Interview with Raed Rafei, a Lebanese reporter working with the Los Angeles Times.

On Wednesday, May 14th, Lebanon’s government moved to reverse key decisions taken last week aimed at Hezbollah, including a decision to dismantle Hezbollah’s independent telephone communications system and a controversial move to replace a head security personal at Beirut’s international airport with sympathies towards the Lebanese opposition. Today’s government decision to reverse these decisions was announced minutes prior to this interview, creating a backdrop soundtrack of celebratory gunfire from opposition supporters in Beirut.

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A Tadamon! interview project aiming to highlight progressive voices from the ground in Lebanon on the ongoing conflict, voices independent from major political parties…

Conflict in Lebanon has spread this past week beyond Beirut, to mountain areas above the capital city, to Tripoli in Northern Lebanon. Throughout Lebanon a tense political stand-off remains between the U.S.-backed government lead-by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and a political opposition fronted by the armed Lebanese political party Hezbollah.

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Hezbollah and its allies may have achieved a swift military victory in Beirut and the Druze mountains, but the political battle for Lebanon will be tougher and the consequences long-term, say analysts.

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Lebanon is currently facing a major political crisis, as armed battles have erupted in multiple districts in Beirut, battles between pro-government forces and the political opposition backed by the Lebanese movement Hezbollah. Currently the Lebanese capital is divided, as opposition forces maintain a hold in West Beirut, having handed control in certain districts to the Lebanese Army, while the western-backed Lebanese government remains in lock down within government buildings.

Today Lebanon’s government has maintained a contested hold on official state power in Lebanon without representation from Hezbollah or other opposition parties for over one year. This week the government announced that Hezbollah’s independent communications network or telephone system operating in Lebanon as illegal, sparking the current crisis. Hezbollah’s independent telephone or communications system is considered to be a critical element to the success of the Lebanese resistance to Israel in successfully halting Israel’s 2006 attack on Lebanon.

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BEIRUT: In the wake of the summer 2006 war, Beirutis were witness to a curious contest. All over town red-and-white billboards, in Arabic, French or English announced “I Love Life.”

Appearing early in the political wrangle that has riven Lebanon’s citizens into two camps, the ad campaign seemed apolitical. Yet, as it implied the Other are more interested in killing and martyrdom than enjoying life, the ad was explicitly partisan.

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Tyre, Lebanon — Soon after the U.S. destroyer USS Cole was deployed off Lebanon’s shore Feb. 28 to “preserve political stability”, a group of young men gathered around in the embattled agricultural town Qana in south Lebanon, and voiced their fears.

“Everyone feels there is a war coming,” said Salman Ismael, a 22-year-old university student. “Especially after the killing of (Hezbollah commander) Imad Mughniyeh and what is happening in Gaza. And now U.S. ships come to the waters of Lebanon. Israel wants to improve her army in the Middle East after its defeat in 2006, she wants the Arabs to be scared of her.”

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Feb. 13, Imad Moughniyeh, a senior commander of Hezbollah, was assassinated in Damascus. “The world is a better place without this man in it,” State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said: “one way or the other he was brought to justice.” Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell added that Moughniyeh has been “responsible for more deaths of Americans and Israelis than any other terrorist with the exception of Osama bin Laden.”

Joy was unconstrained in Israel too, as “one of the U.S. and Israel’s most wanted men” was brought to justice, the London Financial Times reported. Under the heading, “A militant wanted the world over,” an accompanying story reported that he was “superseded on the most-wanted list by Osama bin Laden” after 9/11 and so ranked only second among “the most wanted militants in the world.”

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Montreal premiere of Mai Masri’s latest documentary film
on Israel’s 2006 attack on Lebanon as part of Cinema Politica…

MONDAY, MARCH 10th, 2008, 7pm
Concordia University, Hall Building, H-110
metro Guy-Concordia
Lebanon / 2007 / 70min

Including the first Montreal screening of Sari’s Mother, latest film by
celebrated filmmaker James Longley, director of Iraq in Fragments…

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“His very name scatters fire through ice,” wrote Byron of an 18th-century revolutionary leader, and so it has always been with the name of that extraordinary Palestinian George Habash. For those in anti-colonial movements across the world who learned and trained under him, his name embodies that inextinguishable human demand for justice and freedom. His exhilarating emancipatory model of resistance to injustice, his radical optimism and, above all, his tight political organization scorched the consciousness of young people across the Arab world, mobilized masses and inspired a huge wave of talented artists and intellectuals.

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Seven people have been killed in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, after a demonstration against power cuts descended into violence.

Shots were fired as the army intervened when protesters tried to block a road.

An activist from the opposition Shia Amal movement was killed, triggering violent protests in which six more people were killed, reports say.

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