Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
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Showing posts with label "March 14 Movement". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "March 14 Movement". Show all posts
As the Zionist entity accepted an Egyptian ceasefire proposal, the Palestinian resistance rejected it, vowing to intensify the battle with the enemy.
Israeli security cabinet on Tuesday accepted the Egyption proposal proposal, a government spokesman said.
"The cabinet has decided to accept the Egyptian initiative for a ceasefire starting 9am today," Ofir Gendelman, spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on Twitter.
Ministers in the security cabinet had begun meeting early on Tuesday to consider the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire to start immediately from 0600 GMT.
For its part, the resistance voiced rejection to the initiative; with spokesman of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, Fawzi Barhum told AFP there would be no truce without a fully fledged deal to end hostilities.
"In times of war, you don't cease fire and then negotiate," he said.
Sami Abu Zuhri, another Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said earlier on Tuesday that the resistance group had not received an official ceasefire proposal, and he repeated its position that demands it has made must be met before it lays down its weapons.
The military wing of the resistance movement, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades considered the truce as surrender, pledging to intensify the battle against the Zionist entity.
The al-Qassam Brigades said it had not officially received the text of the agreement but said excerpts published in the media showed it was "an initiative of kneeling and submission, and we reject it outright.”
"Our battle with the enemy continues and will increase in ferocity and intensity,” al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Source: Agencies
15-07-2014 - 11:02 Last updated 15-07-2014 - 11:02
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has rejected a proposal by Egypt for a ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip, unless Israel meets a few demands including an end to the Gaza blockade.
The military wing of Hamas, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, on Tuesday dismissed the proposal as “surrender” and vowed to “intensify” its battle against Israel.
On the same day, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum said, “A ceasefire without reaching an agreement is rejected. In times of war, you don’t cease fire and then negotiate.”
The resistance movement has said it will not hold its fire without Israel agreeing to a list of demands, including an end to its eight-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, along with the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
On Monday, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry presented a three-step plan over the Gaza conflict, which starts with a 12-hour ceasefire that would take effect on Tuesday.
“0600 GMT has been set for the beginning of the implementation of truce arrangements between the two sides,” a statement said. The ministry added that the truce would be followed by the opening of border crossings, and talks in Egypt’s capital, Cairo, between the sides.
Tel Aviv has ignored the UN’s call for a truce and is continuing its intensive aerial bombing campaign against Gaza, which started on July 8. The overall death toll from the Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave has risen to nearly 190.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Tel Aviv will not stop its attacks on Gaza.
The Takfiri ISIL terrorists are puppets of the Zionist regime to carry out its dictates against Muslims in the region, a senior Iranian official says.
If the ISIL cult had been a revolutionary group and a defender of Sunni Muslims as it claims to be, it would have now used its power, weapons and money alongside Hamas and the Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian resistance movements, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs, said on Sunday.
The terrorist group, however, has declared that it would not do anything to support the Sunni Palestinians oppressed by the Tel Aviv regime, Amir-Abdollahian added.
“The brutal attacks of the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank and the indifference of self-proclaimed advocacy groups and ISIL proved that they are enforcers of the policies dictated by Tel Aviv and apply their power and arms only against Muslims and the strength of the Islamic states,” he said. The deputy foreign minister went on to stress that the Islamic Republic strongly defends the resistance of both Shia and Sunni Muslims against the Israeli regime.
Israel has been pounding targets in Gaza since it started its latest wave of attacks on the blockaded enclave on July 8. Palestinian sources say more than 166 Palestinians have been killed and over 1,100 injured during the six-day attacks.
People in Iran, the United States, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey, France, Indonesia, Britain and several other countries have taken to the streets, calling for a halt to Israel’s deadly attacks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the Tel Aviv regime will not stop its attacks on the Gaza Strip and that “no international pressure will prevent us” from attacking the besieged territory.
Hamas Had Nothing to Gain – And Everything to Lose – By Starting Violence Now
While Israel has claimed that Hamas was behind the murder of 3 Israeli boys and subsequent rocket attacks, the Times of Israel reported last week:
A new Palestinian jihadist group pledging allegiance to the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIL) [or "ISIS"] has claimed responsibility for the killing of three Israeli teenagers last month in the West Bank, as well as other recent deadly attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
On Tuesday evening, Israel’s antimissile system, called Iron Dome, intercepted a rocket “over the Tel Aviv area,” the army said, showing the reach of Gazan rocketry. The rocket was believed to be of Iranian design, a Fajr-5, and Islamic Jihad claimed credit. Tel Aviv opened some public shelters, and in a city near Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, people were instructed to leave the beach.
