[Peace-discussion] palestine journal: 19 july

[Michael Canney]

  19 july 2006

hi everyone!!
listen, i know i only wrote to you yesterday....but this whole thing is 
happening so fast.....things could easily spiral out of control.

so many people are writing so much...... I hope folks in the US will 
take what i suggested yesterday and get Bush impeached so we can move 
ahead with dialogue and diplomacy, instead of more, expanding war.

and check these links:
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2006/07/17/photo-of-the-day-israeli-kids-sends-gifts-of-love-to-arab-kids/
http://www.electroniclebanon.net

here's an interview I did with the head of the UN Refugee Agency in Gaza:
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/07/10630.php

in a rather unnoticed development, israel has started denying entry for 
people known to sympathize with the palestinian cause, and those of 
palestinian origin:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4859.shtml
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/736360.html

and badly beat an american woman and her son at the allenby bridge 
border crossing (the same one I wrote about crossing a couple weeks ago!):
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20108&Itemid=1

Yesterday, Israeli forces arrested the Bureau Chief of Al-Jazeera 
television. Two journalists have been shot and severely wounded covering 
the invasion of Gaza, and today, the Israeli military censor's office 
issued an order for journalists based in the area to self-censor their 
reports about the ongoing Israeli invasions and Lebanese response.

These developments have led a lot of Palestinians to believe that their 
suffering will once again be made invisible to the eyes of the world.

Fox News has tried really hard to be a cheerleader for Israel - even 
when Israeli forces fire at their crews (leading one of the commentators 
to call them 'Bad guys with guns'):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ar0jRu5fDZw

and, of course, keep checking:
http://www.imemc.org for constant updates

Here are letters sent by two women in Lebanon:

Letter from Lebanon: LEBANON IS KIDNAPPED!

Dear Family and Friends,

Ha! I think I am becoming a reporter now! First, we are still safe, but 
hardly anyone sleeps. The bombing has been continuous, day and night 
with no reprieve. We are in the mountains and we are awakened by the 
sound of the explosions. And it’s not as if you can just fall back 
asleep after hearing a bomb land. You can imagine what it is like if you 
are in Beirut. The situation is extremely serious.

I want to reiterate that we need your help in disseminating this 
information and hopefully getting it to the press. The news you are 
receiving is skewed. This is a well orchestrated war that Israel is 
carrying out. This is not a reaction to Hizbullah’s apprehending two of 
its soldiers. It becomes clearer by the day that there is a master plan 
that Israel is executing.

Israel has literally kidnapped the entire country. One by one they are 
destroying every single road that leads out of the country. Just this 
evening around 8:00 p.m. We heard Israeli planes flying overhead only to 
hear a few minutes later on the radio that they destroyed a mountain 
road that leads to the Bekaa valley. This road is further up the 
mountain from where we live, in a primarily Christian village.

On the news earlier we heard that of the 93 Lebanese killed, only 3 were 
soldiers. As of 8:30 p.m. More than 120 Lebanese are dead and over 500 
wounded.

Yesterday they bombed a small port in Amchit, a Christian village about 
one hour north of Beirut. Why? The Israelis got wind that a French ship 
carrying medical supplies was arriving. Damaging the port they prevented 
these critical medical supplies from reaching their destination.

Yesterday, my niece was attending a wedding-poor couple-could they 
really delay their wedding after months of planning? The wedding was 
held not too far from Jounieh, a major port about 25 minutes north of 
Beirut, a Christian town (and definitely not a Hizbullah stronghold). 
Everyone was on the terrace celebrating when Israel repeatedly attacked 
the Jounieh port. My niece said that everyone ran into the church and 
prayed. The bride was crying. The groom was crying. My niece left the 
wedding flying down the main highway while bombs whistled by. Nice 
memories for the newlyweds.

This afternoon, the Israelis decimated a small Christian village, Ain 
Ebel in the south of Lebanon. The mayor was pleading with the UN for a 
cessation of the Israeli bombing so they could evacuate women and 
children, and eventually to get food and medical supplies. Again, Ain 
Ebel is far from being a Hizbullah basis.

In the southern suburb of Beirut, Israelis knocked out all 
telecommunications-both land and mobile.

They just struck the airport again, as I have been writing this. This 
must be the sixth or seventh time, I lost count!

Over 1 million Lebanese, that’s nearly one third of the entire 
population has been displaced! Hotels, homes in the mountains are packed 
to the brim trying to accommodate these people made refugees in their 
own country.

Are you still convinced that Israel is attacking only Hizbullah targets? 
Are you still convinced that Israel has a right to defend itself-and if 
so, in this way?

