I'm visiting my family in Dheisheh refugee camp. I'm on the phone with a friend (about 10 minutes ago), trying to figure out plans for the day, and discussing the case of a Palestinian man who was badly beaten by settlers last night and then arrested for being beaten. My host father walks by and said "55 people murdered in Lebanon, another massacre in Qana!"
I hear televisions going on in the neighborhood. I walk inside and sit down on the couch in front of images of dead children. It looks like the images I've seen of other massacres in the area, in Sabra and Shatila, even in Qana so many times. It looks exactly the same. Does it matter that this one happened from the air, that the Israelis are no longer killing quite as many people in on-the-ground combat because they're afraid of losing some of their own? Does it matter that someone pressed a button instead, demolished an entire building on top of its inhabitants. The number of dead will grow. 55 have been found so far. Many more are believed to be trapped under the rubble. Probably dead. If they're alive, they'll die soon, since neither rescue equipment nor ambulances are allowed on the roads. Israel will bomb anything that moves if it doesn't have a "safe passage" guarantee, which isn't easy to come by if you're talking about trying to save Lebanese civilians.
I can't believe we're letting these massacres happen again. In Lebanon, in Gaza, on a smaller scale in Nablus and Jenin this week. I see more press coverage of European and American citizens being evacuated from Lebanon than what is happening to the Lebanese who must stay. Israel has killed close to 1000 people in the past month (mostly in Lebanon and Gaza, almost entirely civilians). The response to this mass murder has been disproportionately tiny. About 50 Israelis have been killed, and that includes soldiers.
If my language is severe, it's because the situation is severe. I don't think it's possible to be more extremist than the situation itself. And to think that those with power (namely the US) are pushing for more and more death, that Condoleezza Rice is calling the murder of civilians the "birth pangs of the new Middle East"... it's disgusting! And to think the media is reporting this war as a war of self-defense on Israel's part. I can't even imagine how anyone would say that Lebanon started this war. Lebanon as a country is barely even involved in this war, and has been begging the world for a cease-fire. They've barely even responded to Israeli aggression. Hizbollah, yes, they've responded to massive bombing by firing rockets across the border. But Hizbollah is not the Lebanese government, is not the Lebanese people, and is not the target of the Israeli army. A vast majority of the hundreds and hundreds murdered in the past few weeks have been civilians. Israel's excuse: "There might be a Hizbollah fighter in your neighborhood, you chose the wrong place to live." Can you imagine an entire city being bombed because one criminal is suspected to be living in that city? There is one word only to explain the acceptance of this collective punishment: racism.
I don't know what else to say. Please don't accept the premises that CNN and BBC base their coverage on. This is pure and simple murder. And the US is the main supporter. Please do everything you can to protest what is happening. There is no risk you can take that is more than the risk each Lebanese person is taking simply by living in Lebanon today. There is no risk you can take that is more than the risk each Palestinian person is taking simply by living in Gaza today.
I'm still listening to the news coverage in the background. A very angry Lebanese man is screaming something about George Bush. I am embarrassed to be American.
-Hannah
P.S. If you're confused about sequence of events, this is a good timeline of what has happened daily in the current Israeli war on Lebanon: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/35772526-C1A8-4599-868C-E513C4F29C9B.htm In general, I recommend the websites of Al Jazeera and Ha'aretz for detailed information about what is happening in this region.