Given that countries all over the world – including Israel and Muslim countries – have admitted to carrying out false flag attacks, we should carefully investigate who was responsible before cheering on a new Arab-Israeli war. (And the head of Mossad had predicted such an occurrence shortly before it happened.)
Palestine has gained a lot of support recently. For example, Palestine was accorded observer nation status by the United Nations. The movement to boycott and divest from companies doing business with Israel has gatheredtremendousmomentum. And the two main factions in Palestinian politics – Hamas and Fatah – have formed a unity government.
As Michael Rivero points out, it makes no sense for Hamas to have committed brutal acts of violence when it is winning through peaceful political means:
HAMAS and FATAH formed a unity government. They need the support of the world right now, and neither HAMAS or FATAH is going to carry out an act that would wreck the very public support they need. It’s like George Washington trying to kick out the British by shooting students in the colonial schools; it is just not going to happen.
And the Jewish Daily Forward notes that – if rogue Hamas members did carry out the murders – it was not with the permission or knowledge of Hamas leadership:
In the flood of angry words that poured out of Israel and Gaza during a week of spiraling violence, few statements were more blunt, or more telling, than this throwaway line by the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, Brigadier General Moti Almoz, speaking July 8 on Army Radio’s morning show: “We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard.”
That’s unusual language for a military mouthpiece. Typically they spout lines like “We will take all necessary actions” or “The state of Israel will defend its citizens.” You don’t expect to hear: “This is the politicians’ idea. They’re making us do it.”
It was clear from the beginning that the kidnappers weren’t acting on orders from Hamas leadership in Gaza or Damascus. Hamas’ Hebron branch — more a crime family than a clandestine organization — had a history of acting without the leaders’ knowledge, sometimes against their interests. Yet Netanyahu repeatedly insisted Hamas was responsible for the crime and would pay for it.
Dear friends, Clearly the situation in Novorussia is rapidly turning into a full-scale war and, as Juan always reminds us, it will get much worse before it gets better again. In this context, I believe that the "informational war" in which we are all participating is more important than ever. In this context, I have several good news to announce about the future of this blog: 1) The Vineyard of the Saker now available in Russian!!
The "French Team" have done something amazing: they have decided to create a Russian-language version of this blog:
"Виноградник Балобана - Обзор виноградника с высоты птичьего полёта"
There is no overestimating the importance of this development and I am immensely grateful to them for their initiative and efforts. They have asked me to post the following appeal:
The Vineyardsaker in Russian !! Call for help ! Looking at the international success of the site, we decided to launch a Russian version of it, giving a wider access to the Russian speaking audience. We need help to translate articles from English and eventually French to Russian. If you can help, please contact us at: editor@vineyardsaker.ru The Vineyardsaker тоже на Русском языке!! Нужна помощь! Учитывая международный успех сайта, мы решили запустить версию на русском языке, расширяя доступ русскоговорящей аудитории. Мы нуждаемся в помощи для перевода статей с английского и, вероятно, с французского на русский язык. Наши контакты: editor@vineyardsaker.ru
I would be most grateful if all those of you who can translate from English and/or French into Russian would directly contact the "Russian Team" at editor@vineyardsaker.ru and speak with them. Your skills need to be the one of a specialist. We are not talking about translating Shakespeare or Villion into Russian here. What is important is to convey the information correctly and rapidly.This does not have to be a major commitment, even one short article a month would help. They/Novorussia/we/I need all the help they/Novorussia/we/I can get, so please help!
