Rahim (Poet, Iraq)

Amina Rashid (Prof., Egypt)

Ramzi Rihan (V-P, Community Outreach, Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Farouk Sabry (Kurdish-Iraqi Playwright, New Zealand)

Ali Safar (Poet & Film-Maker, Syria)

Hana El-Sahly (Palestinian Physician, US)

Khairallah Said, (PhD, Researcher in Arab-Islamic Heritage)

Mahmoud Said (Iraqi Novelist, US)

Fakhri Saleh (Literary Critic, Jordan)

Simon Samoeil, Curator of the Middle East Collection, Yale Univ. Library, US)

Aseel Sawalha (Prof., Anthropology, Pace Univ., New York)

Amima Sayeed (Educational Researcher & Evaluator, Pakistan)

Abdelaziz Al-Sayyid (Writer, Jordan)

Mouneer El-Shaarani (Artist & Calligrapher, Syria)

Sabah Ali Al-Shahir (Iraqi Writer & Novelist)

Bassem Sharaf (Writer, Theater Director, Egypt)

Leila Sharaf (Senator, Jordanian Senate)

Deema Al-Shawa (P-R & Media Director MUSAWA)

Muzna Shihabi (Graduate Student in Intl. Studies, Palestine)

Jammal Sidki (Screen-Writer, & Political Activist, Egypt)

Ahdaf Soueif (Novelist, Egypt & UK)

Abdallah Soufan (Researcher, Netherlands)

Judith Stevenson (School Teacher & Social Activist, Los Angeles, US)

Abdallah Sufan (PhD Candidate, Leiden Univ, Holland)

Baha' Taher (Novelist, Egypt)

Vera Tamari (Visual Artist, Lecturer, Birzeit Univ., Palestine)

Nawal Tamimi (Palestinian Pre-School Teacher, USA)

Virginia Tilley (American Prof., Political Science, Human Sciences Research Council Pretoria, South Africa)

Chris Toensig (Editor, MERIP, Washington DC)

Leila Tubal (Stage Actress, Tunis)

Salim Vally (Prof., Education, Wits. University, South Africa)

Ronald Van de Sompel (Curator, UK)

Carlos Varea (Prof., Anthropology, Madrid Autonoma University, Spain)

Ahmad Al-Wasl (Poet & Writer, Arab-Saudi)

Livia Wick (Graduate Student, MIT, USA)

Mary Christina Wilson (Prof. of History, Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, US)

Jessica Winegar (Prof., Anthropology, Fordham Univ., New York)

Lisa Wynn (Prof., Population Studied, Princeton Univ., USA)

Ibrahim Yassir (Ambassador, Political Analyst, Intl. Lawyer)

Samar Yazbek (Media Figure & Novelist, Syria)

Ibtihal Younis (PhD, Egypt)

Hanif Yusif (Syrian Poet, Sculptor, Netherlands)

Wissam Al-Zahawi (Secretary General, Arab Thought Forum, Jordan)

Aziza Zaidane (Moroccan Journalist, Geneva)

Fatima Zaidane (Moroccan-American Researcher, Vienna Univ., Industrial Development Consultant to the UN)

Osama Al-Zain (Film Director, Palestine)

Beirut, August 15, 2006

To add your name to this statement, please contact Samah Idriss at

It would be appreciated if you circulate the statement

# posted by umkahlil @ 12:38 PM 0 comments

Thanks to Nas of the excellent Black Iris for bringing this to my attention.

Eighty-four Hollywood personalities signed a full page ad appearing in the Los Angeles Times today. The ad makes no distinction between the inordinate amount of Lebanese civilian deaths as opposed to Israel's forty civilian deaths although Robert Fisk writes in today's Independent that the Lebanese civilian toll has climbed to 1300 as whole families "their arms wrapped around each other in the moment of death as their homes were beaten down upon them by the Israeli air force," continue to be pulled out of the rubble.

In addition to leading one to believe Israel's deaths are commensurate with Lebanon's, Hamas and Hizbollah are singled out for admonishment from the Hollywood luminaries:

"We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas."

According to Australia's Herald Sun the signatories include Nicole Kidman, Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt.

Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi also signed their names.

Others signing the ad included Sumner Redstone, the chairman and majority owner of Paramount Pictures, and billionaire mogul, Haim Saban.

