In the interests of giving a wider range of readers access to commentary and opinion from the Arabic press, especially on current deveopments in Lebanon, Tadamon! Montreal has translated the following article from al-Adab Magazine, published in Beirut.

[Photo: “Because we want to live …” reads a sign on a tent at the sit-in in Beirut, now entering its fourth week.]

by Samah Idriss, al-Adab

“There will be a war next summer. Only the sector has not been chosen yet. The atmosphere in the Israel Defense Forces in the past month [November] has been very pessimistic. The latest rounds in the campaigns on both fronts, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, have left too many issues undecided, too many potential detonators that could cause a new conflagration. The army’s conclusion from this is that a war in the new future is a reasonable possibility. As Amir Oren reported in Haaretz several weeks ago, the IDF’s operative assumption is that during the coming summer months, a war will break out against Hezbollah and perhaps against Syria as well.”

This is what two journalists wrote in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on 4/12/20061.(1) But here, in the heart of Beirut, the atmosphere seems quite different. The Opposition is in the streets, holding a sit-in until the formation of a “national union” or “national unity” government or until Fuad Siniora’s government is toppled. Sunni–Shi’a agitation has reached a peak, despite assurances that Lebanon cannot be “Iraqized” (in the past, we have heard assurances that Iraq cannot be “Lebanonized”). A martyr (whom government supporters described as having been “killed”) has fallen from the opposition ranks. The wounded number in the tens. A Western newspaper talks about new weaponary that has arrived at the Internal Security Forces from an Arab country [United Arab Emirates] in order to counter the influence of “Hezbollah” and Iran. Pictures of Rafiq Hariri are torn apart. Pictures of Hassan Nassrallah are shot at. The student representative in the Socialist Party is beaten up. The Resistance is meant to be in the alleys.

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A report produced by Dmitri Marine of CKUT’s Community News Collective for broadcast in Montreal. Featuring a press conference co-organized by Tadamon! Montreal, Al Hidaya Association and the Council of Lebanese Canadian Organizations [COLCO].

Tents of communist party supporters at the Beirut sit-in.

by Maria Abi-Habib, Montreal Gazette, December 10th, 2006.

Ibtisam Jamaleddine stood in the room of her dead son, Maxim. Maxim was 18 years old when he was mistaken for a fighter and killed by an Israeli missile during this summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Pictures of Che Guevara and soccer players as well as a plaque dedicated to Shiite Islam’s most revered imam, Ali, adorn the walls of his room. They tell a story unknown in the West, of the complex nature of forces that fought Israel last summer.

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Fabrice Balanche* – La Presse

Le conflit politique qui se déroule au Liban à l’heure actuelle entre l’opposition et le gouvernement se réduirait à un conflit entre prosyriens (l’opposition) et les anti-syriens (le gouvernement), d’après ce que nous entendons dans la plupart des médias. Les Syriens veulent contrôler de nouveau le Liban et pour cela ils instrumentalisent les Libanais, en particulier leur allié de toujours le Hezbollah. Sur les chaînes de télévision occidentales, face à des islamistes barbus vociférant en arabe, on nous présente des hommes politiques respectables, parfaitement francophones et anglophones, rasés de près qui se posent en rempart de la démocratie et de la modernité.

Le manichéisme est de rigueur. Certes il est difficile de comprendre le Liban et de l’expliquer en quelques minutes à des téléspectateurs, mais tout de même arrêtons les caricatures. Cessons de donner la parole à des politiciens libanais caméléons qui savent très bien quel discours tenir devant les caméras occidentales. (Lire la suite…)

By Robert Fisk -“The Independent”

With Fouad Siniora’s cabinet hiding in the Grand Serail behind acres of razor wire and thousands of troops – a veritable “green zone” in the heart of Beirut – the largely Shia Muslim opposition, assisted by their Christian allies, brought up to two million supporters into the centre of the city yesterday to declare the forthcoming creation of a second Lebanese administration. A “transitional” government is what ex-general Michel Aoun called it, while Naeem Qassem, Hizbollah’s deputy chairman, spoke ominously of the mass demonstrations as “the separatist day”.

So, is the Hizbollah militia, which withstood Israel’s disastrous bombardment of Lebanon last summer, really planning a coup on behalf of its Iranian and Syrian backers, as Mr Siniora suspects? Or are Mr Siniora and his cabinet colleagues – Sunni Muslim, Christian and Druze – working on behalf of the Americans and Israelis, as Hizbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, proclaims? (Lire la suite…)

Ghassan Makarem, a Lebanese activist, speaks from Beirut about the huge protests that have rocked the Lebanese capital

Beirut has become the focus of a new movement that is challenging the US-backed government and the political system that put them in power.

This movement was launched by the biggest ever demonstration in the country’s history. Over one million people – out of a population of 4 million – converged on the Lebanese capital on Friday of last week to demand the formation of a government of national unity. (Lire la suite…)

Following the recent massacre in Beit Hanoun, a group of citizens, united by sense of outrage at the silence of western and Arab governments, will be engaging in a four day hunger strike, outside of the UNIFIL office in Tyre in solidarity with the besieged people of Gaza. (Lire la suite…)

  YAHMOUR – Daily Star: The tiny Southern village of Yahmour is situated between Nabatiyeh and Arnoun. Strewn around the village, which is home to some 450 families, are seemingly endless olive groves and tobacco fields. During the 34-day war in Lebanon this summer, Israeli air strikes hit Yahmour particularly hard. Less than half of the houses are still standing, many of them only partially so.

Now, with the early onset of the rainy season, tempestuous weather is forcing villagers to endure further hardships.

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From: Heinrich Böll Foundation

Israel’s offensive in Lebanon between July 12 and August 14 caused almost 1,200 fatalities and the destruction of infrastructure and property to the cost of at least US $ 2.5 billion. But in addition to the loss of life and damage, the war caused several environmental problems that will have long-term consequences. This report will examine the following issues:

• The 15,000 ton oil spill caused by the Israeli air strikes on the fuel tanks of Jiyeh power station;
• The dust and smoke pollution caused by the bombardment;
• Unexploded ordinance, primarily the estimated one million cluster bombs in south Lebanon;
• Impact on farming communities; and
• Long-term implications for the environment and environmental policy.

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Photos

Une soirée de présentations multimédia, d’information, de poésie inspirante et de superbe musique sur le 4ième Journée internationale d’Action contre le mur d’Apartheid Israélien.

Venez en apprendre davantage sur la campagne en effervescence de Boycott,
désinvestissement et sanctions contre l’Apartheid israélien.

Jeudi le 9 novembre à 19h
Maison de l’Amitié, 120 Duluth est
(à l’est de St-Laurent, métro Sherbrooke)

Thé et Boissons. Halte-garderie. Traduction chuchotée (en anglais, français et arabe).

Tracts : boycott_newflyers.pdf. Affiches : boycottposter.pdf

(Lire la suite…)