2) The Vineyard Saker blog soon to move to new servers
Thanks to the generosity of a few wonderful people, I will soon move this blog away from Blogger to much safer(and more flexible) WordPress servers hosted in Iceland. Thanks to the help of some tech-savvy friends, I will also be able to implement a few special security measures which I cannot detail here, but let's just say that this blog will become very survivable, even if the servers in Iceland come under attack. At a time when ANNA news' account has been censored on clearly specious grounds of copyright infringement, this kind of protection is clearly a "must":
YouTube shut down ANNA news
Frankly, it is amazing that the "powers that be" have not shut down this blog for so long and I cannot wait any longer. I will fill you all out on the details as soon as they are hammered out, but that is a *major* improvement over the current situation. 3) The Saker's computers in a major upgrade Again, thanks to the amazing generosity of a few wonderful people, I will soon move from my old and dusty (not to mention halfway dead) desktop to a much more powerful and capable machine. These news really come at a good time because it really appears that the junta's war on Novorussia will be a long one and, as several of you have told me, we are not in for a sprint, but for a marathon. In these outright nasty and ugly times, I am especially encouraged by the help I am getting from good people quite literally all over the world: Juan, Mindfriedo, Gleb Bazov and Auslander, of course, but also less frequent contributors like, recently, XXX in Austria or some of the regular commentators here whose interesting and most informative comments might as well make us call them "contributors". Then there are those who have offered me to help with translations and who have done a stellar job translating often long and difficult texts literally overnight! As I have mentioned before, I am getting a lot of top-quality technical help form real experts who are offering their time and expertise for free, and who even cover some costs out of their own pocket. As for the "French Team" - they are turning what used to be a one-man-blog into an kind of international franchise, something which totally amazes me. Last but most definitely not least, I have to especially thank the donors who have sent me one time contribution or regular monthly donations and which have made it possible for me to spent the typical 5-8 hours of my (putatively "free") time each day working on this blog. To all these friends I want to say the following: Though I am sincerely and immensely personally grateful for your help, I want you to know that I fully understand that this is not about me. This is about our common cause, currently focusing on the events in the Ukraine, but really about the global resistance to empire on all its "fronts" and in all of its aspects. Yes, right now, the Ukraine and Iraq are probably the two most important flashpoints on the planet, but tomorrow this could become Lebanon, or Syria, or Kazakhstan or even France, Spain or Greece. And the resistance to empire is still active in Latin America even if it has received no attention on this blog simply due to my own physical limits. Judging from the constant stream of emails I am getting literally from all over the world (except China, for some reason), I truly know that the global world empire has met an equally global anti-imperial resistance. Thus, I see this blog, and the help it receives, as a tiny but not completely irrelevant contribution to this global effort. I think of it as "crowd-sourcing resistance" or "spontaneously self-organizing resistance" (any idea for a better descriptor?). Truly, as David Rovics put it so beautifully, we are everywhere! Thank you to all, and thank you most for being out there! The Saker
PS: I just wanted to mention here that the absolutely *stellar* work of the "French Team" has resulted in a most flattering in-depth review on the prestigious (French language) website DeDefesa.org. While the credit fully goes to the "French Team", I am also very honored and grateful.
Predictions about the likely course of events in this region, including occasional ones by this observer, have a way of not panning out as expected. But one prediction I offered recently to Palestinian friends in Syria—namely that Lebanon’s “media” would fail to inform the world about an important Palestinian victory achieved in late May—has so far turned out to be accurate.
The confrontation which took place recently in a small office at Lebanon’s General Security (GS) Information Branch headquarters was for the most part civil in tone—an over-the-hill American in handcuffs refusing to answer questions from a fat guy in uniform, who kept making a racket by striking his desk with a small metal rod, this as the Yankee began a hunger strike: it has been kept quiet. No coverage in the media. And frankly, that’s fine, because arguably it wasn’t that newsworthy in any event. But the problem which had given rise to the incident surely was.
It evolved around critically important Baccalaureate exams, whose dates, between the first and seventeenth of June, were fixed months ago by the Syrian Ministry of Education. More than 364,000 students in Syria, including thousands of Palestinian refugees, are scheduled to take the exams, required for the General Secondary Certificate for 2014. Some 28,000 additional students will be taking the Technical Secondary Certificate exams. Graduating seniors in Syria must pass these exams before receiving their diplomas and enrolling in university.
The saga, briefly told, has to do with the fact that the war in Syria over the past 33 months has forced into Lebanon between 1.2 million and 2 million Syrian refugees, including approximately 80,000 Palestinians, from Yarmouk refugee camp and elsewhere, and last week’s important victory on their behalf managed to go unreported in the sectarian-poisoned, highly politicized Lebanese media.
With a population of around 3.4 million, (eleven million emigrated during and since the 1975-1990 civil war that killed more than 170,000 Lebanese) Lebanon has been impacted fairly dramatically by the refugee influx in terms of housing, jobs, water and electricity. Some of these were already in weak circumstances even before the events of March 2011, and since the war began, clashes between pro and anti-Assad forces have spilled over the border, making the situation ever more precarious. Many of those bombed or shelled out of Syria’s 10 official Palestinian refugee camps have been squeezed into sardine-canned slums that were established between 1948 and 1951 and which were originally designed as temporary, short-term housing. Residing in an area intended to house one-sixth of its current population, these refugees, 90% of who have no jobs according to UNHCR, due to 88% of all jobs being outlawed for Palestinians in Lebanon are experiencing skyrocketing costs in healthcare, electricity and water, and they are also undergoing massive social problems. One of the latter is a marked decline in access to education, particularly among post-Baccalaureate Palestinian teenagers.
