An Australian in Beirut

Blog Reclaimed!

2011-02-06T06:26:00.002+02:00

Dear whoever comes across this page,

I haven't posted here in a few years now, but have been up to lots (will Inshallah be in Cairo soon) and have started a new blog

Please check it out.

Peace in the Middle East,

Austin.

Two Pepsi's and the Wrath of Allah, please.

2006-08-23T19:33:00.000+03:00

Earlier this week Hassan Deeb Nesrallah, a Lebanese shop-keeper from the Bekaa valley, along with his sons and neibours, was released by the Israeli Military into the care of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He had been taken, with his two sons Mohammad and Bilal and neighbors Mohammad Shukr, Ahmad Awta and Hassan Borji, on august first. So far no reason is evident for the daring raid involving air dropping commandos deep into the heart of Hezbollah territory except that the balding man, with neither a beard nor a turban, had the misfortune of having a name very similar to the Leader of the militant group Hezbollah.

The men were cuffed, and lead on a several hour long night march through the mountains in their slippers after which his younger son Mohammad (13) was released
And the rest were airlifted to an Israeli prison where they were held for questioning. "In the following days, the questioning became more frequent and with higher-ranking officials," Nasrallah told the Lebanese paper The Daily Star. The Israeli Military has made no comment yet about its raid deep into Lebanese territory to capture the Mini Market owner, his family and neighbours. However the accounts given by the temporary captives,and statements by their Israeli Attorney, imply that they thought he was some how related to the more famous man of the same name. His son Bilal was even accused of being the son of Hezbollah's leader when they had is actual father, purveyor of household necessities, in another cell nearby.

This doesn't fit well with the reputation for effectiveness of Mossad (the Israeli Secret Service) who have penetrated the white-house, been responsible for the assassinations of both Palestinian and Lebanese leaders, but apparently not realised that Nesrallah is about as common a name amongst the Shia as O'Brien is amongst the Irish.

Audio Slide-Shows

2006-08-18T20:12:00.000+03:00

Hey guys... havent been posying for a while because i been working on "Multimedia projects" (audio and pictures) for news.com.au one is on the red cross and the other is on the childrens cancer centre here in beirut.

RED CROSS:
http://graphics.news.com.au/multimedia/mediaplayer/060811_beirutcrisis/index.html

CHILDRENS CANCER CENTRE:
http://graphics.news.com.au/multimedia/mediaplayer/060818_childrenscancercentre/index.html

check them out and let me know what u think
peace

Suffering Side By Side

2006-08-13T16:12:00.000+03:00

Of the nearly a million of Internally Displaced Lebanese fleeing the conflict in the south an increasing number are finding temporary homes in the camps of the Palestinian refugees. They are also now receiving services from the aid organizations set up to care for their inhabitants. However, even now, more than 50 years after the establishment of the camps, which are dotted across Lebanon, the Palestinians within them are still denied access to government services including schools and hospitals, along with citizenship, the right to own land and the right to participate in over 70 professions.

That the aid organizations are providing for these families is remarkable. Along with the largely dependent residents of the camp they have also been caring, as best they can, for many Palestinians who have fled from camps further to the south, some of which have already been bombed and from those, such as Burj-el-Barajneh camp where the Israelis had been dropping pamphlets instructing the residents to evacuate as they intended to bomb in the coming days, closer to Hezbollah strongholds such as Dahiyeh and Chiyeh in the of south Beirut.

Approaching Shatila, one of the larger camps in Beirut's southern suburbs, infamous for a massacre carried out by the Phalange Christian militia here during the Israeli occupation in the Eighties, we saw a building burnt out and collapsed, our guide, Sanaah, a young Palestinian woman, explains that it was destroyed during the late eighties in the "Camp Wars" between the Palestinian Militias inside the camps and the Amal Militia's from the predominantly Shia suburbs which surround them. Inside we passed a mosque and were informed that the bodies of more than 750 people are interred beneath it. During a period of six month siege laid to the camps by the Amal militia's, when many died of starvation and disease as well as from the violence, not even bodies could be moved form this crowded patch of land which, thought it does not cover more than a square kilometer is home to more than 17,000 people. These, other burnt out buildings and the bullet holes which mark the walls serve as physical reminders that the tension between the Palestinian's who arrived in this country after 1948 and the Lebanese community has often flared into violence.

