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News :: Human Rights : International : War and Militarism |
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4th Boston Justice for Lebanon Rally |
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by Sofia Jarrin and Jonathan McIntosh
Email: jonnyrebellious (nospam) gmail.com (unverified!) |
12 Aug 2006
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Under a thin veil of desperation, about 500 Lebanese, Lebanese-Americans, and supporters from many walks of life assembled for the fourth consecutive week at Copley Square to protest the ongoing indiscriminate attacks of Israel on the Lebanese civilian population and its infrastructure.
Photos by Jonathan McIntosh
http://capedmaskedandarmed.com/photoblog |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
“We don’t target civilians,” said Seva Brodsky, 43, at a counter protest of about 10 people who see the attacks as an Israeli defensive sweeping strategy against terrorism. Yet, by Thursday the civilian toll in Lebanon was at least 1,000 civilians, 30 per cent of them children under 12, while 3,580 have been wounded. In 30 days, 915,792 people have been displaced, including 220,000 Lebanese who left the country, according to the government’s High Relief Commission. At least 124 Israelis have been killed since the fighting started, including 84 soldiers, and hundreds more wounded.
“How do you define terrorism?” said Tony Lakkis, 43, a Lebanese national and American resident who has lived in the United States for 31 years. “Is terrorism those who go bomb homes killing civilians? Or is it suicide bombers who explode themselves on the streets? I think they both are.” Lakkis’ mother, sister, and sister-in-law are currently living in northern Lebanon.
The Copley protest was organized by a coalition of groups under the name Justice for Lebanon, who were able to raise $40,000 during a benefit concert last weekend and have launched a campaign called Boston to Lebanon, to raise 1 million dollars to help the those in need in Lebanon. “We need to emphasize the humanitarian crisis,” said Loai Naomani, 25, a Ph.D. student at MIT and one of the rally organizers, “and how bringing aid to those in need has been hampered by the Israeli bombing.” Oxfam America, for example, sent an 18-tonne consignment of water distribution, sanitation and hygiene equipment to Lebanon, but is struggling to get aid to those in most need in southern Lebanon while hostilities continue. In Saida alone there are a reported 71 centers where around 100,000 displaced people are sheltering.
Carol Hayek, 33, heavily criticized Israel for destroying the infrastructure in Lebanon, which has taken the country “back to square one” after the 1975-1990 civil war and Israel’s invasion of southern Lebanon in 1982. “Every mother in that country will become an extremist when the economy falls,” she said. Lebanon's finance minister Jiad Azour told National Public Radio that the bombing has affected every aspect of the country's economy, and it will take at least $4 billion to rebuild the country's destroyed infrastructure. Lebanon was already struggling to overcome a $40 billion public debt, primarily the result of its long internal struggle.
Hayek said she has three sisters, five nieces and nephews — 3 of them American citizens — her grandmother and grandfather all living in rented apartments in northern Lebanon, after they fled the attacks on Beirut. They have food supply for 10 days and are unsure what next steps to take. “They don’t want to leave everything behind. Their entire lives are in Beirut,” she said.
On Friday, the Security Council agreed unanimously on a measure calling for a cessation of hostilities and the deployment of 30,000 Lebanese and United Nations forces in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials have said they would expand the military campaign this weekend until they can “obtain the cabinet’s approval.” The language of the resolution calls for an immediate cessation of “all attacks” by Hizbullah but only of “all offensive military operations” by Israel, with no definition of what Israel might consider "defensive" and therefore acceptable under the terms of the resolution.
At the same time, Israel has asked the Bush administration the speed delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munitions, artillery that Human Rights Watch opposes for its deathly toll on civilians. “Because so many of the submunitions initially fail to detonate,” Human Rights Watch said on a press release, “M26 rockets leave behind large numbers of hazardous explosive ‘duds’ that are akin to landmines, injuring and killing civilians long after the attack.”
“It is in Israel’s interest that Beirut flourishes” and “I wish the Palestinians had their own state by now,” said Seva Brodsky, who seemed ambivalent as he placed an “I love Beirut” sticker on his shirt but saw the Israeli attacks on that country inevitable and justified. Idan from Haifa, a 30-year-old Israeli who is in Boston for a few weeks for medical testing, said that U.S. policy in Iraq does not help because it will be more difficult to deal with Iran, which he sees as a real threat to Israel’s existence. “Everything that is done against Muslim countries is being manipulated as a crusade against Islam,” he said.
“We are truly an exit to peace with Israel in the Middle East and could be a model for it,” said Mohamed Elhusseini, another rally organizer who emphasized Lebanon’s pro-Western, pluralistic government, “But if you want a failed state, look at Lebanon right now. With every attack people are being swayed to an extreme.” |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
 4th Justice for Lebanon Rally - Photo Essay |
See also:
http://www.justiceforlebanon.com
http://www.relieflebanon.org
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This work licensed under a
Creative Commons license |