With Lebanese elections, both presidential and parliamentary, currently creating a host of political vote-harvesting opportunities, politicians have wasted no time in snatching the low-hanging fruit of six decades of refugee bashing, seizing the moment to blame refugees for all this confessional failed-state’s maladies. Vicious anti-refugee campaigns have been launched by some electoral contestants, much to the chagrin of those hoping to find haven here as well as portions of the international community, including campaigns seeking not only to expel those already here but which also press to bar those still coming in (and often arriving at the rate of thousands each day).
Among the proposals being put forth are for internment camps, to be set up somewhere in a no-man’s land, which presumably would make US internment camps created for Japanese-Americans in World War II appear almost civilized by comparison.
Various measures and proposed measures, all of them inhumane and many illegal, have rained down from government ministries and party headquarters by candidates offering themselves as leaders of a state that many now claim to be a lost cause. One action, clearly illegal, taken by the present government is a proclamation by the Lebanese Interior Ministry, currently headed by Nihad al-Mashnouq, a member of the anti-Syria Future Movement.
Al-Mashnoup arbitrarily issued an order banning refugees who journey to Syria to vote or take Baccalaureates—or to check on family members or see what’s left of their homes—from regaining entry to Lebanon. The decision was put into effect on June 1, the first day of the BACC exams.
A fireman sprays water on Syrian expatriates living in Lebanon to keep them cool, as they arrive to cast their ballots
It was issued just a few days after thousands of Syrians flocked to their country’s embassy in Beirut to vote in the recent election. In response, letters of protest were sent by both the Syrian and Palestinian embassies, with Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul-Karim branding the action a “retaliatory measure” aimed at the Assad government for purpose of impeding the vote process.
“It goes against the simplest rules of human rights as it contravenes the work of the International Commission on Human Rights, as international assistance is intended to reach the Syrians at home as well as those abroad,” Ambassador Ali declared.
Others argued that al-Mashnoup’s motive was obvious, and that the clumsily-pushed plan would actually increase refugee support for the Syrian regime. Omran Zoubi, the articulate Syrian Minister of Information, claimed that the decision would affect about 500,000 Syrians, while Human Rights Watch pointed out, accurately, that the capricious restriction would be a fundamental violation of international law.
Lebanon is tightening restrictions for Palestinians fleeing there from Syria after the Lebanese interior ministry declared that improving conditions justify a return to pre-war entry regulations. “As the situation in Syria is improving, especially in Yarmouk, the exceptional circumstances cited as their reason for entry into Lebanon are no longer relevant,” a source from the Interior Ministry told some media outlets in Beirut a couple of weeks ago. “The red alert has been switched to green” he enthused.
This claim is patently false and it is reveals deep ignorance of what is going on in Yarmouk—as well as unattractive malevolence. 283 refugees have died inside Yarmouk just from starvation and two more died due to the camp siege last week despite a few aid parcels entering. As often as not, militia inside Yarmouk follow those who are handed a food parcel and rob them of it at gunpoint. And sell them at exorbitant prices which most Palestinians in Yarmouk do not have. Lebanon’s government errs with its claim. In point of fact, “the exceptional circumstances cited as their reason for entry” are as relevant as ever-if not more so today.
Palestinian-Syrians have become refugees twice over as a result of the Syrian war. They face greater hurdles even than Syrian nationals as they try to flee to neighboring countries with longstanding Palestinian populations of their own that governments do not want to see grow. Some 70,000 Palestinian-Syrians are in Lebanon, on top of a pre-war UNWRA registered Palestinian population of 455,000 many of whom have fled Lebanon due to its ‘cold war’ against this population which be the hour that some in the PLO leadership in late July of 1982, while trapped under the Israeli siege, seriously erred and bought into Reagan-Habib fake promises of protection for the camps in Lebanon and recognition of a State of Palestine within 6 months.
“How can Lebanon turn its back on desperate people who have lost their homes, relatives and livelihoods and are running for their lives from a war zone?” asked HRW Middle East Director Joe Stark. “It is unconscionable and illegal that Lebanon (would) push them back to a place where their safety and very lives could be in danger.”
The reason HRW is right is that the international refugee protection system, based firmly on the 1951 Refugee Convention, stipulates (in Article 33) that states have a duty of non-refoulement, and the duty to grant to refugees in their territory a range of legal rights (outlined in articles 2 to 32).
