Saturday, August 12 2006, 15:00 - 19:00 PM CEST [–> 16:00 - 20:00 EEST]
Live audio/video streaming transmission from Waag Society in Amsterdam, in direct connection with Beirut and surrounding localities. The event was initiated by Streamtime, a web support campaign for Iraqi bloggers.
After one month of violence and carnage, this Global Web Jam brings together live interviews and conversations, video clips, cartoons and blog blurbs, soundscapes, DJs and VJs, a lively mix of information, art, protest, party and reflection. We feature the voices, images stories, reports and initiatives from Lebanon and beyond, with participation of activists, artists, bloggers, journalists, musicians and many others.
This is a call for an immediate end to the violence and destruction, in defiance of war, and in search for solidarity.
With contributions and participation of: Wahid el-Solh, Mounira el-Solh, Sonya Knox, Naeem Mohaiemen, Kanj Hamadi, Jim Quilty, Randa Mirza, Mazen Kerbaj, Raed Yassin, Charbel Haber, Nathalie Fallaha, Henri Gemayel, Fadi Tufayli, Tariq Shadid, Chalaan Charif, Martin Siepermann, Arjan El Fassed, Ruud Huurman, Kadir van Lohuizen, Thomas Burkhalter and Anna Trechsel, Beirut DC, Tarek Atoui and many others.
This Global Web Jam is an initiative of Jo van der Spek, Geert Lovink and Cecile Landman (from Streamtime), Nat Muller, Paul Keller and Denis Jaromil Rojo in Amsterdam; and Tarek Atoui and Rawya el-Chab in Beirut.
After the evacuation of southern Lebanon from its inhabitants, Israel is
warning that it is about to destroy Chiah, Berj el Barjne, and Hay el
Sellom. These are the most dense and populated areas of Beirut, and this
is where most of the refugees are staying. This means that TWO MILLION
PEOPLE are requested to evacuate in less a few hours, in a city were
roads and bridges have been destroyed, and were fuel is unavailable. ISRAEL IS PREPRAING TO DELIBERATLY THROW ON THE
STREETS TWO MILLION PEOPLE, IN ORDER TO DESTROY THEIR
HOUSES; WITH AN ALIBY THAT THEY HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Mideast-conflict-Lebanon-children, sched-FEATURE Lebanese children try to make sense of Israeli onslaught, by Nayla Razzouk
BEIRUT, Aug 4, 2006 (AFP) - “Is there still war outside?” wondered a six-year-old boy with dark shadows under his eyes, one of 1,700 people hiding from Israeli bombardments on the asphixiating third, fourth and even fifth underground floors of a parking lot in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Mohammed Hilal has been ducking there with his family for 22 long days, since Israel launched a massive military onslaught on Lebanon and which leveled much of the heart of the suburbs where Hezbollah maintained its command headquarters.
Bunker busters and implosion bombs make any shelter unsafe, and terror spread even more after Israeli jets zoomed overhead, dropping flyers to warn civilians to leave the area because bombing would soon be extended.
In a neighborhood long deserted by its residents, nothing leads one to think that there is an underground shelter, much less that 1,700 people were hiding inside — except for the fleet of scooters parked outside.
Scooters are a trademark used by Hezbollah militants to control the streets of the suburbs.
After an obscure passage through cement stairs leading five floors below, the air becomes thicker and a surreal scene of underground life emerges as if from the movies to show a sea of families, gathered across the giant open space of the parking lot.
Each family crams a single car parking space, delineated by red parallel lines painted on the shining gray floor. Despite the air-conditioning system, most are soaking wet from the humidity.
“My house is in B3, come and visit us,” a smiling seven-year-old Samah told journalists.
A teenager is skidding across a long alley, pushing a cart where two boys and a girl are giggling from the thrill of the only available amusement activity.
Shirtless men lie on their backs on the floor, listening to the news of the war on radio sets placed on their chests as they put their arms over their eyes to avoid the blinding neon lights.
Veiled women sit in circles, some chatting, others reading verses from the Koran. A girl is changing into pajamas, as her sisters hold a sheet to shield her from the eyes of the neighbors.