Despite this however, over the years increasing numbers of Lebanese, particularly poor Shia form the south, have moved into these camps and the largely Palestinian areas directly surrounding them. Since the current conflict they have been joined by hundreds more mostly relatives of those who had already moved into the areas. We spoke to Mrs M'uallam from the Nabatiyeh region in the south west of the country, who along with her teenage son Haadi, is now staying with her brother in the camp. She told us of her gratitude, mixed with embarrassment, at taking aid from the organizations set up to care for the Palestinian residents of these camps. While not rich, she had felt her self financially secure with a house and land. Though when she left three weeks ago, the windows had already been blown out and cracks were appearing in the walls from the bombing of the region and she has not heard since if it is still standing.

In another apartment in Shatila we met brothers Aymad and Jihad Ali Ali, who along with their wives Iklus and Ra'eda, and a combined total of ten children, had fled their home in the Rashidiyeh camp in Tyre. They are staying now with their mother and two other brothers – a total of seventeen people in the tiny flat, with its kitchen bathroom and one small living/bedroom. They too have been receiving food and hygiene aid from the numerous NGOs who work to provide for the camp.

While on all fronts these organizations are being stretched, the most pressing issue is that of medical care. The United Nations Relief Works Agency which is charged with caring for the Palestinian refugees here and in other Arab countries provides the camp with one doctor who will often see up to 200 patients in a day. The short fall is some what met by organizations such as the Red Crescent and smaller, Palestinian run. However these organizations can offer little more than first aid due to a crippling lack of resources. One aid worker told us of Hamza, a nineteen year old Palestinian man who broke his jaw when running from an explosion in Tyre. He has spent three painful weeks seeking medical treatment to no avail. With no access to government hospitals, his family, must some how raise $2000 (US) to have it re-set. Money they simply do not have.

Technorati Tags: Lebanon,

Israel Batting for Civil Strife

2006-08-04T19:34:00.000+03:00

Along with physical infrastructure, political unity appears to be a target of the Israeli air campaign against Lebanon.

On Friday morning, along with many other targets, the Israelis bombed a bridge the main Highway north from Beirut where it passes through the Maronite Christian suburb of Jounieh in the north of Beirut. This strike was, according to many, along with the bombing of other Christian areas, intended to trigger a Christian retaliation against the Shi'a for allowing their leaders to bring this grief upon them.

As you follow the coast around towards the site of the blast, from predominately Muslim west Beirut, through the predominantly Christian areas in the east and the north you notice the difference in the scenery. There are crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary dotting the hillside. The women are dressed more provocatively and none are veiled. Both women and men, even those who are not religious, often wear conspicuous crosses - reminding themselves and every one else of their unique identity. All these are indicators that the divisions within Lebanon, which were made painfully clear during its fifteen years of civil war, are still present. It is these divisions that Israel seems intent on igniting.

The Israelis have dropped fliers on the city with this purpose in mind. Not the ones telling warning people to leave their homes in the southern suburbs. The ones depicting Nasralla's head on the body of a snake and sporting slogans in Arabic like "The Resistance defends the country, but the country will pay for the resistance" and "People of Lebanon, you have a snake behind you and in front of you".

At the moment the disintegration of Lebanon's unity looks unlikely. Any public condemnations of Hezbollah by public figures or sectarian leaders have been gentle in their language and usually focus specifically on the cross border raid and abduction of two Israeli soldiers which triggered the conflict. The residents of Jounieh we spoke to, all Christian shop keepers sweeping up the glass broken by the blast, held no one but Israel responsible for the damage to their businesses.

When asked why, in their opinion, Israel had stuck the almost exclusively Maronite area they sited two reasons, to destroy the roads to prevent supplies reaching Hezbollah and to turn the Christian community against the Shi'a. "They want us to blame the people from the South" said Charbel Khouri, an employee of Michaels Restaurant only a hundred metres or so from the blast. He, like the others we spoke to, told us he did not think it would work, saying the Christian community as a whole shared his opinion and blamed Israel "one hundred percent". Lebanon has, however earned a reputation of appearing far more united than it is in reality, and if the bombing continues it is possible that this kind of national solidarity could dissolve as the non-shi'a population tires of paying the price for Hezbollah's defiance. And there are many signs that this conflict may still be in it's early stages.

While diplomatic efforts to resolve the Israeli-Lebanese conflict have gone into overdrive and it seems every one is speaking of an imminent ceasefire, Lebanese Prime minister Foad Siniora has brushed such talk aside saying "I do not want to promise the Lebanese people a cease fire unless I have concrete evidence".

Neither Hezbollah or Israel appear prepared to return to the "status quo" that existed before the most recent conflict, let alone give ground. Both want to gain something for the blood they have spent. Israel is determined it seems to push forward into Lebanese territory at least to the Litany River and Hezbollah to free the Sheba Farms. The Lebanese and Israeli prisoners who were once at the centre of this conflict seem to have fallen by the wayside.