While there is no obligation under international law to grant asylum to refugees, states are still bound by the principle of non-refoulement. That principle, basically stated, is that no refugee shall be returned to any country “where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” So basic and universally accepted is this premise that it is now generally considered to be part of customary international law and binding upon Lebanon, even though its government has to date not ratified the Refugee Convention. Additionally, the principle is not limited to those formally recognized as refugees, but also applies to asylum-seekers. Such persons must not be returned to any country where they would face persecution. Furthermore, the rule remains in effect until they are declared not to be refugees. Several times Lebanese officials have sought to avoid this international humanitarian obligation by arguing to local media outlets that those who have fled into Lebanon are not ‘refugees’ but rather ‘displaced persons.’ But no UN agency accepts such a bald-faced attempt at evading the non-refoulement obligations, and perhaps especially not by a country whose own citizens have so often benefited from the very same legal principle it now seeks to sidestep.
Many Palestinian refugees, without any money left from their many travails, are forced to walk from the Masnaa border crossing near the Syrian/Lebanese to the Jilil Palestinian Refugee camp near Baalbec, August 5, 2013 (Photo courtesy of the author)
For the past year at the Masnaa border crossing between Syria and Lebanon the Lebanese government has acted in an arbitrary and illegal manner. On August 8, 2013, GS abruptly changed its entry policies for Palestinians living in Syria, and began turning away all Palestinian asylum seekers. Entire families, children, the elderly and the sick were stranded at the border, fearing to return to Syria. A Palestinian spoke with this observer at the time.
“Lebanese border guards told this observer, in the company of about a dozen Palestinian asylum seekers waiting to enter Lebanon that they had “received a call from the Lebanese General Security office telling him and his immigration colleagues managing who gets in our out of Lebanon, not to allow any more Palestinians to enter the country,” he said. Word quickly spread to Beirut and Damascus and to taxi driver who make the daily run not to pick up Palestinians or you will lose a fare.
As the saga intensified, a partial solution was eventually agreed to by GS after the UN, EU, and several human rights organizations expressed condemnation of this exhibition of inhumanity.
Likewise, concerns similarly were expressed over Lebanon’s callous new imperative in regards to Palestinians from Syria wanting to return to take the crucial Baccalaureate exams. Time was getting short as the first of June drew near and the students had to make arrangements for travel, housing, food, etc. The toughest decision for most was the risk of leaving Lebanon for Syria and possibly not being allowed back in to rejoin their families. Hurried meetings were held in Damascus by volunteers from the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign and the Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program (sssp-lb.com), with a few similar meetings also occurring in Lebanon.
Appeals for help from international activists and some NGO’s in Lebanon began to be offered. What the PCRC and SSSP as well as the Palestine embassy were trying to bring about was a one-time exemption, for 18 days, so Palestinian students could take the BACC in Syria and return to their families in Lebanon. To this end, Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour repeatedly contacted GS, working to convince them to do the right thing by the students. Additional urgent appeals to GS were made by a few NGO’s, but usually without so much as a returned phone call.
Finally, it was in this context that an American, as noted above, ran afoul of GS, finding himself placed in handcuffs while being told he would be immediately deported. Fairly clear was it to the no account fellow, however, that GS would not follow through on its threats, and as friends of the detained, including a couple of well-known journalists from mainstream media, began making inquiries on the matter, a solution was worked out—sort of on the spot.
Even sort of amiably.
GS relented and agreed to allow Palestinian students in Lebanon a one-time 19-day visa to take their BACC exams and return to Lebanon. The handcuffs came off. Apologies. Handshakes. Smiles all around and a few kisses on foreheads by the grateful American. And there are no hard feelings. One hopes.
At that point, less than 72 hours remained before the first exam on Sunday June 1, which necessitated the next somewhat frantic project: passing word of the exemption to the more than 6,000 Palestinian students who wanted to take the exam. Many had already resigned to putting it off a year, and no doubt some dropped out completely. But as the word spread, it soon came about that 68 Palestinian students were committed to going at the last minute so to speak.
And with respect to the thousands of Syrians who wanted to return to Syria to vote but were barred, they also got a reprieve. Soon al-Manar reported that GS was issuing badges for refugees headed to Syria to vote and that the badges were for a specific duration. “That means that the Syrians in Lebanon can vote without losing their status as refugees,” the reporter said.
