Solidariteitsmissie naar Libanon

Original Message -----

Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 9:34 PM

Hallo,
Hieronder een brief van de 4 mensen die net met Geneeskunde voor de Derde Wereld naar Libanon zijn vertrokken. Als je deze mail ruim zou willen verspreiden: bedankt!
Bert

Beste vrienden,

Van 18 tot 25 augustus zijn wij met de ngo Geneeskunde voor de Derde Wereld op missie naar Libanon, op uitnodiging van de Secours Populaire Libanais (een Libanese ngo) en de Human Call Association (een Palestijnse ngo), die beide medische centra runnen.

Wij, dat zijn Marthe Franssen, een dokter van Geneeskunde voor het Volk, Selma Benkhelifa, een advocate van Progress Laywers Network, Pierre Abou Zeid, vertegenwoordiger in België van de Secours Populaire Libanais, en Danny Claes, verantwoordelijke van Geneeskunde voor de Derde Wereld.

De samenstelling van onze delegatie weerspiegelt goed wat we met onze missie willen bereiken: nagaan hoe we efficiënt medische hulp kunnen verlenen, opkomen voor de rechten van het Libanese volk, en een brug van solidariteit bouwen tussen het Belgische en Libanese volk. Wat ons drijft om aan deze missie deel te nemen is dat we vinden dat de slachtoffers van de Israëlische agressie dringend een stem en een gezicht moeten krijgen. Meer dan 1.000 doden, 1 miljoen vluchtelingen die terugkeren naar hun kapotgeschoten huizen, de Palstijnen in de vluchtelingenkampen: ze mogen niet langer anoniem blijven. En ze hebben recht op onze solidariteit.

Het feit dat we gedurende een week het lot delen van 3,5 miljoen Libanezen en Palestijnen is symbolisch. Het drukt onze wens uit dat er een actieve solidariteit met hen op gang komt. Want als het van Israël en de VS afhangt, blijft het Midden-Oosten een brandhaard die kan uitbreiden tot een enorm conflict waarvan we de omvang vandaag nog niet kunnen inschatten. Het enige dat dit kan beletten, is een wereldwijd protest. Daarvan wil onze missie een onderdeel zijn. Je kan onze missie volgen op www.g3w.be.

We vertrekken niet met lege handen: in onze bagage zitten 13 dozen medicijnen, en we overhandigen ook al de eerste opbrenst van onze steunacties aan de Secours Populaire in Beiroet, en aan de Human Call Association in het kamp Ein El-Hilweh bij Saïda. Dat is natuurlijk maar een begin. Na de missie zullen we nog beter kunnen inschatten welke hulp er dringend nodig is, en we willen de solidariteitsacties dan nog opdrijven.

Daarvoor rekenen we ook op jou. Je kan een bijdrage te storten op rekening 001-1951388-18 van Geneeskunde voor de Derde Wereld met vermelding “Libanon”. (Giften vanaf 30 euro per jaar zijn fiscaal aftrekbaar.) Je kan ons ook uitnodigen om te komen getuigen over de situatie in Libanon, om de stem van de gewone Libanees en Palestijn ook hier te laten weerklinken. En je kan ons ook komen verwelkomen bij onze terugkeer op de luchthaven van Zaventem, op vrijdag 25 augustus, om 19.30u.

Hartelijk bedankt, en met vriendelijke groeten,

Marthe, Selma, Danny en Pierre

Original Message -----
From: "Mazin Qumsiyeh"
To: <Mazin.qumsiyeh@lists.riseup.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2006 8:33 PM
Subject: [HumanRights] Tide is turning

The tide is turning decisively against the plans of permanant wars and
occupation (plans that benefit elites, arms manufacturers, and
supposedly-religious "end-of-world" profiteers). The amount of discussion,
blogs, new information and leaks are getting to a point where we can see the
frantic desperation of those pedaling the PR of "war on terrorism" to hide
land theft and ethnic cleansing in Palestine (the root cause of much of the
problems in the Middle East) and beyond. Despite US mainstream blackout,
alternative media is filled with facts clearly showing the false-flag
pedaling of fear and the fallacy of the idea of "security" and "self
defense". They reveal such hasbara as cover for land theft and as a
justification for war crimes and crimes against humanity. See for example
Jonathan Cook’s article on the distortions in US media. We can see the
Israeli lobby begin to feel pressure enough to try to butress its sagging
base with claims of successes (see article on AIPAC below). I and others
predicted that 2006 will be a turning year (see
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=9467 ). It
is sad that so many thousands of people are victimized to defend the
bancrupt ideology (at its core it is greed and concepts of superiority to
others).