Even during the 15 years of war, never ever were all roads, ports, and 
airports simultaneously blocked. When I was in Saudi, we would fly to Cyprus
then take the boat to Jounieh to visit my husband’s family. Now there is 
no way out. Israel has kidnapped and trapped the entire country. There 
are more than 17, 000 French citizens, more than 10, 000 English, more 
than 25, 000 Americans and many more other foreign nationals trapped 
because Israel has blown up all major roads, bridges, airports and 
ports. Their actions are barbaric. The British Ambassador made a public 
announcement on television telling his compatriots that the roads are 
not safe enough to travel on for
an evacuation and urged them to just remain at home. How reassuring! You 
hear news of evacuations, but we are all wondering how anyone can get 
out when roads, bridges and ports have been damaged so severely.

Now, to end with a little story. A news item that I am sure did not make 
big news in the American press:
On June 21, 2006, about three weeks ago, The Daily Star, the local 
English newspaper published an article about Lebanon expecting complete 
support from the UN Security Council about a complaint the Lebanese 
government was presenting to them. The Lebanese were following proper 
international protocol. What was discovered? The Mossad, the Israeli 
secret service (like the U.S.’s CIA), has a network in Lebanon and has 
assassinated at least 3 Lebanese citizens which the Israelis believed to 
be “terrorists.”

I ask you:
What is worse? Hizbullah’s kidnapping two Israeli soldiers or Israeli 
agents coming onto Lebanese territory and assassinating its citizens? 
It’s like having a North Korean secret service cell in the U.S. Killing 
American citizens. Would the U.S. Sit back and do nothing? It’s an 
outrage. Yet, Israel destroys Lebanon with impunity and no one pays 
attention to the infractions that Israel does. And what right does 
Lebanon have to defend itself? If Lebanon, dared to do what Israel is 
doing to it now, it would be
labeled “terrorist.”

I once again plead with you to get this news out. Israel is destroying 
Lebanon while the United States puts its head in the sand! These 
atrocities must stop!
10:10 p.m. The bombs are exploding. Another sleepless night ahead..
Rosie AKL.

 >From Zena el-Khalil:
I have started coughing, but I don’t know why. I am not sick. I don’t 
have a cold. I think it’s a reaction I’m having to stress. My body feels 
weak. My mouth is always dry, no matter how much water I drink. And I’m 
afraid to drink too much water because I don’t want it to run out!

Last night was probably the most frightful night I have ever experienced 
in my whole entire life. I was so tired and exhausted... have not slept 
in days. When there is finally a quiet moment, the tension in my stomach 
and heart prevents me from falling asleep.

Last night we counted at least 15 bombs falling into Dahiyeh (Beirut 
Suburbs).. and these were just the ones we heard. At some point during 
the night, I said to myself that if I didn’t at least try to get some 
sleep that I was going to go crazy from fatigue; and that that was what 
was going to kill me. Haven¹t been able to eat either, so am losing 
physical strength.

It's all psychological at this point. I know I have to be strong, and I will
be, but I can’t deny what I¹m going through. And I think it’s important 
that people hear about the downside as well as the bravery. So many of 
us are already working hard to fix things, we are running around Beirut 
trying to get food and water and medicine to people, we are doing things 
online, etc, but it doesn’t mean we are not scared, sick or tired.

So, last night amidst the worst shelling we’ve had so far, I realized 
that I was not afraid of the noise anymore; how quickly you get used to 
it. I realized what was hurting the most was the “UNKNOWN”. What is 
going to happen tomorrow? When will this all end? How are we going to 
start re-building again? Are the refugees going to be ok? How are the 
people in the south? And why punish a whole country? What is the real 
plan behind all
of this? How much worse is it going to get?

My husband and I have been housing foreign “refugees” helping them to 
find their way out of the country. Two managed to leave this morning, a 
German and Swiss. The other two are British and American. The craziest 
thing is that out of all people, the American embassy has been the LEAST 
helpful to its citizens here. The phone line to the embassy has been 
practically out of service. My friend, Amanda, (whom I just met a few 
days ago, by the way) had to hire a cab to take her to the embassy 
(which is a ride out of Beirut) and all they could tell her was that 
they didn¹t know what they were going to do and to keep checking the 
website. Only thing she has gotten on the website is that she now knows 
that there is going to be an evacuation (5 days later), but when it 
happens, she is going to have to pay for it! Yes, they are saying to 
their citizens that they are going to bill them for their ride out! Can 
you believe that?!

Trying to evacuate people has put me under stress. The question is what 
am I to do if I had the opportunity to leave? Would I leave? What do I 
do with my friends? My family? My art studio? I have a British passport; 
I could be evacuated with my husband. But what would happen to my best 
friend Maya? She has a very rare and bad case of CANCER! I have been 
taking care of her since she was diagnosed a few months ago and I know 
that my care for her is what has helped her do so well. Her type of 
cancer is “untreatable”, but ironically, the day the shelling started, 
her doctor told us her tumors had shrunk! Unbelievable- a true miracle. 
I can’t leave Maya!