For its own part, the Lebanese National News Agency reported that “the Syrian border is currently witnessing a traffic jam because the Syrian refugees are heading to Syria to participate in the Presidential elections,” providing also the additional information that GS was “implementing security measures in accordance with the Syrian elections along the border to organize their entry to Syria and their return to Lebanon.”
What went unmentioned, of course, is that among those crossing the border would be 68 Palestinian students traveling to take their BACC exams—or that much of the credit for securing the exemption, and thus making the massive egress possible, rightfully goes to the Palestinian embassy.
Unperturbed, Mr.Maher Moshail, Cultural Counselor for the embassy, accompanied the students to the Masnaa crossing and waved goodbye, shouting good luck to them as they headed off to sit their BACC exams in Damascus.
Admittedly for Palestinian students and their families from Syria it was only a modest victory, but maybe it will turn out to be a watershed event along a resistance path, one that sooner rather than later leads to the obtainment of the most elementary civil rights, to work and to own a home, for Palestinians in Lebanon—the only country on the planet that bars these birthrights.
This drama demonstrates that the government of Lebanon can be encouraged; using right reason and common sense, to grant some civil rights if there are advocates willing to press them. There is so much talent, but also frustration, growing despair, and security threats in the teeming Palestinian camps here. A broad-based, internationally supported, peaceful civil rights campaign is much needed in Lebanon and long overdue.
Abed, a bright, young Palestinian student from Ain al-Hilwel, has asked this observer more than once recently, “Where are all the pro-Palestinian activists and bloggers?” He goes on to comment:
“It’s great to write countless and often repetitive articles on the Internet and demonstrations in the west are good and very much appreciated. But if our international supporters want to make history, and achieve more for we students and our families and community, and for Lebanon’s economy, than anything since the Nakba, then help us get the right to work. Come to Lebanon. It will only require a few committed experienced organizers, and we in the camps will join this international campaign by the tens of thousands for sit-in and demonstration and (to) convince our Lebanese brothers and sisters to let us work and help to rebuild their economy.”
Franklin Lamb is a visiting Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law, Damascus University and volunteers with the Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program (sssp-lb.com).
This person called Elias Khoury who was a Arafat supporter and working for Arafat and rallying for Arafat in the streets of west Beirut while civil war was ignited in Lebanon by foreign Intelligence and the administration of Kissinger. And the Fateh movement of Mr Khoury -who went by a different name to hide his Christian identity- was then taking sides with and against, and getting immersed in the local mud while Palestine was no more the priority, but the dirty war in the streets of Beirut .
Mr. Elias Khoury – after so many years – is still doing the same thing, giving priority to internal wars over the real struggle with Israel ,but he stopped being a Arafat supporter after Arafat became of no use to him since he was ousted from Lebanon to Tunisia with his gang who never liberated an inch of Palestine but created chaos all over Lebanon .
Mr. Khoury -as the good opportunist that he is- shifted from the Fateh to the main figure that came freshly from Saudi Arabia and was delivered to the Lebanese to help them get out of the civil war that was partly funded by him. This fresh Saudi figure was none other than Hariri who made great profit from the civil war since he got down town Beirut destroyed and then bought it for crumbs and confiscated what he could not buy and turned it into his private real estate company.
Elias ‘Atallah
Mr. Khoury- of course- would not miss on the opportunity to join the Saudi/Lebanese Tycoon in all his glory since he had developed a good sense for money and power along with the gift of writing and publishing second rate novels and stories. Of course, the mediocre person that he is and the second rate writer could not get a chance to directly affiliate to Hariri, for this reason he became affiliated to one of Hariri’s men , a detestable person that goes by the name of Elias ‘Atallah who is more of an opportunist than Khoury himself .
Khoury had relinquished the Palestinian cause, but not the internal war, as this was the topic and activity in which he excelled, sending many of his best friends- during the Lebanese civil war – to dire death under the label of Marxist revolution and Palestinian liberation of which –of course- nothing was achieved . So, by supporting the internal war in Syria , Khoury is just working along the same line that he has grown familiar with, and no wonder that -on his way -he had met another opportunist that goes by the name of Mary Rizzo, also a fan of internal wars and internal conflict, under the cover of the Palestinian cause, because these conflicts- in Arab countries – serve best the Israeli entity of which Rizzo is a great supporter .
Mary Rizzo
Posing as a Palestinian activist, Rizzo is an Israeli under cover, rejoicing over the destruction that afflicts the Arab world- whether in Libya or in Syria -and dedicating her writings to fuel such conflicts and attacking real activists committed to the cause who expose her and know her as a fake one.