Boycott these Hollywood personalities. The following resources provide much documentation of Israeli terror one may include in informative blog posts or e-mails although I'm not having much luck finding email addresses for the Hollywood pundits.

Enlighten them: Israel's forces dismembered one hundred Gazans from June 25-August 12.

Inform them: Israel's forces killed 203 Gazans and injured 800 in the same period.

Brief them: Israel's ethical troops killed 58 kids under 18 during this time.

Educate them: Maysoon Zaid, a handicapped Palestinian-American comedian, was left naked in a room to bleed on herself by Israel's airport officials.

Shame them: Erica Silverman's excellent "Plain Genocide."

Also express that the core of the conflict is Israel's refusal to let Palestine's refugees return home in contravention of international law. Ask Nicole Kidman how she would feel if she couldn't escape Hollywood for her native Australia. Explain Israel's concern for maintaining a majority of Jews in historic Palestine and ask why she supports a country that has institutionalized bigotry.

"My children are all gone; I will fight no more forever," wrote a bereft Chief Joseph. One hundred Palestinian limbs severed since June 25. A young handicapped woman deliberately left alone in an airport room naked bleeding on herself. A young resistance fighter bleeding to death in the street denied medical care. The horrible savagery that Erica Silverman chronicled in Al-Ahram. Really, what is left to Palestinians? What is left to do? How many pictures of dead Palestinian kids and now dead Lebanese kids do we print to no avail? Our politicians sing the praises of the Zionist butchers. What's a Palestinian? Someone who is chic in a kuffiyeh at a protest march that politicians and journalists ignore or someone who is dead. Or someone who keeps his or her eye on Gatsby's distant green light?

From I WILL FIGHT NO MORE FOREVER

by Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce

It is cold and we have no blankets.

Across the board, the misery index is rising as thousands from the Rafah district were forced to flee their homes under Israeli fire, taking refuge in UNRWA schools and tents, while the residents who remain are without water and electricity in sweltering summer heat. The economy has come to a grinding halt. The only sound in the street is the drumming of Israeli drones and funeral processions. Rafah is under siege.

The little children are freezing to death.

My people, some of them,

Have run away to the hills

And have no blankets, no food.

No one know where they are-

In the West Bank, 649 Palestinians have been taken prisoner since June 25th.

Perhaps they are freezing to death.

I want to have time to look for my children

Israeli forces have killed 203 Palestinians and injured 800 others since the start of their operations in the Gaza Strip, dubbed "Operation Summer Rains," launched June 25.

And see how many of them I can find.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that the number of children under 18 killed in the operation so far is 58.
Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

Israeli tanks plowed into Rafah Thursday, beginning an incursion that claimed the lives of 17 Palestinians, including five children (one, a three-day-old baby) and wounding 50, half of them children.

Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired.

My heart is sad and sick.

800 Palestinians were reported injured due to the Israeli aggressions, including 100 with severed limbs due to the new and lethal type of missiles and shells used by the Israeli tanks, artillery, combat helicopters and unmanned drones.

Bloggers For Implementation Of Right OF Return, Please Write nancyharb2001@yahoo.com or Leave a Comment So That I May Link To You As A Blogger Who Supports Implementation Of ROR.

In Askar Refugee Camp near Nablus, August 15, Palestinian boys resist Israel's invasion of their home.

A Lebanese woman returns to the South, August 15, 2006.

Gold is removed from a dead Lebanese woman's hand. She was killed by an Israeli rocket.

Palstinians expelled from Jalil (Galilee) go towards Lebanon in 1948. To this day they have been denied by Israel their inalienable right to return home in violation of UN Resolution 194 and in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I've noticed that Israel's barbaric attack on Lebanon has galvanized this generation of those of Arabic background, just like Sabra/Shatila did for an earlier generation, and 1967 did for my generation. Remember every poem, every story, every blog post, every work of art, every conversation may serve to educate westerners about the very simple and humane solution for lasting peace in the Middle East: the inalienable right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their home.

Here's a very nice video by the Brazilian political cartoonist Latuff here. He has advice for what anyone may do to further peace in the Middle East.