What about art work in my studio? What about all my brushes and paints 
and glitter and books! All my books! Again- the crazy things that cross 
your mind.

What about our photo albums? All our family pictures? The memories...

What about the doodles I drew on my balcony a few summers ago when I was 
suffering from a bad break up?

What about all the love letters I have saved? Letters that document my 
youth that I wanted to some day give to my daughter.

What about my other best friend? My dog, Tampopo? My beautiful Jack 
Russel Terrier who has never let me down. Who has always been a source 
of purity and compassion... Who has eyes of an angle... Dogs are not 
allowed to evacuate. My American friend Christine is going to have to 
leave her dog with me; a black pug named Baousi (means Kiss in Arabic). 
She is heartbroken! She almost didn’t want to evacuate. She went to so 
many embassies to try and register with them and see if they would take 
her dog. Don’t worry Christine, I will take great care of Baousi.

My sister has been volunteering to help the refugees who are being 
sheltered in public schools. Right now they are calling on Lebanese 
citizens to help out with money, medicine, food, water, blankets and 
mattresses. She has been going to people and asking for money and then 
going out to buy medicines for refugees- her own initiative! My mom has 
joined in too. A friend has put together a website for accepting donations:
http://atrissi.com/helplebanon/

Biggest cynical statement of the day:
Israel has told people to evacuate from the south because they are going 
to annihilate the south of Lebanon. However, the people can not leave 
because all the roads have been destroyed/blocked. And yesterday when 
people did try and leave, the Israelis opened fire on them! A massacre 
is happening!

Update on the attacks, as of yesterday:
• Israelis have been bombing the south of Lebanon with phosphorus and 
other chemical bombs.
• Israelis have bombed all ports along the coastline of Lebanon.
• Israelis have bombed all our local army radars and some outposts
• Israelis have bombed/attacked the fire fighting brigade and the Search 
and Rescue Brigade in the South. Innocent civilian lives were lost. It was a
massacre- the buildings were also housing refugees.
• Israelis have continued to bomb the suburb of Beirut, Dahiyeh & Haret 
Hreik
• Israelis have now killed over 100 civilians and there are several 
hundreds wounded and they continue to bomb the south
• Israelis have started hitting roads that lead to the mountains. They 
hit a main one leading to the Shouf. -Israelis have hit a gas plant in 
the mountains
... I can’t keep up with what they have hit.

*** Israel has begun to target Lebanese army outposts. They have killed 
Lebanese soldiers. They are no longer just targeting Hizbullah. They 
mean to kill all of Lebanon.

The reality:
Israel is trying to bring Lebanon to its knees. Israel is trying to 
destroy Lebanon and the Lebanese spirit. Israel is trying to turn 
Lebanese against each other. Israel is trying to turn us into animals 
scrounging for food, water and shelter. Israel and the United States of 
America are trying to drag Syria and Iran into this too. They are using 
Lebanon as bait. Lebanon is stuck in the middle. The Americans and 
Israelis are trying to launch a regional war!!

Please help in any way you can. Please pass on the message, this email- 
reprint if you wish. Please tell people what is going on. Please put 
pressure on your respective governments to step in and do something.

Lebanon is a peaceful country. We are the only country in the region in 
which people of all religions co-exist peacefully.

It is unbelievable how biased the news is. They are not reporting the 
real Damage being caused. They don¹t report that the Israelis are 
killing innocent civilians. It seems from this end that all they are 
focusing on is G8!

Are the Israeli & US government really just trying to wipe us all out?? 
Well, you can tell them that I'm not leaving. And there are many of us 
who are not leaving. We love Lebanon. We love what we have spent our 
lives building.

Tell them about people like me.. who build culture and tolerance. Who 
work for peace and understanding. Who work to educate. Who work to 
promote love and compassion. There are thousands like me here. What 
about us?

Tell them about people like me, that despite all of this, I have still 
not learnt to hate. They can take everything from me, but not my 
dignity. Not my morals and beliefs. They will never never break my spirit.

Tell the Israeli citizens what their government is doing to us. Tell 
them that violence begets violence. Remind them that Lebanon is their 
neighbor and that co-existence is possible. How are we going to ever 
reach an understanding through violence? We were so close... We were so 
close...

Please stop this brutality!
Still with love,
Zena el-Khalil

By the way, did I mention Maya’s tumors are getting smaller? Did I 
mention there was a wedding across the street yesterday?
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http://www.jenkasjourneys.org
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