Hezbollah's Leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has perhaps come the closest to offering an olive branch, saying that if Israel stopped its bombing of "Cities and Civilians" Hezbollah would in turn stop its rocket attacks on the north of Israel and keep the conflict as a battle between their soldiers and the Israeli military. The Israeli foreign ministry responded to Nasrallah's statement by labelling the offer of de-escalation a ruse designed to give the militant group time to " rearm, regroup and once again be in a position of strength".

Nasrallah, However, also stated that if Israel were to strike Beirut proper that Hezbollah would respond with rocket attacks on Tel Aviv. The Israeli response to which was a statement that if Tel Aviv was hit then their attacks on Lebanese Infra-structure would dramatically increase in their intensity. The rhetoric on both sides refers to escalation of the conflict. Nether side has mentioned a ceasefire plan that the other is even remotely likely to accept.

Beirut Documentary Makers Call "Foul" on Italy.

2006-08-03T20:19:00.001+03:00

In a testament to the strength of the human desire to laugh A team of two young documentary makers living in Beirut, Tarek Kandil and Montasser Bayoud from "Grey Mog" studios, have produced a short documentary called "Foul" which, under the pretence of investigating the possible link between Italian victories in the world cup in 1982 and 2006 with the coinciding Israeli invasions of Lebanon, explores the lives and attitudes of a variety of Beirut's residents. Some (including one Australian and one Italian) are foreigners, some lifetime Beirut residents. Some are people who have set up temporary homes in Beirut to escape the bombing in the south.

While most of those who have seen the movie have enjoyed it, the film makers have had one person who after seeing it was "ticked off", apparently telling them "you guys should be talking about the people dying". I do not concur.

The film is an exercise in simplicity and in all honesty, quite hilarious and touching. Each interviewee is asked the same questions, starting with who they are and where they're from and culminating with the question "Do you see any link between the Italian world cup victories now and in 1982 and the Israeli invasions of Lebanon in the corresponding years?" Everyone interviewed bursts into laughter at this point bar one, a teenage refugee from the south, in an Italian flag T-shirt, who replies in a flat even tone. "No, it was just a coincidence". For him this is no joking matter. It is on this note that the documentary ends. The effect of this is more powerful than one would first assume. The boy's face and words are burned into my memory more deeply than the images of destroyed homes, coffins and corpses that a more conventional pair of documentary makers would have gone for.

I asked Raed Habib, partner in De Prague a trendy west Beirut Café/Bar which will be hosting the documentary's first public screening, and where a large chunk of it was shot, why he decided to show the film and he replied "I think we owe it to Beirut." These guys are not alone in the feeling that Beirut deserves to laugh at its own plight, a comedy show is due to open soon in Beirut theatres called simply "Laughter Under Shell-fire". Stay tuned for a review.

Australians Escape Fighting in South

2006-08-01T22:46:00.000+03:00

In the 48 hour “halt to aerial attacks” (which has been in reality no more than a reduction in the intensity of bombing) announced by Israel there has been a flood of people rushing north to escape the fighting in the south. Among them was a convoy of 24 Australian citizens and 16 other foreign nationals including Americans and Germans that arrived Tuesday evening in Beirut from the southern city of Tyre. Where they will be going from here is as yet unclear as a passage out of the country has not yet been arranged for them. Embassy officials declined to say when they would leave, how, or to where, saying only that at this stage "all options are being considered". For now they are staying in the relative safety of the plaza hotel in West Beirut.

Here they joined a handful of other Australian citizens who had made their own way to Beirut in the previous days and been instructed by the embassy to stay at the hotel as well. All are now here awaiting further information about where they will next be headed. While some are having their accommodation and travel costs payed for, some will be expected to foot the bill themselves. "We’re doing things on a case by case basis" one official said.

One woman, who chose to remain anonymous, spoke of being stuck with her husband and their four children in the border town of Rmeich for the whole three weeks of fighting, hearing bombing every night, and often during the day as well, once more than 50 bombs within earshot in the space of a few hours. She handed me her digital camera and showed me the pictures of he bombing they had taken from their house, explosions clearly visible only a stones throw out their window. Only once had the bombings killed any body in the town. A Hezbollah fighter had, in a remarkably cowardly attack, fired a rocket from the street then run into a house no more than a hundred metres away. Israeli aircraft had spotted him and struck the house immediately in retaliation. According to the rumours circulating in his town he had survived but his brother’s two daughters had been killed.

Early Tuesday morning she and her children had been notified by mobile phone that they were to be picked up by a UN bus which was moving those stranded in the village to the port city of Tyre. Here they met the Australian convoy and headed north to Beirut. While the woman had been living in Lebanon, where her husband ran a dairy farm for roughly fourteen years, her two eldest children were born in Australia and the whole family was eligible for evacuation. She had planned to come back to Australia some day soon, “but not like this. Not without money or a place to go.” When asked what she thought of the Embassies evacuation program she replied, “Well they were a bit slow, but we’re here and we’re safe now.”