Being Jewish by race I have a right to return to Israel should I desire. However I am so appalled by what this country stands for that I could never claim this right. Couldn't I just give it to a Palestinian refugee instead? Thomas Eisner

Below are some heartfelt, straight from the heart letters written to the Independent which explain "the grave injustice done to the many Palestinian refugees." As usual, the indefatigable Annie Annab brought this to my attention and I would encourage others to follow her lead and thank the Independent for publishing these letters.

RE: Fate of Jews and Arabs in Palestine
http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/article1219278.ece
letters@independent.co.uk

Dear Editor,

I was thrilled- and shocked- and relieved to see a treasure trove of letters specifically explaining about the grave injustice done to the many Palestinian refugees. And such beautifully written letters too- straight from the heart.

The Palestinian refugees inalienable right to return is such a crucial point and should be remembered- always remembered and honored at least in our thoughts (and our protest signs and our poems and our songs), until the day of real justice finally comes and the longest suffering, largest refugee crisis in the world ends with full respect and love for our true heritage and the real children of the land.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab

http://comment.independent.co.uk/letters/article1219278.ece

Fate of Jews and Arabs in Palestine

Sir: Yet again we encounter the personal pleading of Holocaust survivors who regard Israel as the only country left for them to escape anti-Semitism (Lucy Mandelstam's letter, 9 August).

My parents emigrated to Israel in the 1930s to create there a new social order striving "to uphold the full social and political equality for all its citizens without distinction of religion, race and sex" (Israel's Declaration of Independence, 1948). Yet in my early childhood I witnessed the levelling of the three Arab villages surrounding my kibbutz and the expropriation of the land and homes of 750,000 Arab-Palestinian refugees driven out of Israel in the aftermath of the 1948 war.

While Jews all over the world have the automatic right to "return" to Israel the Arab refugees are left to rot in camps and enclaves in the West Bank, Gaza strip, Lebanon and Syria. The only option for them is slavishly to reconcile to their fate, or join grassroots resistance parties like Hizbollah and Hamas.

RUTH TENNE

LONDON NW6

Sir: Lucy Mandelstam, writing from Israel, states that, aged 19 in 1945, on being released from a concentration camp, "All I wanted to do was start a new life in my own country".

Yet Palestine was not her own country. More than two thirds of the population were Palestinian Arabs and the majority of Jewish Palestinians were immigrants who had lived there for less than 30 years. Sixty one years later with over 3 million Palestinians living behind the barbed wire fences of Gaza or the walled ghettos of much of the West bank the writer lives in denial over the disaster her bright new state caused the indigenous people of Palestine. Until Lucy Mandelstam faces up to that tragedy the legitimacy she craves for Israel and the future of her children and grandchildren will remain as elusive as ever.

LYNNE TIMPERLEY

BRACKNELL, BERKSHIRE

Sir: Lucy Mandelstam tells a terrible personal history of suffering abusive shouts of "Jews to Palestine" as a child in Vienna and of years in concentration camps; but it wasn't Palestinians who shouted at her. I am sorry that she now feels insecure living in Israel. But I am sorry too that great numbers of Palestinians, displaced for more than half a century, are still being made to pay the price for European atrocities which they had no part in.

TOM RASMUSSEN

MANCHESTER

Sir: Being Jewish by race I have a right to return to Israel should I desire. However I am so appalled by what this country stands for that I could never claim this right. Couldn't I just give it to a Palestinian refugee instead?

THOMAS EISNER

LONDON SW14

NOTE: If you are a blogger who advocates for the implementation of the Palestinians' inalienable right of return, please read here for how you may become part of a bloggers' initiative.

From Palestine Return Center

Ashraf, a schoolteacher, loves to play football. Every day, he walks through the dusty alleyways of the Baqaa refugee camp, some 30km west of the capital, to join friends and relatives on the outskirts of the camp to play and chat.

Space is scarce within the compound, and football fields have recently had to make way for commercial centres and schools. Now, Ashraf must walk for half an hour to reach the playground on the camp’s northern rim. “By the time I get there, I’m already tired,” he said. “But we need to entertain ourselves to forget our dire situation.” According to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), there are some 150,000 refugees currently living in the Baqaa camp, which represents the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in the region. While official figures put the total number of Palestinian refugees in Jordan at 1.5 million, unofficial estimates put the number closer to 3.5 million. Statistics, meanwhile, indicate that more than 60 percent of refugees live on the equivalent of US $150 a month or less, putting them below the poverty line.