An elderly woman moans from the pain to her bones, as she lies on a thin rug on the ground.
“We have been living five floors below, we are sleeping on the floor of a public parking, what do you want? Her bones ache from the humidity,” said her grandson, Ali.
“We cannot even go back home to shower during the day because of renewed bombardments. We can hardly clean the children with wet cloths. Can you imagine all these people taking turns in the few toilets of a public parking lot?”
Under a “No Entry” sign usually designed for cars, children scream happily as they run in all directions across the gray floor.
Despite the gloomy, near-dark underground second floor, they are gleefully playing hide-and-seek.
“We are like Nasrallah, the Israelis will never catch us,” said a mischievous seven-year-old Ali.
A little girl with a pony tail is jumping on one leg along the bright-red lines delineating single parking spaces. Instead of children’s rhymes, cheerful little girls and boys chant the slogan “Allah, Nasrallah and all of the suburbs,” as they giggle on a children’s roundabout. A boy sitting on the central wheel flashes a victory sign.
A group of children are sitting in a circle on the ground. They are not playing truth-or-dare. They may be boys and girls, but they are old souls. They have seen a lot and endured even more. They are engaged in a serious debate that would outwit any grownup.
“Who is the president of Israel? Why does he want to kill us?” asked Ali Baddah, 10. “The president is Sharon, the criminal, who wants our land,” answered promptly his sister Hawra, in reference to former prime minister Ariel Sharon who has been in a coma for months.
“Not even, it is (US President George) Bush, the killer,” said their eldest brother Hassan. “In any case, the resistance is the bravest,” stated 11-year-old Musa Nureddin whose family fled under a rain of bombs to Beirut’s suburbs all the way from Markaba, a village dangerously close to the borders with Israel.
“But the Israelis have warplanes and helicopters. They have tanks, and America,” said six-year-old Mohammed Khansa.
“No, listen. The resistance fighters are forcing the Israelis to engage in close combat because it is the only way they can win without warplanes,” explained patiently his older brother Nureddin, as the rest of the children nodded affirmatively, as if they suddenly understood the situation.
“In any case, God is with them,” said eight-year-old Roula Hilal.
On August 12, at 7 am, Lebanese from throughout the country and international supporters who have come to Lebanon to express solidarity will gather in Martyr’s square in Beirut to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians will express their solidarity with the inhabitants of the heavily destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the Israeli military. This campaign is endorsed by more than 200 Lebanese and international organizations. This growing coalition of national and international non-governmental organizations hereby launches a campaign of civil resistance for the purpose of challenging the cruel and ruthless use of massive military force by Israel, the regional superpower, upon the people of Lebanon. August 12 marks the start of this Campaign of Resistance, declaring Lebanon an Open Country for Civil Resistance.
August 12 also marks both the international day of protest against the Israeli aggression .”In the face of Israel’s systematic killing of our people, the indiscriminate bombing of our towns, the scorching of our villages, and the attempted destruction of our civil infrastructure, we say No! In the face of the forced expulsion of a quarter of our population from their homes throughout Lebanon, and the complicity of governments and international bodies, we re-affirm the acts of civil resistance that began from the first day of the Israeli assault, and we stress and add the urgent need to act!,” said Rasha Salti, one of the organizers of this national event. After August 12, the campaign will continue with a series of civil actions, leading to an August 19 civilian march to reclaim the South . “Working together, in solidarity, we will overcome the complacency, inaction, and complicity of the international community and we will deny Israel its goal of removing Lebanese from their land and destroying the fabric of our country,” explained Samah Idriss, writer and co-organizer of this campaign. “An international civilian presence in Lebanon is not only an act of solidarity with the Lebanese people in the face of unparalleled Israeli aggression, it is an act of moral courage to defy the will of those who would seek to alienate the West from the rest and create a new Middle East out of the rubble and blood of the region,” said Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and campaign co-organizer. “After having witnessed the wholesale destruction of villages by Israel’s air force and navy and having visited the victims
(so-called displaced) of Israel’s policy of cleansing Lebanese civilians from their homes,” continued Arraf, “it is imperative to go south and reach those who have stayed behind to resist by steadfastly remaining on their land.”