Sam, an 18 year old man now staying in the hotel waiting for evacuation back to Australia had made his own way to Beirut the day before from the costal town of Adlou, between Tyre and Sidon. He had come to Lebanon to visit family after completing year twelve at Condell Park in Sydney’s west, and hopes now to return and do a TAFE course in electronics. Five days ago he had received a call from his worried parents in Australia who had encouraged him to leave and he had headed to Sidon, staying there five days before organising a ride to Beirut. Three rockets had destroyed bridges in Adlou only “two or three hundred metres” from his house. He had been in the street at the time and had run inside in such a fright that he kept on running strait into a wall.

More than four thousand Australians have been evacuated from Lebanon in the three weeks since the conflict began and more than three thousand of them have already returned to Australia. The flow of evacuees has now slowed to a trickle, mostly those who, like those who arrived today, had been stuck in the south unable to move for fear of getting caught up in the fighting.

Tragedy within Tragedy

2006-08-01T18:02:00.000+03:00

Like many foreign journalists in Lebanon, I decided on Monday to take advantage of the halt to aerial strikes in south which Israel announced on Sunday to travel and see the damage first hand.

The drive down from Beirut would have weeks ago taken only an hour or two but took us more than five on Monday as we were forced through narrow mountain roads and dirt roads across farms. The roads were full of cars, busses and trucks full to the brim with displaced people. These vehicles were often sporting white flags to avoid being struck from the air (as has already happened to dozens of refugees fleeing their homes on Israeli orders). These are the only roads that open for aid to be distributed to those trapped in the south and for the wounded moved to medical attention.

Our destination was Qana, where an Israeli air-strike has killed roughly sixty people in a tragic repetition of an almost identical attack which left over a hundred dead during the grapes of wrath campaign in 1996. 53 bodies have so far been extracted from the rubble over half of them children, many of the adults either old or infirm. Seven people remain unaccounted for, but every now and then, when the wind changes, you could smell their bodies baking beneath the slabs of concrete in the summer heat. There are no reports of any armed men or weapons being found amongst the dead.

I spoke to Qudai Chalhoub, a resident of the town who told me that all those killed in the most recent attack on Qana were from either his extended family or the Hasham family who also occupied the hilltop village. He has lost in this one massacre most of his extended family. Three of the seven still unaccounted for (and in all probability rotting under the rubble meters from where we stood) were children from his family. He does not speculate about their well being. He tells me of a family of eight, his cousins, who were wiped out with the exception of one young woman. Being one of the wealthiest members of his family, as demonstrated by his fashionable attire and his diamond studded Nokia, he had been doing his best to move his relatives to safety in the north but could only arrange spaces for so many each day.

Dr Jawad Najem of the Director of the Najem hospital near Qana would later inform me that the majority had died from asphyxiation, having been trapped in the rubble for nearly eight hours. "If they could have been reached sooner we could have saved many more lives". He described also the on going struggle of his hospital, the second largest of the four hospitals in the area with its 80 beds and 30 staff, to deal with the influx of wounded. They have been relying on the Red Cross and on civilian cars to bring them their supplies down from Beirut. His family, who owns the hospital, has been buying these from their own pocket hoping to one day be reimbursed by the ministry of health. The wounded that are transferred from here to the government hospital in Beirut are transported almost entirely by their own families as they flee to the north. His policy is to try and keep 25 to 30 beds free as more wounded could arrive at any time.

Dr Najam also described to me, as had Dr Marina El Hajj, the deputy director of the American University hospital, in Beirut the presence of "strange burns" which both suspected of being the result of phosphorus bombs. Such burns as well as people dying from suffocation caused by spasms of the larynx, another symptom consistent with the use phosphorus and reported to me by Dr Najam, have been reported at hospitals and clinics across the country. The use of such weapons, a modern and more powerful version of napalm, is illegal under international law.

Dr Salaam Ismael from Doctors for Iraq has recently arrived in the country in the hope of setting up field clinics in the south as he feels his experience working in places like Fallujah would be helpful. He described the situation in the south and the situation he had seen in Iraq as "almost the same". Once we passed Tyre and entered the south proper on our approach to Qana we saw for our own eyes what he meant. We could not drive more than a kilometer or two without passing the site of a recent Israeli bombing. Craters and destroyed buildings, most of them appearing to have been houses. As in Qana there were smashed children's toys and clothing mingled with the rubble. A reminder that the tragedy at Qana represents only a fragment of a much broader tragedy unfolding in Lebanon which has claimed hundreds of lives already and will claim a thousand soon if not checked.