Under the prevailing system, there are two types of Palestinian refugee resident in the country. The first type – which makes up the majority of refugees – were granted Jordanian nationality, allowing them to work in the public sector, join professional associations, receive medical care at public hospitals and study in government-run schools.

The second kind – whose numbers do not exceed 50,000, according to UN figures – are those with temporary passports. These generally arrived in Jordan from the West Bank and Gaza following the 1967 Arab-Israel war. They are not permitted to work in the public sector or seek treatment in public hospitals.

Ashraf, meanwhile, along with other camp residents, believes that the world has forgotten him. “Services provided to us have been shrinking,” he said. “People are concerned they might be left on their own in the not-so-distant future.” As a result of declining services, many camp residents have moved away to the big cities, such as Amman, Zarqa and Irbid. Ashraf went on to suggest that the UN was “neglecting them on purpose.”

Last month, community leaders from the kingdom's 14 refugee camps sent a letter to the UN and donor countries, pointing out that living conditions within the camps had deteriorated sharply. “Health services have been reduced to a minimum,” read the letter, which went on to note that educational institutions suffered from lack of maintenance, classrooms were overcrowded, food rationing programmes had been cancelled and waste collection services reduced. Signatories to the letter went on to warn of “an eminent humanitarian disaster” if the agency continued to cut camp services.

Some camp residents also blame Amman for what they see as neglect. “We know that Jordan isn’t our home, but that doesn’t mean we have to live a miserable life,” said Ashraf, who went on to accuse the government of “turning a blind eye” to the plight of the refugees. Government officials, however, counter this by saying they have done more than their fair share to help refugees integrate into society. “We’ve built streets and set up necessary infrastructure, from water to electricity and sewage networks,” said one official from the foreign ministry’s Department of Palestinian Affairs. “Now it’s up to the UNRWA to do its job.”

But, according to UNRWA spokesman Mattar Saqer, the agency’s abilities are entirely dictated by the funding it receives. “We’ve outlined a long-term strategy to tackle the most pressing issues, but we were forced to scale down our projects due to dismal donations,” said Saqer.

The refugees’ precarious existence is evident in the streets of the Soof camp, 50km north of Amman, with frail houses and narrow, unpaved streets reflecting decades of deprivation. UNRWA-run schools and clinics are overcrowded, the streets are piled with garbage and the camp’s limited infrastructure faces an uncertain future. “They threw us in this camp and forgot all about us,” said 75-year-old widow Zaeela Abu Sari. “When we first arrived, UNRWA provided us with everything including food, water and health care. But services have dwindled while camp residents tripled.”

In the camp clinic, Salman – holding his head in pain – must wait two hours before a doctor can examine him. “If I had money, I would go to a private doctor, because I know they don’t examine us properly here,” said Salman. “This place badly needs more doctors.”

According to Mohammad Akel, a parliamentarian representing the Baqaa camp, the decision to cut services was politically motivated. “It’s apparent that the international community – mostly the US and Europe, the biggest donors – want to slowly abolish the refugee status, in preparation for a forced resettlement in Jordan,” he said. Akel went on to urge international donors to “live up to their promises, and help the Palestinians.”

By Khalid Amayreh

12 August, 2006

See also Khalid Amayreh's excellent "War Shows There Will Be No Stability Without Resolving the Palestinian Issue."

George W. Bush, undoubtedly the most ignorant and mendacious President in American history, claimed this week that Americans were in a confrontation with “Islamic fascists” who he said hated American freedom. This is basically the same nonsense he uttered following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, ignoring decades of US involvement in promoting, effecting and sustaining oppression of Muslims in the Middle East and enabling and maintaining tyrannical regimes that oppress and humiliate Arab masses from Casablanca to Bahrain.

It is always very hard, of course, to reason with an ignoramus, especially if he is mendacious and fanatic, let alone if he happens to be the President of the United States.

Nonetheless, the truth must be proclaimed aloud, not so much in order to change the mindset of the sadistic fuehrer at the White House who apparently is unreceptive to common sense and prefers to parrot crass lies about just everything from the Ozone layer depletion to the latest Israeli aggression against Lebanon.

