A second sign-on statement on the events in Nahr al-Bared
initiated by As’ad Abu Khalil and Samah Idriss (see first statement)

Palestinians fleeing the Nakba, 1948

Note: See below for details on how to sign on.
 
WE, THE UNDERSIGNED:

Accuse the majority of our Lebanese leaders of using the Palestinian people and its resistance for their sectarian and petty agendas. We accuse them of attempting to justify the attack on an over-populated Palestinian-Lebanese camp by using the slogan of ‘sovereignty,” that is often employed in Lebanon against the weak and the poor. We accuse them of adhering to a fascist ideology similar to the one that justified the siege of Tal Al-Zaatar and Dbayyeh camps in the mid-seventies, and of adopting Bush’s discourse on terrorism, as if the Palestinian people as a whole are responsible for a gang that Lebanese authorities themselves admit has no popular base in the camp. We accuse them of concealing the creation of a security apparatus that is not subject to the jurisdiction and monitoring of the people and their representatives; just like those, who falsely claim sovereignty today, covered up the security apparatus during the period of the Syrian-regime’s control in Lebanon.

WE accuse the 14th of March group in particular of promoting a project that targets the weapons of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance, while reinforcing the weaponization of sectarian gangs. Such a policy which will undoubtedly intensify conflicts in Lebanon to the benefit of the imperialist project extending from Morocco to Afghanistan.

WE accuse part of the ‘opposition’ of the complicity of silence with respect to the plans of the ruling dynasty simply because they are targeting a minority that currently has no protection in Lebanon; namely, the Palestinian people. We also accuse part of the opposition of regurgitating the discourse of hostility against the Palestinian people.

WE accuse many Lebanese of closing their schools and shelters to the Palestinian refugees escaping from Nahr Al-Bared, recalling that the Palestinian refugee camps opened their doors wide to the Lebanese displaced by Israel’s attack on Lebanon last summer.

WE accuse our liberal intellectuals of propagating a discourse of sovereignty and revenge instead of solidarity, citizenship and humanity.  We accuse them of hypocrisy when they condemn the killing of Israeli civilians, but do not reject or condemn the raizing of a heavily populated refugee camp. In addition, we accuse them of advocating human rights in only one Arab country.

WE accuse Lebanese “nationalism” which attempts to build the country on the shattered corpses of the victims of random bombings in Nahr Al-Bared, of despicable racism.

WE accuse some of the Palestinian leadership, motivated by sectarian or financial interests, of providing cover for this ongoing war.

WE accuse the salafi fundamentalists (funded and supported by the same entities that support and fund the current ruling Lebanese government), of spreading hatred, sectarianism, the culture of “takfeer” (condemnation for deviating from the true belief), exclusion, and one-dimensionality.

WE accuse those Lebanese who claim that the American aerial bridge is an innocent humanitarian act of political naivety at best, or of complicity with the escalating war at worst.

BASED ON THE ABOVE, WE CALL FOR THE FOLLOWING:

• An end to all acts of war against the Nahr Al-Bared refugee camp, and a clear rejection of invading the heavily populated camp;
• Re-affirmation by the leadership of the Lebanese army that it is Israel, not the Palestinian people, that is the enemy (not the ‘neighbour’);
• Condemnation of the sectarianism incitement that has become a normal strategy of Lebanon’s ruling dynasties, particularly since the 2005 elections in the north;
• Addressing the current, inhumane conditions in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and providing the Palestinian people with full civil rights in Lebanon until their eventual return to their homeland, Palestine;
• An end to meaningless talk about ‘Lebanese services’ to the Palestinian cause, given that significant political actors in Lebanon have transformed the country into a den of conspiracy against the Palestinian cause; and
• Initiatives by all national and democratic parties, loyal to long history of the joint Lebanese-Palestinian struggle, to save the camp and its inhibitants.

To sign: email Samah Idriss at kidriss(at)cyberia(dot)net(dot)lb.