If you are in Lebanon and want to sign up and join the convoy, contact either:
If you are outside Lebanon and want to sign up and join the convoy, you should know:
1) You need to obtain a visa for Lebanon and for Syria if your plan is to enter Lebanon from Syria.
2) We don’t have the funds to cover for the cost of your travel, however we can help with finding accomodations. For questions and help for all internationals please contact Adam Shapiro at: adamsop@hotmail.com
You can also sign up on our website: www.lebanonsolidarity.org This campaign is thus far endorsed by more than 200 organizations, including: The Arab NGOs Network for Development (ANND), International Solidarity Movement (ISM), Cultural Center for Southern Lebanon, Norwegian People’s Aid, Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, Lebanese Association for Democratic Elections, Frontiers, Kafa, Nahwa al-Muwatiniya, Spring Hints, Hayya Bina, Lebanese Transparency Association, Amam05, Lebanese Center for Civic Education, Let’s Build Trust, CRTD-A, Solida, National Association for Vocational Training and S.
We, Lebanese citizen and members of Lebanon’s civil society reject and denounce the forced expulsion of populations in south Lebanon.
We denounce Israel’s injunction to our fellow countrymen in the south to flee their homes so as to avoid dying from shelling.
We reject Israel’s summon for our citizen to “move far from the zones of combat” through the use of tract. We do not tolerate that Israel should invoke these summons to claim its innocence from the crimes later committed by its army. No one should be forced to flee from where they live or face the penalty of death. That such an intimation be perceived and accepted as the Israeli government’s well-intioned and humane
regard for the Lebanese is unacceptable. That it should furthermore serve to acquit Israel subsequently of its responsibility in the massacre of civilians is intolerable.
In the face of Israel’s imminent and publicly proclaimed destruction of more towns and villages in the south, we call for a solidarity with the inhabitants of the south who made the choice to stay and resist.
With this call we affirm our commitment to stand by their side, traveling in citizen convoys to the towns and villages of the south, to express our solidarity with them and our rejection of the Israel’s current policy of devastation.
With this call:
- We beckon you to denounce the forced expulsion of populations,
- To defend the rights of the inhabitants of the south to live on their land and in their homes,
- And to join our convoys
We invite you to sign the following declaration:
We, citizen of the world fully affirm our rejection of Israel’s policies of total destruction of towns and villages in south Lebanon and of the massacres of their inhabitants. By joining the citizen convoys and with our direct presence by their side we attest of
our concrete solidarity with them.
Outraged at Israel’s ongoing aggression on Lebanon - which since July 12 2006 has killed over 900 people (mostly civilians), displaced nearly one million people (1/4 of Lebanon’s entire population), and wrecked Lebanon’s infrastructure and economy - we say: khalas! enough!
We call for an immediate end to the violence and destruction. We call on the international community to open its eyes - and on you to make your voice heard.
With our fellow activists, artists and other bloggers in Lebanon - and input from Iraq - we will produce a collaborative global webcast on Saturday August 12, from 9 to 11 p.m. Central European Time/10-12 p.m. Lebanon time.
This unique free style web jam around ‘frequently raised despair’ will be produced at Waag Society in Amsterdam by Streamtime’s Cecile Landman, Jo van der Spek, Geert Lovink and Jaromil in collaboration with Tarek Atoui, Nat Muller, Paul Keller and many others.
The Global Webjam will consist of an audio and video stream, and feature live interviews and conversations, video clips, cartoons and blog blurbs, soundscapes, DJs and VJs, a lively mix of information, art, protest, party and reflection.
Wahid el-Solh, a Lebanese DJ based in the Netherlands, will provide us with the unrivalled nightlife ambiance of Beirut.
We see this as a precedent for future collaborations - to create a platform fitting the spirit of Beirut, in defiance of war, and in search for solidarity.