“Islamic fascism”

Bush’s use of the term “Islamic fascists” is a very serious calumny that can be compared to Adolph Hitler’s deliberate vilification of Jews prior to WWII. It is designed to make people hate and murder Muslims. And as everyone knows, collective hatred toward a specific ethnic or religious community is only the penultimate step toward the systematic persecution and possible extermination of that community.

Yes, there are Muslim extremists and terrorists who ought to be condemned in the strongest terms. There are also Christian, Jewish and other terrorists who commit far worse acts of terror and criminality. Terrorists are terrorists because terror has no religion or particular ethnic or cultural identity. George Bush himself, if truth is be told, is probably the greatest terrorist of our time.

However, to ascribe terror to a particular religion and to call Muslims terrorists and fascists is a grave and malicious misrepresentation of reality.

Nothing can be farther from truth. Ask any respectable academic, and he or she will tell you that “Islamic fascism” is any oxymoron because Islam and fascism are contradictory terms.

Fascism is characterized by its emphasis on racism, idolatry of the principle of leadership, its intolerance and one-mindedness as well as violence and despotism, whereas Islam is a religion whose very name is derived from peace and whose ideals are overwhelmingly similar to those of true Christianity and true Judaism.

In Islam, the ultimate criterion for salvation and success in this world and the hereafter is righteousness, not race or anything of this sort.

God declares in the Quran that “Oh Mankind, We created you from a single pair of male and female and made you into nations and tribes so that you may get acquainted with each other, the best of you in the sight of God, is the most pious. Verily God is well-aware of all that you do.”

In Surat al Asr (Time), the Quran further states that “by the passage of time, man is indeed in a state of loss, except those who have faith, do good deeds, and counsel each other to truth and counsel each other to patience.”

Does that sound fascistic, Mr. Bush?

I am not a theologian, but as an ordinary Muslim, I can testify that my parents taught me (which I later learned in school) that “there is no superiority of an Arab above a non-Arab save by piousness, good will and good deeds.”

We were taught to respect and venerate all the prophets of God, including Adam, Noah, Idris, Lut, Abraham, Issac, Ishamel, Joacob, Moses, Jesus and Muhammed and others and not to make any preference of one over another.

Yes, we are commanded to resist oppression, but we are exhorted to do so in proportion.

“And if you punish the aggressors, do it in proportion to the original aggression, but if you forgive, it will be better for the forgivers.”

Yes, I realize too well that there are many Muslims who do things that are starkly incompatible with the sublime teachings of their religion. I condemn them unhesitatingly. But the same can be said about adherents of other religions as well, who too ought to be equally condemned.

The early American settlers exterminated millions in the name of “manifest destiny.” In the past century alone, as many as a hundred million people were killed in wars waged and sustained by “Christians.” And, today, in the name of fulfilling Jewish nationalism, Israel, thanks to active American backing and support, is committing a slow-motion genocide against the Palestinian people on no other ground than the victims not being members of the “Chosen people.”

Indeed, the so-called Christian west prevailed, not because of the excellence of its ideas, ideals and even religions, but rather because it excelled in applying organized violence against militarily weak and undeveloped nations.

We the peoples of the Third World don’t forget this fact and will never allow ourselves to be duped and deceived by the western lie about democracy.

The rejection of Hamas’s election victory by the West has been a clarion testimony to western mendacity and hypocrisy about democracy.

The West, especially the US and UK, uses the issue of democracy and human rights as a ready-made tool in the service of its knaved strategic goals.

However, when democracy and human rights don’t concord with these goals, the west encourages and supports despotism and tyranny and police-state repression. Just look how the West is so comfortable with the police state regimes in the Middle East.

Why we hate America

In an article titled “Why I hate America” which I wrote a few weeks after 9/11, I pointed out that there were three main reasons for Muslim hatred of the US government.

These included America’s embrace of Zio-Nazism (Israel is a Nazis state because when Jews behave like Nazis, they become Nazis), America’s embrace and support of Arab and Muslim tyrannies from Morocco to Pakistan, and this evangelical Nazi-like hostility to Islam and its estimated 1.5 billion adherents which has assumed cynical proportions such as claiming that Muslims don’t worship the true creator.

As a Palestinian, who by the way received his college education in the United States (I received my BA in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and MA in the same field from the University of Southern Illinois at Carbondale), I can’t possibly like a government that slaughtered a million Iraqi children in order to punish one man, Saddam Hussein. Nor can I view with indifference America’s Gestapo-like policies and practices toward my people.