Ceasefire Gives Humanitarian Effort a Chance to breath

2006-07-31T09:35:00.000+03:00

In a strange and tragic case of what is hopefully history repeating itself Israeli State Department spokesman Adam Ereli announced a 48 hour cessation to the aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon. The ceasefire was called to investigate the deaths of at least 60 civilians, more than half of them children in an in an Israeli attack on the town of Qana. It was the international out cry over a similar event in the very same town killing over 100 people which helped end the "grapes of wrath" campaign in 1996.

Israel has implied, with its 48 hour time and specific statements about a 24 hour period in which it will coordinate with the UN to allow those in the south who wish to leave to do so, that the bombing will recommence. It has also specifically stated that it reserves the right to attack any targets it deems to be preparing a strike against Israel. It is possible however that Olmert and perhaps even Nezrallah will take this period as an opportunity to back quietly away from a conflict it seems neither of them can win, and move directly from this temporary ceasefire to negotiations about a more final agreement. However, if that is the case, there is no doubt that Hezbollah will at the very least claim it as a moral if not military victory.

If however, as is more than possible, nothing of the sort occurs and the bombing recommences Tuesday night, this announcement will nonetheless provide a much needed breathing space for the so far strangled humanitarian effort in southern Lebanon. Israel Had previously dismissed repeated calls for even a seventy two hour ceasefire for the purposes of distributing humanitarian aid saying it is unnecessary because there is already a "humanitarian corridor" available for this purpose. There simply was no such thing.

While the first UN aid convoy reached the southern port city of Tyre on Wednesday two more planned for Sunday were cancelled as no agreement could be reached with Israel. Beyond this there was the problem that moving the aid on the seven hour drive to Tyre, which was accessible a few weeks ago in around an hour depending on traffic, is only the first step.

From here the aid must be distributed to suddenly isolated communities across the south where not only are the roads in appalling condition, but where Israeli bombardment had been continuous and came without warning. This was testified to by Robin Lodge, of the World Food Programme, who said the organisation's supplies, trucked to Tyre, were unable to be distributed. The truth of his statement was demonstrated by the shelling of an aid convoy, including ambulances and organised by Lebanese civil defence workers. It was returning to Tyre from the border village of Rmeish carrying, along with press and other refugees, Australian citizens seeking evacuation from the southern port. While no Australians were hurt some, including a German cameraman, were injured.

The flow of food, which has been a trickle to tyre and all but non existent beyond, was not the only humanitarian work being crippled by Israel's continued refusal to cease fire. The transfer of injured from their villages to hospitals and from the overcrowded hospitals in the south to Beirut where excess capacity remains was also hampered. The Lebanese government also estimates that at least two hundred bodies remain uncollected among the debris of houses and by the sides of roads.

In the next 48 hours we will no doubt see a flurry of activity on all these fronts, and a fresh wave of refugees taking this opportunity to flee the south fro the relative safety of Beirut. It is in a way hypocritical that these 60 civilian deaths, occurring in a place which haunts the Israeli military are somehow significant enough to halt a bloody campaign that had already claimed more than 600 civilian lives, it is perhaps best at this point however not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Veneer of normality descends on West Beirut

2006-07-29T16:23:00.000+03:00

After two weeks of continuous bombing Beirut has found a new rhythm to daily life. If you had arrived in Beirut sometime in the last week you could be excused for thinking that nothing has changed, but it has.

On Monday almost all of the shops in Hamra, the main shopping area in west Beirut had reopened. But earlier than usual, and their closing times were moved forward correspondingly, so their owners and employees can make their way home to the mountains from where many of them commute to work each day before the sun sets. The Israelis have been bombing more often at night than during the day and though the roads are emptier than usual if it turns out an important road is suddenly closed the drive home could take much longer than expected.

Many of the bars are still shut but those that have remained open are starting to fill up again. If it weren't for the sounds of explosions reverberating through the city from Dahieh, only a few kilometres to the south, and the plethora of cars marked as either press or UN vehicles in the street, it would be difficult to know there was a war on. A friend of mine with a particularly black sense of humour could not help but laugh at the way the inhabitants of our local bar flinched at the sound of the door slamming.

It would be a travesty to say that Beirut's nightlife is at the spectacular heights it was reaching as summer kicked into gear and the world cup filled bars with people waving other countries flags. A might higher proportion of the people you will find out past sunset are journalists and other foreign nationals who do not have he option taken by most Lebanese people in this time of crisis – a return to the homestead. The brothels all throughout Hamra are closed as their clients decide, for a change, to stay at home with their wives and children.