After being exposed as a dubious writer misinformed about many facts, and spreading lies and misinformation about things happening in the Arab world, she has now resorted to translate lies instead of fabricating them which -she thinks- is safer for her . For this reason she has chosen the lies of Mr. Khoury who is no less talented than her regarding this practice .
Remains the place where the two fake writers had met which must be a fake place as well, and -in this instance – it is the daily News paper al Quds al ‘Arabi of ‘Abdel Bari ‘Atwaan where the article of Khoury was originally published .
‘Atwaan has been the spoiled child of al Jazeera and a promoter of the Palestinian cause and -because of this- we almost forgave him his red hair dye or his courting of the British authorities whenever he had the opportunity, but now he has transgressed all limits by siding against the Syrian regime and joining the chorus of the so called Syrian armed opposition probably to please his masters- the British authorities – who are hosting him and his news paper. From Mr. Khoury to Rizzo to ‘Atwaan all what was needed was al Jazeera or al ‘Arabiyya to complete the chain of lies woven around Syria.
One would be correct in imagining that life’s no bowl of cherries for Hezbollah these days.
Pressures, often intense, resulting in being sucked into the vortex of the powerful maelstrom and violent whirlpool of Lebanese and regional politics can’t be bringing much pleasure to Lebanon’s National Resistance led by Hezbollah and that includes this observers Dahiyeh neighborhood.
Following their one on one meeting last weekend, US secretary of state Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogon Hezbollah are seeking to intensify pressure on both Hezbollah and Syria. One project is reported to be US instructions to their March 14 allies to force a vote in Lebanon’s Parliament allowing the deployment of international troops along Lebanon’s northern border with Syria.
Some March 14 politicians have been publically calling for the deployment of an international force positioned along the poorly demarcated border between Lebanon and Syria. These US-Saudi supportedforces have also revived the Welch Club-Jeffrey Feltman project first floated in 2007 at Israel’s request following its defeat during the 33 day July war. Hezbollah’s internal and external opponents are reportedly seeking a quick “modernizing” of the current airport at Kleit near Sunni Akkar close to Tripoli in North Lebanon. According to one Member of Parliament, “The Americans and some internal sides had already “dusted off” the file of the revival of the Sunni Kleiat Airport.” One of its intended uses is expected to house international troops and American forces for “training, storage and forward supply.”
The Feltman idea, which was publicly exposed four years ago, now in its expanded form envisages a “liberated geographic zone” to pressure Syria and others with a base for military operations in the region. The original plan never died, but rather was put in storage pending future opportunity. With the continuing Syrian chaos and crisis the sought opportunity may have arrived with Pentagon analysts and American allies agreeing with Clinton and Erdagon that the time for a regional Kleit airbase is now. It may be recalled that in 2008, an American military delegation examined the Kleiat runway “for logistic purposes pertaining to cooperation with the Lebanese Army” according to US Embassy Beirut. During Congressional testimony, the Pentagon told Congress that “the current runway at Kleiat is perfectly suitable for planes transporting military equipment. But it does not have the necessary qualifications to be a civil airport.”
Few political analysts here doubt that such a project would vigorously opposed by the Lebanese National Resistance. Hezbollah official Sheikh Naim Qassem has condemned such moves “as a method to destroy the country.” He stated last week that
“Hezbollah refuses to allow Lebanon to intervene in Syrian affairs and categorically rejects the deployment of international forces to the northern borders. That is a Zionist project to destroy Lebanon in the same way as Syria. When they lost the ability to influence the Syrian equation, they began proposing suspect projects like deploying international forces to the north to support the buffer zone. If the March 14 group stops sabotaging Lebanon's north with arms, smuggling and militia work, and stability would reign. They are responsible for tensions that hit our people in Tripoli, Akkar and the north in general.”
As though working in concert with the US and its sponsored groups in Lebanon, pressure from the colonial occupiers of Palestine to instill fear among Lebanese is reflected in the increased number of daily warplanes and reconnaissance planes violating this country’s airspaces, recently focusing also on Tripoli and the Kleiat airport area. On 9/2/12 several Israeli warplanes conducted mock air raids over south Lebanon Sunday beginning at 11 a.m. The jets flew over most of south Lebanon up to the coastal city of Sidon. This week’s incidents also included flyovers in the east and north of Lebanon adding to a total of more than 8000 Israeli violation of UNSCR 1701 while UNIFIL watches and takes notes from its base in Naquoria, near Tyre.