People don’t like their tormentors, and American is par excellence the tormentor of the Palestinian people. America is the author of 39 years of death, bereavement, savagery, home demolition, roadblocks , persecution and repression of my people. America is to us what the Third Reich was to the Jews. America and Israel are the Nazis of our time.

During the so-called Oslo years, America gave us a police state without a state, and when elections were finally held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in January 2006 and Hamas won the elections, America suddenly turned its back on us, conniving with Israeli war criminals to impose a hermetic siege on three and a half million people.

Today, Israel, with enthusiastic American support, is denying 3.7 million Palestinians access to food, water and work. Moreover, the Israeli wehrmacht has destroyed, nearly completely, the infrastructure in Gaza and Lebanon, including bridges, schools, colleges, power stations, streets and apartment buildings, all in the name of Jewish nationalism. If this is not Nazism, then what is Nazism?

America, where children are taught to “give me freedom or give me death,” consistently prevented justice from my people for nearly sixty years and actively supported policies and practices that go against the most elementary American ideals of freedom and liberty and fair play.

America supported and continues to support ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and the crudest violations of our human rights on the ground that the victims are children of a lesser God and the oppressors are “the ethnic people of God who can do no wrong.”

George Bush and cohorts may claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. However, a quick glance at the man, his mindset and behaviors reveals that he is many light years away from the sublime teachings of Jesus, may peace be on him.

Indeed, a true follower of Jesus wouldn’t adopt this criminal and murderous discourse toward the peoples of Palestine and Lebanon and other Muslims.

I am sure that on the Day of Judgment, Jesus will turn his face away from murderers, hypocrites and liars like Bush who in the name of Jesus commit every conceivable crime and abomination.

Photo From Al-Awda San Diego's March for Palestine, Iraq, and Lebanon August 12.

Had to post Khalid Amayreh's latest story below but don't forget to join, see post here, with other bloggers who advocate for the implementation of the inalienable right of return for Palestinian refugees. Become part of this positive blogger initiative!

Photo: Rafah Refugee Camp Savaged By Israel

Israeli apologists are already claiming that the confrontation between a nuclear-armed Israel and Islamic resistance groups, such as Hezbullah and Hamas, is an epitome of the war between Islam and the West.

Well, this is another piece of mendacious propaganda intended to cloud and blur and deceive, since the real problem lies first and foremost in this enduring Nazi-like military occupation of Palestine.

Occupied Jerusalem: 14 August

From Khalid Amayreh

As the UN sponsored ceasefire between Israel and Hezbullah went into effect at 8:00 a.m. Monday, 14 August, Israeli politicians and generals were already pointing accusing fingers at each other as to who was responsible for the unprecedented beating the Israeli army took at the hands of Hezbullah resistance fighters.
And while Israeli government officials are trying desperately to display a feeling of “victory,” mainly to boost the moral of their citizenry, it is amply clear that the Israeli society has awakened to a new reality in the Middle East, one that shows that the Israeli army can be beaten and that steel-hearted guerillas, motivated by faith and a desire for martyrdom in the battle field against brutal foreign occupiers, can’t be taken for granted.

True, Israel succeeded in destroying much of the Lebanese civilian infrastructure, including bridges, homes and entire neighborhoods, such as the Dahiya of Beirut. It also succeeded in murdering hundreds of innocent civilians, including many entire families annihilated by the Israeli air force while sleeping in their homes.

However, Israel has nearly completely failed to realize any of its goals, declared by Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, at the beginning of the 32-day campaign of terror and murder against Lebanon.

To begin with, Israel has obviously failed to get her two soldiers abducted by Hezbullah fighters, the pretext for the war, released unconditionally. Indeed, the fact that Olmert has voiced his willingness to negotiate with Hezbullah a possible prisoner swap underscores the impotent arrogance of the Israeli political leadership, prompting many to wonder why Olmert didn’t negotiate from the beginning, which would have saved Israel and Lebanon all this wanton destruction and bloodshed.

In fact, many Israelis are already asking what kind of a leader is that who would sacrifice hundreds of Israeli soldiers and civilians, as well as incur losses estimated at $6 billion for the purpose of releasing two soldiers, especially when Hezbullah itself said from the very inception that it was willing to swap them for Lebanese prisoners languishing in Israeli jails?