Lebanon, while taken by surprise, was quite well prepared for a situation like this. Scores of NGO's, steeped with experience and with their networks of volunteers still in place from Lebanon's bloodstained history jumped into action to prevent the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from becoming homeless or going hungry. Many of those who's work has not resumed have replaced it with the daily routine of making sandwiches, driving supplies from one place to another, or a host of other tasks necessary to keep these non-profit organisations going.

A group of young volunteers have even taken it upon themselves to start cleaning the streets of Hamra as the mostly foreign sanitary workers have evaporated. Sukleen, the company contracted for Beirut's garbage collection insisted on paying them, so they have decided to collect what they earn and donate it to one of the many charities caring for those displaced.

In a clever move the Lebanese government banned ATMs from dispensing American dollars, which they used to do along with Lebanese lira. This combined with a Saudi aid package of 1.5 billion dollars, a billion of which was deposited directly into the central bank has helped to stabilize the currency, which while it is devaluing is not doing so at the rate some feared it might.

While prices for most goods have remained fairly stable, imported foodstuffs, particularly dairy products have increased in price since the Israelis bombed Lebanon's main milk factory (presumably in the hope of preventing terrorist milk reaching terrorist coco-pops).

Only long life and powdered milk are now available. Other food products, such as bread, are not increasing in price but are sometimes absent from the shelves. Pharmacies and their agents still have stockpiles of medicines, but many sufferers of chronic illnesses have been buying in bulk in case that changes.

Some are either fatalistic or deliberately oblivious. Watching the news and collecting images of children burnt to death and ripped apart from the internet, having convinced themselves of the worst so as not to be disappointed. Others refusing to admit that anything is going on and insisting that it will all be over soon, such as a young man by the name of Alan Habeeb who passes his days going for drives because the roads are so empty he can really test his high speed skills. Most however, have decided to make as few concessions to the conflict as possible and maintain some semblance of normality in their lives. There are, after all still bills to pay and things that simply must be done.

p.s. Finally figuired out how to link to other blogs... check out my friend Seans post
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and a good one about gaza
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The Resistance

2006-07-27T22:38:00.000+03:00

When westerners, particularly Anglophones, imagine the membership of Hezbollah two tired stereo types are likely to jump to mind. One is of the mad mullah, spitting venom at the west from his podium in the mosque's main hall or maliciously plotting in a dark room somewhere in its back chambers. The other is the desperate young man from the village or the slum with nothing to loose who, one day, upon hearing the demagogic preaching of such a mad mullah slings a Kalashnikov over his shoulder and decides to take his frustration, building through a lifetime void of opportunities and direct it at the world wide Capitalist Jewish Conspiracy.

I am about to meet one of its members, and a very active one at that. I am waiting for him at Starbucks, his suggestion. The young man I am waiting to meet, Mahdi Berjaoui, is not only a member of Hezbollah - he is the leader of their group on campus at the Lebanese American University. He arrives and approaches me with a confident stride, an easy smile, and a firm manly handshake. He is wearing a fashionable orange polo shirt, blue jeans, trendy sneakers and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. He hasn't shaven for the last few days but he certainly does not have a beard. We take a table and he suggests an iced mocha as it is far too hot for a latte, and then insists, in the great Lebanese tradition of hospitality, on paying for it.

Upon prompting Mahdi rattles off some of the achievements of Hezbollah at LAU. They campaigned successfully, with the other political groups on campus, to lower tuition fees, hosted a photographic exhibition on the history of their of their organisation, and a (peaceful) protest against the Iraq war organised to coincide with a visit to the campus by the US Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman.

Mahdi, though cheerful, is old beyond his nineteen years. He was born during the eighteen year Israeli occupation of Lebanon and members of his family had died at their hands. He talks about the humiliation that comes from living in an occupied land -the check points, the arbitrary raids, searches and curfews the sense of powerlessness. It was Hezbollah who changed all that. It was Hezbollah who liberated Lebanon from the Israeli occupation.

In the two week onslaught that has begun his family's weekend and summer house in a village in the southern mountains has been destroyed, as has their main residence in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh, where as the new local joke has it, the Israelis are digging for oil, bombing the same area repeatedly reducing it to rubble. According to the Israelis this is to destroy the network of tunnels and bunkers that Hezbollah has build between and under its buildings in the area in preparation for such a strike (this is not the first time since their withdrawal in 2000 that the Israelis have bombed Lebanon). According to many others however this is a ploy to scatter the intense of support Hezbollah enjoyed in this densely populated and predominantly Shi'a suburb where their head quarters were located by destroying the homes of their supporters. These objectives however, are far from mutually exclusive.