We shout out for our friends in Lebanon and elsewhere to contact us if they want to join, share, participate in and contribute with their recent experiences and productions.
Contact the team in Amsterdam with all your questions, suggestions, contributions at: beirut@dischosting.nl
If you are in Lebanon and you want to contribute you can also contact Tarek in Beirut: atouitarek@yahoo.fr mobile: +961-3-190985
If you have material to contribute please upload it to our ftp server: ftp://dischosting.nl (username: upload password: streamtime)
Founded in 2004, Streamtime is an international support campaign for Iraqi bloggers and engages with tactical media initiatives of artists and activists throughout the Middle East.
What the fuck can we do, everybody is so helpless, I can’t help, I can’t think, I can’t really breath, I can’t accept the injustice, I can’t fight, I can’t go forward and I hope I
could make time come backwards to help all those people, I hope I could see the future, I hope I could go to lebanon and take all this people in my arms and cry out loud, I hope I could give security to everyone, I hope I could….. I hope I could….I hope I could…I hope I could… but this only thing I can do…is that I can’t…
I can’t feel bad cause I feel guilty, how can I allow my self me the lebanese living in swiss, what can I complain about…..how can I allow my self to say…I feel bad..this is just unfair towards all of this people who just wishes to have a quiet sleep at night, who wishes to have a secure night, who wishes they could save their child from diying, who wishes to celebrate a birthday party, who wishes to go visit their families in the south for the summer time, who wishes to be away, they just wish to have a normal life and me i have a perfect life….how can I complain…how can I explain…how can I maintain…how can i have a brain while this is happening…
ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!! What can I say I’m just too busy with my self being sad and I’m not realising anymore what the whole thing is about.
What is it about??????? Destruction, Genocid, Slaughter, Hate, Envy, Power, Killing, Abuse,……… and who is the ennemy in all that….Civilians, Kids, Mothers, Neighbourds, Workers, Fathers, Aly the Butcher, Mohammed the seller, Partric the student, Amal the painter, Raffi the big flirt, Yasser my brother and Reine his girlfriend………
Mmmmmmmmmmmm yes defnitly all terrorists, they should and have to get eliminated…they are a danger in our lives…yes!
I still hope I could take all lebanese people in my arms…..and cry out loud but I can’t
The message is simple PEACE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I swear i wont be bad anymore, I swear I wont do anything that could put your life in danger, sorry that I’m lebanese and sorry that this means Terrorist.
I would do whatever you want just stop destructing my country…..Please STOP and we will be good, I promise
Thanks for listening to my hopeless message,
yours Hayhat
Officially, Israel’s ground invasion of Lebanon is an act of self-defense against Hezbollah’s threat, aimed at creating a security buffer zone until the arrival of a “multinational force with an enforcement capability”. But increasingly, as the initial goal of a narrow strip of only a few kilometers has now been extended up to the Litani River deep in Lebanon, the real motives behind Israel’s invasion are becoming crystal-clear. It’s about (de facto) annexation, stupid. This is a war to annex a major chunk of Lebanese territory without necessarily saying so, under the pretext of security buffer and deterrence against future attacks on Israel. Already, since the Six Day War, Israel has annexed the Sheba Farms, considered part of the Syrian Golan Heights, although the
government of Lebanon has long complained that the 25-square-kilometer area was a part of Lebanon. Now the Israeli army is sweeping the area south of the Litani River as a temporary occupation.
“We have no intention of extending our operation more than 70 kilometers north of our borders with Lebanon,” stated Lieutenant-Colonel Hemi Lini on the Lebanese border on July 17, one week after the war’s outbreak.
This would put Israel, assuming for a moment that the Israel Defense Forces’ operations prove ultimately successful, in control of the Litani River, thus fulfilling Israel’s founding fathers’ dream, stretching back to Chaim Weizmann, head of the World Zionist Organization, who in 1919 declared the river “essential to the future of the Jewish national home”.