According to one UNIFIL source, Israel is also trying to pressure Resistance forces in the south and force them into revealing some of their locations near Kfar Kila where Israel recently built another wall, as well as Resistance preparations for the coming Israel-Hezbollah war.
Targeted by Al-Qaeda and its new allies
Increasing threats of violence against Hezbollah and Shiites by the Al-Qaeda affiliated Abdallah Azzam Brigades, active in Lebanon and Syria, appear designed to peel away support from Hezbollah and to ignite more sectarian conflict in Lebanon. One recent threat was posted on a jihadist website on 8/17/12 and is being broadcast here by the US-Saudi backed March 14 opposition. The audio recording warns Shiites that“the positions of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement vis-à-vis the Syrian revolution do not serve your best interests ... If you maintain your arrogant attitude, you will be punished, and you will pay. You only have yourselves to blame.”
According to Dr. Ahmad Moussalli, political science professor at the American University of Beirut and an expert on political Islam: “This Al-Qaeda unit considers current conditions in Lebanon and Syria to be a golden opportunity to strike against targets that were far from their reach in the past. Looking at the border situation now, they can transfer militants from Syria to Lebanon in order to carry out attacks against Hezbollah and their supporters.”
These forces, increasingly seen as working with some elements in the March 14 grouping, are also trying to instill confusion in Hezbollah neighborhoods over understanding the Party’s role in the Syrian crisis given that Hezbollah officials support the popular uprisings of the Arab spring and Islamic awakening.
A Hezbollah source reports that the complicated environment here in Lebanon and the region are not easy ones given internal and external enemies. One friend acknowledges also the danger of Hezbollah as the leader of the international Resistance risks being viewed as simply a local Shia party which would be dangerous to the party and this country on multiple levels.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea regularly repeats charges that “the March 8 alliance of being behind the deteriorating security situation in the country in order to create as many spots of tension as possible along with incidents to decrease pressure on the Syrian regime.” In a direct reference to Hezbollah, Geagea said “There are enormous strategic dangers that stem from the presence of a statelet within the state. The state has no authority over it because the owners of this statelet and their allies are paralyzing it.”
Geagea and his allies has also condemned Hezbollah for the “appalling silence” with which it met the abductions of Syrian and Arab nationals in Lebanon.[We condemn] Hezbollah’s appalling silence regarding these incidents that take place in its regions of influence, while its Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah claims that things got out of hand without condemning these incidents. That means that he gives his total consent for these acts.”
According to Hanin Ghaddar writing in the pro Zionist New York Times, “Something fundamental has changed: the Shiite militant group Hezbollahlong Syria’s powerful proxy in Lebanon has become a wounded beast. And it is walking a very thin line between protecting its assets and aiding a crumbling regime next door.”
The March 14 Youth organizations, normally working within their individual parties have begun a combined efforts to confront elements of the Hezbollah led Resistance. Last week at the Universite Saint Joseph, hundreds of students from the Lebanese Forces (LF), the Future Movement, the Kataeb, al-Jamaa al-Islamiyah and the National Liberal Party (NLP) staged a rally ostensiblyto call for the resignation of Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and the expulsion of Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdel-Karim Ali, but also to attack Hezbollah.
Since the surprise arrest of former Information Minister, Resistance and Al-Assad Michel Samaha on 8/9/12 , and the subsequent charging him along and Syrian National Security head General Ali Mamluk with plotting “terror attacks,” key pillars of government, including the President Suleiman and Prime Minister Miqati appear to be distancing themselves somewhat from the Assad regime. Rumors are circulating that within the Hezbollah leadership some are having private doubts about the party’s relationship with the Assad regime
Hezbollah realizes that there is a need to create a balance, however delicate, between Lebanon’s national interest, primary of which is to be free of future Zionist occupation and Lebanon’s position in regional Arab causes. Presumably Hezbollah’s research center and other think tanks are reviewing earlier actions and in some cases will modify original stances to meet the changing realities in Lebanon and beyond.
The party and the Shite community are being advised of a need to continue advocating the politics of openness, dialogue, and partnership in order to preserve Lebanon.
There currently obtains in Lebanon, as next year’s crucial Parliamentary election approaches, an especially ugly political atmosphere prevailing with internal and external groups seeking to hold Hezbollah and the wider Shia community responsible for many current problems ranging from power cuts, security, public security, poor water quality, inflation and weak infrastructure. Some from my neighborhood have taken to the streets in the past few months to protect against the increasing power cuts.
The coming weeks will reveal what, if any, success foreign and domestic anti-Resistance forces achieve in using the Syrian crisis to dismantle Hezbollah.
Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