Mahdi's two houses were not bombed because he is a member of Hezbollah, he and his family were simply unlucky. Like hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have been made homeless in the last two weeks.

Still, however, he is neither desperate nor fanatical. He's just staying with relatives for the moment. What's more, with a degree in economics and international relations to finish, a girlfriend called Samar and a healthy social life, demonstrated by the scores of people who interrupt our interview to shake his hand, ask after his family and insist he call them so they can go for a beer soon, he still has everything to loose. He talks about the current situation in purely political and strategic terms. I ask him what the goals of Hezbollah will be after this war ends, he replies "the same as they have always been: to protect our people and our land" and then adds quickly, "and of course, now, to repair the new damage that has been done".

He, like most Lebanese, holds no one but Israel responsible for the destruction wrought on their country, since the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers two weeks ago by Hezbollah. The operation was justified, according to Mahdi by the hope of a prisoner swap which would return three Lebanese nationals held in Israeli prisons. None of whom, Mahdi is quick to point out are from Hezbollah, or even Shi'a. Such prisoner swaps have happened before and much larger numbers of prisoners, and have included Hezbollah guerrilla leaders among those released. Indeed one of the men released in such a prisoner swap has a son who studies with Mahdi at LAU.

The hostage taking, according to him, and most Lebanese, is just an excuse for the Israelis to pursue goals held previously - to keep Lebanon weak when it was for the first time in decades on the path to prosperity.

His calmness, however, does not mean he is dispassionate, he has both friends and family fighting at the front and, he makes clear several times during the interview that if it comes to the point where it is necessary, which would be when Hezbollah feels its well armed and well trained guerrilla units are stretched thin, he is prepared to fight and die there himself. Like young men world wide, he is prepared to die for his country if he feels it under threat. For the moment he is happy to spend his days volunteering at what was until recently one of Beirut's best law schools, but which is now the temporary home of around a thousand refugees.

A Google search for news articles containing the words "terrorist group Hezbollah" produces three hundred and twenty one stories printed since the beginning of June, and indeed Hezbollah is listed as an official terrorist organisation by America, Australia, the Canada, and Israel. The United Kingdom and Netherlands make a distinction between Hezbollah proper, which they do not consider a terrorist organisation and its armed wing, the External Security Organization, which they do. The United Nations, the European Union and every other nation in the world however, are yet to accept this definition for either the group as a whole or its armed wing. However, t he European Union has gone so far as to identify Imad Mugniyah , Hezbollah's senior Intelligence officer, as a terrorist individually.

To the Lebanese however, to use such a term to describe the Hezbollah is an insult. Not just to the group itself or its widely respected leader Sheik Hassan Nesrallah, but to the Lebanese people as a whole. It was this group that fought and died to liberate their land from a despised occupier. To use such terms regarding those responsible for their freedom is to denigrate their freedom itself. They are Al-Muqawama, "The Resistance", or if you feel like being formal, Al-Muqawama al-Islamiyya, "The Islamic Resistance". These are the words used in reference to Hezbollah in the Arabic press if they are not identified by name. They are never called terrorists.

The reason for this broad based support, extending well beyond (and not universal among) their coreligionist Shi'a, is not as simple as a hatred of Israel or a love of Islam. Hezbollah have not only been a military organisation. They have built and now maintain schools and medical clinics across the country, they have specific branches of their organisation responsible for the widows and orphans of those who have died in battle, they organise emergency food and shelter for the poor even in times of peace, and they have a specific organisation for the reconstruction of buildings and infrastructure destroyed by shelling and bombing. They even give university scholar ships to promising Shi'a students from poor backgrounds.

The religious aspect of Hezbollah is a much less prominent section of their platform than one might suspect. Hezbollah has openly and officially stated that the goal of an Islamic republic is unsuited to Lebanon's religiously diverse population. They are not the Lebanese version of Al-Qaeda, they are a much more garden variety political organisation who have survived and grown due to their ability to meet the needs of their constituents. Even now, in the middle of the conflict they are, in concert with a plethora of other organisations and the Lebanese population at large providing emergency shelter, food and medical supplies to those who were displaced by the war and have no where else to go. That is not to say they are altruistic, or "good" a term I would be loath to use for any politician. They know that providing these services will bolster their support in the future.