IMHO, it is time for activists to begin to organize to collect documetation
of these crimes to lay the groundwork for legal proceedings (nationally and
internationally) to bring Israeli leaders and military personell (and their
supporters e.g. in the US and Britain) to justice. One research article
below for example details the US military support to Israel (in contrary to
US laws barring sending military aid to countries atht violate human rights
and invade their neighbors). And it is time for each of us to intensify our
media work (or start it if you have not done so already) and intensify the
campaign of BDS (boycotts, divestments and sanctions).

"Look What You’ve Done!": Israel’s lobby in the US (AIPAC) Congratulates
Itself on getting the US to support the Slaughter in Lebanon By JOHN WALSH
Counterpunch, 16 August 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh08162006.html

Operation "Change of Location"? How Reports of the July 12th Capture of IDF
Soldiers Soon Shifted From Lebanon to Israel, By TRISH SCHUH, Counterpunch,
15 August 2006
http://www.counterpunch.org/schuh08152006.html

The Beginning of the End for the Zionist State of Israel? by Alan Hart, talk
at International Institute of Strategic Studies, New Civilisation debate, on
Thursday, August 10, 2006.
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=4982

Washington’s interests in Israel’s war by Semour M. Hersch
[This is a very insightful article with new information about US/Isaeli
planning for decimating Hezballah as a prelude and testing ground for
attacking Iran]
http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060821fa_fact

U.S. Military Assistance and Arms Transfers to Israel: U.S. Aid, Companies
Fuel Israeli Military, A World Policy Institute Issue Brief By Frida
Berrigan and William D. Hartung July 20, 2006
http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/israel.lebanon.FINAL2.pdf

Beirut area before and after Israeli bombings: Note devastation of areas
totally outside the supposed targets of Hezballah
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14252208

Lebanese deaths, and Israeli war crimes, kept off the balance sheet
By Jonathan Cook, Electronic Lebanon, 16 August 2006
During Israel’s war against the people of Lebanon, our media, politicians
and diplomats have colluded with the aggressors by distracting us with
irrelevancies, by concocting controversies, and by framing the language of
diplomacy. In the fragile truce that is currently holding while Lebanon
waits for Israel to withdraw, we are simply getting more of the same. One
example of the many distractions during the war that neatly reveals their
true purpose is the "faked Reuters photograph" affair......
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5557.shtml

You are terrorists, we are virtuous: Yitzhak Laor on the IDF, London Review
of Books http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n16/laor01_.html

Largest US Church Accuses President Bush of Being Behind 9/11 Attacks as US
Military Leaders Seek Protection from War Crimes
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index940.htm

British MP George Galloway on Skynews (owned by Zionist Rupert Murdoch)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbmgkCiwTKo

Group Says Iran Is ’Not a Crisis’: Former generals and officials seek to
prevent an attack on suspected nuclear sites and to overhaul policies toward
Tehran and Baghdad.
By Peter Spiegel, LA Times Staff Writer
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-generals16aug16,1,3111561.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Zionist Christians - A Mossad Operation
Do Zionist Christians Know That The Name Of Jesus Was Changed In Israel?
By Reuven Schossen
http://rense.com/general73/moss.htm

Nasrallah didn’t mean to, By Amira Hass
" ’We didn’t mean to’ is a mantra that is frequently recited in Israel when
there is a discussion of the number of civilians - among them many children
 who are killed by the Israel Defense Forces. To this, the claim that
"they" (Hezbollah and the Palestinians) cynically exploit civilians by
locating themselves among them and firing from their midst is automatically
added. This claim is made by citizens of a state who know very well where to
turn off Ibn Gvirol Street in Tel Aviv to get to the security-military
complex that is located in the heart of their civilian city; this claim is
repeated by the parents of armed soldiers who bring their weapons home on
weekends, and is recited by soldiers whose bases are adjacent to Jewish
settlements in the West Bank and who have shelled civilian Palestinian
neighborhoods from positions and tanks that have been stationed inside
civilian settlements."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750978.html

Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org
http://justicewheels.org
http://endtheoccupation.org

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