Moreover, the Israeli army, with all its American-supplied state-of-the-art weaponry of death and destruction, has utterly failed to destroy Hezbullah’s arsenal of rockets. Indeed, in the closing hours of the war, the Islamic guerillas fired over 250 rockets onto northern Palestine. This is a clarion failure of an army that vowed to wipe Hezbullah off earth and bring the head of its leader, Hassan Nasrullah, the Israeli public on a silver platter.

More to the point, the war, probably for the first time, badly bruised the Israeli interior as nearly a million Israelis were forced to live in shelters for 32 days, without the Israeli army being able to stop rockets from falling on Jewish settlements.

One could cite may other failures the Israeli army incurred in this war, including the following:

The Israeli army proved beyond doubt that it is cowardly in eye-to-eye battles with Islamic guerillas and that it always resorts to bombing civilians and committing massacres to compensate for its cowardice.

The massacres of Kana, Mirwaheen, Bika’a, Tyre and the murderous bombing of the Dahiya testifies to the utter immorality of Israel in wartime.

This Nazi-like savagery caricatures Israel as a Gestapo like state that seeks always to murder innocent civilians in order to satiate the thirst for revenge among Israelis. This nefarious image which Israel acquired is starkly contrasted by the more-or-less glorious image that Hezbullah has earned as the resistance group’s popularity has skyrocketed throughout the Muslim world.

Furthermore, Israel’s Nazi behavior in Lebanon, which can be compared to the imperial Nazi air force’s bombing of Britain during WWII, has already generated a lot of hatred toward Israelis, with many writers establishing analogies between the Israeli army on the one hand and the Wehrmacht, SS and Gestapo on the other. After all, when Jews behave like Nazis, they become Nazis.

To justify the debacle, Israeli leaders are indulging in a plethora of lies, like claiming that Israel went to war against Lebanon because its very survival was at stake. This is of course a gigantic lie as many Israelis know for sure, as it is obvious that the survival of a nuclear power, who also has the United States at her beck and call, can’t really be threatened by guerillas who are defending the survival, dignity and honor of their people and their country.

Besides, Israeli apologists are already claiming that the confrontation between a nuclear-armed Israel and Islamic resistance groups, such as Hezbullah and Hamas, is an epitome of the war between Islam and the West.

Well, this is another piece of mendacious propaganda intended to cloud and blur and deceive, since the real problem lies first and foremost in this enduring Nazi-like military occupation of Palestine. It is this evil occupation that is the root cause of all instability in the Middle East and beyond. Even the Iraq war wouldn’t have taken place had it not been for the incessant urging of pro-Israeli neocons who wanted to destroy Iraq to maximize Israeli hegemony and territorial aggrandizement .

The scandal of the Israeli occupation of Palestine is also the root cause that generates mistrust and tension between Muslim peoples and some Western governments, such as the US and UK, that enthusiastically support Israeli aggression and criminality, either due to misperceptions and misunderstandings, mainly generated by the Jewish-controlled or Jewish-influenced media in these countries, or because of the prevalence of pseudo- messianic and evangelical convictions that view Israeli barbarianism as sanctioned by God. Otherwise, there are no inherent contentions between Muslims and Christians as any honest academic would testify.

Finally, it is vital that we understand that this war in Lebanon is not going to be the last and that another round of even more destructive and bloodier war is coming up unless this vandal state comes to term with Palestinian rights and agrees to end its decades-old occupation of Palestinian land.

In short, Muslims and Arabs, and with them all peace-loving men and women around the world, will never rest as long as al-Qods al Sharif continues to languish under the evil Zionist occupation and as long as millions of Christians and Muslims in Palestine continue to be tormented and denied basic human rights, such as the right to access food, water and work, at the hands of a people who claim to be a light upon mankind.

Photo courtesty of Al-Awda San Diego from San Diego's August 12 Demonstration, All Out for Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq!

The Root of the Conflict

If you are an advocate for the implementation of the Palestinians' inalienable right to return as stated in Article 13, Section 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country,"

leave a comment or write nancyharb2001@yahoo.com and I will link [again in some cases]to your blog as one that advocates for the implementation of the Palestinians' inalienable right to return home (thanks to Annie for the idea).

http://home.iprimus.com.au/fidamelhem/ssnp/The%20israeli_massacre_of_salha.htm

Salha and six other Lebanese villages have all been occupied by “Israel” since 1948

In September 1948, when the first Arab-Israeli war was at its height, around 70 Lebanese civilians from the village of Salha were herded into the village square and machine gunned to death by members of the Haganah Jewish militia, the forerunner to the Israeli army.

