BEIRUT: The Israeli Army stepped up its presence along the border with Lebanon deploying armored tanks and setting up fortifications as it intensified airspace violations in the area, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Thursday. In “unusual military activity,” the Israeli Army deployed Merkava tanks and soldier carriers, among other armored vehicles, along the barb-wired fence separating Shebaa Farms from liberated Lebanese territories, the NNA said.
Israeli tanks were also amassing along a 5-kilometer area, stretching from Tallat Sobaih army post to Jabal al-Sheikh observatory. Sporadic gunfire was also heard throughout the day, the NNA report said.
Al Kitab club members (six to 10 people) will meet in a comfortable place (someone’s home, a quiet café, or a room in a public library) once a month to discuss and reflect on a book.
Photo: Bryan Denton. Supporters watch a speech by Hagop Pakradounian, a politician from the main party of the Armenians, Tashnaq, in Beirut, Lebanon.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Their political apparatus is a model of discipline. Their vast array of social services is a virtual state within a state. Their enemies accuse them of being pawns of Syria and Iran.
They are the Armenian Christians of Lebanon, one of the Middle East’s most singular and least-understood communities. And if they sound a bit like Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group based here, that is no accident.
Emily Schaeffer.
avocate israélienne représentant le village de Bil’in
Bil’in, un village palestinien de Cisjordanie, est maintenant reconnu mondialement comme un symbole de la résistance populaire palestinienne contre la construction du mur d’apartheid israélien et de colonies sur ses terres. Depuis 2005, les villageois(es) organisent des manifestations toutes les semaines, avec la participation de militantEs israélien(ne)s et internationaux(nales), en opposition à la colonisation illégale israélienne et à l’annexion de terres palestiniennes.
BEIRUT: “The choice of artists is very personal,” says Ziad Nawfal of his latest album, “The Ruptured Sessions.” “I really have to like what they do.” It seems that Nawfal isn’t alone in his tastes. A capacity crowd at the album’s April 30 launch party at Hamra’s Walimat Wardeh restaurant craned their necks around bodies and pillars to catch a glimpse of the featured artists at work.
The disk is a compilation of material recorded live on Nawfal’s Monday evening Radio Liban show “Ruptures.” “I started inviting young artists into the studio to talk about themselves and the music they like,” said Nawfal over the phone several days after the album launch. “They’d also play three or four tracks of their own.”
A striking symbol for the twenty-two year Israeli military occupation in southern Lebanon is the Khiam detention center. Hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian political prisoners were detained for years at Khiam, living in squalor conditions, at times in solitary confinement and all without trial.
Multiple accounts from former prisoners at Khiam and reports issued by human rights organizations such as Amnesty International illustrate that torture was widely practiced against prisoners at Khiam. Israel’s proxy army in Southern Lebanon, the South Lebanon Army (SLA), maintained Khiam as a detention and interrogation center from 1985 until 2000 when the Israeli military was forced from southern Lebanon, leading to the collapse of the SLA.
A striking compilation of photos presented by Tadamon! from photographer Tanya Traboulsi which document the underground music scene in Beirut, Lebanon, a center for groundbreaking culture in the Middle East today and for decades. Admits the political chaos of Lebanon these photographs present a glimpse into the thriving world of alternative musical culture in Beirut which has attracted international attention for it’s mix of Middle Eastern musical traditions and modern musical expression from hip-hop, to free Jazz, to electronic music.
Soha Béchara écrivaine libanaise, résistante et ex-prisonnière politique
Beirut, Lebanon. The removal of cluster bombs strewn throughout southern Lebanon is slowing as international funding for the efforts has dwindled, an official says.
Tekimiti Gilbert, acting program manager for the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center, said mine clearance organizations are struggling to retain international funding and interest in bomb removal efforts, the U.N. Integrated Regional Information Networks said Thursday.
