Al Akhbar, Liban, 26 janvier 2009.

Photo: Stefan Christoff, Liban, 2006.

Une visite de deux jours a conduit la célèbre résistante algérienne Jamila Bouhered, en compagnie de son homologue palestinienne Leila Khaled, à faire un tour au sud Liban à l’invitation de Randa Berri, l’épouse du président de l’Assemblée nationale libanaise, Nabih Berri.

Sur les décombres de l’ancienne prison sioniste de Khyam, Jamila a déclaré aux anciens détenus : « Je me tiens parmi vous sur cette bonne terre pour vous demander de me considérer comme l’une des vôtres, comme une Libanaise, et de cet endroit si proche de la Palestine, je m’adresse au peuple de Gaza pour leur dire combien j’aurais aimé avoir des ailes et m’envoler jusqu’à eux ».

(more…)

Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of Hezbollah, has told his fighters to be on alert for any possible Israeli attack on Lebanon following raids on Gaza that have killed nearly 300 Palestinians.

Nasrallah told a gathering in Beirut’s southern suburbs that the Israeli assault on Gaza was a carbon copy of its attacks on Lebanon during a 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006.

(more…)

About the size of an aerosol can, the colourful bomblets drop from airplanes.

“They look like sweets scattered in the sky,” said one survivor. “You don’t realize what they are until they touch you. You don’t know until they make you bleed.”

A single cluster bomb packs thousands of the small explosives, each with enough explosive punch to kill. Dropped from the air or fired from artillery, they spread over a wide area, and if that area has civilians, some of them are sure to die.

(more…)

Photos capturing a fantastic global hip-hop concert in Montreal on Sunday, November 2nd, co-presented by the Festival du Monde Arabe and Tadamon!, featuring Aks’ser (Arabic for ‘against the traffic’) a Lebanese hip-hop duo from Beirut and the international rhythms from Nomadic Massive from Montreal. Upwards of two-hundred people attended the concert at La Sala Rossa, bringing together people for an evening featuring hip-hop expressions from Montreal to the Middle East rooted in conscience expression and social justice.

(more…)

BEIRUT: The Israeli military is “making preparations” for a strike against Hizbullah that “appears inevitable” and will be “decisive,” a former top Israeli diplomat has written in a report for a US-based think tank with strong links to America’s Jewish lobby. Oded Eran, Israel’s former ambassador to the European Union and now director of the Institute for Security Studies in Tel Aviv, published a report for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) entitled “UN Resolution 1701: A view from Israel.”

(more…)

If you’ve ever been to Lebanon, you know that people don’t read road signs there. Beirut hip hop duo Aks’ser—Arabic for “opposing traffic”—follow that tradition, but refuse to crash anyone else’s party. With Arabic hip hop paving its lane in the international music scene, there’s no denying members Wael Kodeih and Houssam Fathallah (aka Rayess Bek and Eben Foulen), with their former producer Tarek Yamani, their rightful seat among its pioneers. They’re chauffeuring the modern identity crisis to its crossroads at 1,000 miles an hour, hoping to steer the condition of their people in a new direction. The Mirror caught up with Bek in advance of their Festival du Monde Arabe appearance.

(more…)

«Nos chansons représentent le côté violent, le côté guerre de ce que l’on vit. On a besoin de montrer une autre image du monde arabe», disait Rayess Bek à la foule rassemblée au Medley mercredi soir lors du concert d’ouverture du Festival du monde arabe (FMA). Le rappeur reviendra dimanche soir avec Iben Foulen, son complice au sein d’AKs’ser, pour partager la scène de la Sala Rossa avec les Montréalais de Nomadic Massive.

(more…)

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 2nd
20h00. 17$
La Sala Rossa, 4848 St. Laurent
Montreal, Quebec

(more…)

For Israel, the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon war was all about questions. What mistakes were made, and who made them? What could be done to restore the Israeli military’s “deterrence” after a widely perceived defeat? In general, what lessons could be learned from the confrontation with Hizbullah in order that next time, there would be no question of failure?

Unfortunately, it seems that entirely the wrong kinds of conclusions are being reached, at least in the military hierarchy and among the policy shaping thinktanks. On Friday, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper published comments made by Israeli general Gadi Eisenkot, head of the army’s northern command. Eisenkot took the opportunity to share the principles shaping plans for a future war.

(more…)

MONDAY OCTOBER 6th, 19h30
Concordia University
room H-110. 1455 de maisonneuve
metro Guy-Concordia

(more…)