Salha is one of seven Lebanese villages that were incorporated into Palestine in 1926 in an agreement known as the Jerusalem Treaty brokered by the British and French mandate authorities. Salha and the other six villages - Hounine, Qaddas, Melkihi, Tarbiqa, Nabi Yusha and Irbil Qammeh - have all been occupied by the Israelis since 1948.

The decision to incorporate the seven Shiite populated villages into the largely Sunni dominated Palestine was first raised in 1922 and later put into effect in February 1926. The residents were allowed to retain dual identity as Lebanese and Palestinians. The Lebanese census of 1933 asked the villagers whether they would like to remain in Palestine or be reincorporated into Lebanon.

“Most of them were happy to become part of Palestine for economic reasons. Beirut was far away for these people and Haifa was much closer and there was no border fence so they could cross into Lebanon whenever they liked,” said Atif Aoun, a former resident of Salha who was three years old at the time of the massacre.

The inhabitants of this largely agricultural village lived in peace with the growing number of Jews who emigrated to Palestine in the 1930s, but the creation of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948 and the ensuing war, was to shatter their rural bliss forever. "We had formed a village guard to protect us from the Zionists because we had heard of massacres elsewhere,” said 78-year-old Hamid Aoun.

“One evening the Israelis arrived in the village in armoured cars and demanded that we hand over all the guns in the village and then we would receive new identification passes. We told them that we had no guns in the village and that we were peaceful people who wanted no trouble,” Hamid said. A villager climbed onto the roof of a building and called on the residents to assemble in the square in front of the mosque. Nimr Aoun, 83, recalled two Israeli officers sitting outside a house and drinking coffee while the villagers assembled.

"Some other Israelis handed out leaflets telling us to surrender. Even at that time many people had left Salha in fear of the Israelis and their guns,” he said. Hajj Ahmed Abdul Karim, 80, was visiting Yaroun that day, 3km from Salha on the Lebanese side of the border. “My father was on his way to the square when someone told him the Israelis planned to murder them all. So he hid behind a wall. A few minutes later, he heard machine gun fire and could hear his brother screaming as the Israelis shot him,” he said.

Around 70 villagers had gathered outside the mosque and were surrounded by ten armoured cars with heavy machine guns mounted on top. One of the Israeli officers, speaking in Arabic, threatened to shoot them if the weapons were not handed over.

“When I heard this I knew there would be trouble so I crept away and hid without them seeing me,” Hamid said. The officer turned to his troops and spoke briefly in Hebrew, whereupon the machine guns opened up on the villagers. “I was shot in the knee but managed to crawl beneath an armoured car from where I could see my friends being killed,” said Nimr. “As the shooting died down I covered myself with dead bodies and smeared blood onto my face so the Israelis would think I was dead.”

Of the residents who had assembled in the village centre, only two survived ­ one of whom was Nimr. He was carried by mule to hospital in Bint Jbeil where the doctors said that the injuries to his leg would have to result in amputation. “I told them that I would cut off the head of the person who would cut off my leg,” Nimr said. The other survivor was not so lucky. His leg was amputated and he died shortly afterwards.

The remaining villagers fled the village over the next two days ­ none of them to return. “The bodies still lay in the square four days later. They had begun to smell and dogs were feeding off their corpses,” said Hamid. “The Israelis returned and bulldozed them into the mosque then blew it up.”

The villagers’ fate echoed that of the Palestinians who were forced to flee their homeland to settle in Lebanon. The Salha residents stayed initially with relatives near the border ­ believing they would soon return home ­ before congregating in the Shabriha suburb of Tyre.

Fifty years on, the massacre still rankles with the elderly residents of Salha. “There was no reason for the Israelis to do that to us,” said Abdul Karim. “We hadn’t declared war on them and there were no nearby Jewish settlements for us to fight against.” Nimr said: “I still hope we can return home one day. I would return to Salha even if I had to live there in a cave.”

Source: The DailyStar