Consequently, contrary to the pro-Israel pundits’ reassurances that this war is not about occupation, all the tangible signs indicate the exact opposite, ie, the distinct possibility of a “war of acreage” whereby Israel would expand its territory, acquire a new strategic depth, and simultaneously address its chronic water shortage by exploiting the Litani.
Access to the Litani would translate into an annual increase of water supply by 800 million cubic meters. This in turn might allow Israel to bargain with Syria over the Golan Heights, source of a full one-third of Israel’s fresh water. However, a more likely scenario is Israel’s continued unwillingness to abide by United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338 calling for its withdrawal from the Syrian territories.
The entire Western media have settled on a naive perspective of the reasons for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, namely as a defensive measure against Hezbollah. Conspicuously absent is any serious consideration of a viable, alternative explanation while focusing on, in essence, the same ingredients as in the 1982 invasion: “deceit and misleading statements” by leaders, “inaccurate announcements” by the military spokesmen, and “gross exaggeration” of threats, to paraphrase a candid reflection of an Israeli general, Yehoshafat Harkabi.
Following this scenario, Israel has dropped leaflets throughout southern Lebanon warning the civilians to leave or risk their lives, as they would be considered “Hezbollah sympathizers” if they refused to leave. Reminiscent of Israel’s annexation of Palestinian lands in 1948 and beyond, the present war is causing mass refugees, who in all likelihood will not return to their homes any time soon.
The geostrategic and water dimensions of Israel’s quest to possess southern Lebanon notwithstanding, the question is, of course, whether or not the world community will tolerate such a development that would remake the map of the Middle East.
There are plenty of reasons to think that in light of the United States’ complicit silence on Israel’s violation of the territorial integrity of Lebanon, Israel will somehow manage to ride out the international criticisms and stick to its undeclared plan to annex southern Lebanon. However, what is less certain is that the combined efforts of Hezbollah and the rest of Lebanese society, not to mention other Arab contributions, will prevail over Israel’s appetite for a decent part of Lebanon.
With the military balance disproportionately in Israel’s favor, we can safely assume that the new Operation Litani will succeed and thus create a “new Middle East” with a “greater” and geographically expanded Israel and a shrunken or diminished Lebanon.
If so, then the chronology of events narrated by future historians will closely follow this line of thought: that Israel deliberately provoked Hezbollah into action, after a six-year hiatus, by pressuring Hezbollah’s ally, Hamas, which was subjected to a campaign of terror, financial squeeze and intimidation.
The laying of such a trap by Israel would not have happened in a vacuum of strategic thinking on Israel’s part. The fact that Hezbollah fell into the trap is a result of several factors, including an adventurist element lending itself to the “reckless” action of Hezbollah on July 11 with respect to crossing the Blue Line and attacking an Israeli patrol.
Since then, the Israelis have put on the mask of being reluctant warriors, delaying their troops’ entry into south Lebanon and thus perpetuating Israel’s self-image as disinterested in any imperial grand objectives. Yet the facts on the ground speak louder than words and, indeed, what fact is more important than Israeli leaders’ announced intention to occupy up to the Litani River?
Again, what is understandably omitted in those announcements, adopted as the real reasons by CNN and other US networks, is Israel’s predatory lust after Litani’s water sources, as well as for new geographical and strategic depth. This in turn might explain the otherwise inexplicably blatant overreaction of Israel to a border incident with Hezbollah.
Instead of searching for answers in the Israeli collective psyche or in the context of action, we must probe the answer in the writings of Israel’s founding fathers, including Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion, commonly yearning for Israel’s control of the Litani River. As a timely addition to their old wish, Israel today has a security-related explanation, justifying the territorial takeover in the near future in terms of the lessons of the present war, the main lesson being Israel’s dire need to gain strategic depth to avoid rocket attacks.
Indeed, the verdict will soon be out in Israel about the precious lesson of Lebanon War II, that is, how to prevent future rocket attacks in the only feasible way, that is, direct control of southern Lebanon.
Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran’s Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of “Negotiating Iran’s Nuclear Populism”, Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote “Keeping Iran’s nuclear potential latent”, Harvard International Review. He is author of Iran’s Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.
after the war’s outbreak.