In the car-park of the Beirut mall, one of many places where those fleeing Israeli bombs have found temporary shelter they have set up a projector screen showing Al-Manar, Hezbollah's own TV station, so that the thousand or so refugees there can gather in the evenings to hear the speeches of the Sheik Hassan Nesrallah. They also sometimes show Tom and Jerry cartoons during the day, much to the delight of the children. In this car-park the support for Hezbollah was more vehement than most other places. Every one I spoke to, without being questioned on the topic, professed their love for Nesrallah. Abdullah, a middle aged man from the south whose whole family had been displaced by the bombing launched eagerly into a speech in which he declared that he would give his life for Nesrallah without hesitation. I asked Ali, a boy from a village in the north which had been bombed, who had volunteered to act as my translator what how he passed his days he answered that they played cards, read the Quoran and waited for Nesrallah to speak.

These speeches are not just heard and cheered by the unwashed masses huddled in bunkers and slums. In a trendy café not far from my house in the suburb of Hamra, which is home to the Lebanese American University, The American University of Beirut, The American University hospital, McDonalds, Dunkin' Donuts and the arguably best lingerie shopping in the Middle East, a large screen TV was installed to show the world cup. They have kept it in place to show the war which followed on almost immediately. Here I watched Nesrallah's speech on Tuesday night. It was a response to America's plans for "A New Middle East". The audience was captivated. Those who were eating put down their knives and forks. Conversation stopped. Every word was followed. People looked with annoyance at the noise coming from my table until they realised it was a friend of mine translating his words into English, of this they approved.

Whether you call them terrorists or a legitimate resistance movement, whatever the New Middle East looks like, Hezbollah and groups like it are likely to be a major feature for the foreseeable future.

Exaggeration only plays into Israel's hands

2006-07-25T00:50:00.000+03:00

Despite a distinct pro-Israeli bias in most of the major press organizations, the tide of world opinion is moving distinctly against Israel and its latest attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. However, in the west and particularly America, the only country capable of reigning Israel in, the traditional view of Israel as a civilized democratic David confronting a swarm of hostile brutal and totalitarian Goliaths remains strong. This flows partly from the identification of the west with the western lifestyle and values they perceive the Israelis as sharing with them, partly form a guilt complex over the allowing the holocaust to occur, and partly from fear of the influential Jewish lobby which is more than happy to label any of Israel's critics as anti-Semitic and therefore "like Hitler", who has replaced Satan in the largely secular west as the icon of evil.

Israel's favourite public relations trick is to hide behind the second world war in general and the holocaust in particular. For example, a few days ago when an IDF spokesman was questioned on BBC how two hostages and seven dead soldiers could justify such a brutal and disproportionate response he dodged the question in two sideways steps. The first step was to label the hostage taking as a threat to Israel's sovereignty, the second was to compare Israel's bombing of Lebanon to the bombing of Dresden and other places by the allies in World War Two. The whole worm-like move was tied together with a suggestion that the west remembered how far they were prepared to go to protect their sovereignty. It is more than a stretch of the imagination to equate the raid by Hezbollah on Israeli troops at a disputed border with the armies of the Third Reich steam-rolling across Europe and Asia - it is patently absurd.

The voice of reason speaks clearly on this issue in favour of Lebanon and the Palestinians.

If people could simply be made aware of the facts of the situation in an even handed and humanistic rather than the ideologically weighted fashion favoured by CNN and the like, the condemnations of Israel would be weighted. Exaggeration by Israel's enemies is not only unnecessary but counter productive as it contributes to the image of Israel's enemies as irrational, unreasonable people who can only be dealt with at gun point.

Comments like those of the Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, who labeled Israel's attack on Lebanon a "genocidal war" are not only inaccurate they are counter productive. The term Genocide became popularized in Nuremberg, where the authors of the Holocaust were tried for their crimes against humanity. To use this word to describe the horror that is unfolding in Lebanon as we speak only lessens the impact of the hundreds of deaths by placing them in the same sentence as the millions of Jews who died in the holocaust. You could not hand the Israelis a better chance to hide behind the corpses of Hitler's victims if you were trying.

It is possible, perhaps, that Israel's long running attempt to erase the Palestinian people from history and from their land, and to destroy their identity of could be labelled as genocidal, though to do so would be an exercise in definitions rather than a meaningful description of a unique historical crime. It is not possible however to stretch this definition to describe current events. This is a war of aggression, largely inspired and condoned by anti-Arab racism. This is a crime against humanity and has been called that by the UN. It is not genocide. The Israelis are not trying to wipe out the Lebanese or even the Shi'a. I do not doubt that there are those in Israel that would like to pursue such an agenda, but there are limits to what the American government will be held accountable for by their people. And without American military sponsorship Israel has no capacity to act.

If the current situation could be made clear and real to the American people I feel no doubt that their anger would be great enough compel their government to rein Israel in. I do not know if this is a possible, but exaggeration and inaccuracy will not help.

Austin Gerassimos Mackell

As the departures continue, the Lebanese prepare for the worst.

2006-07-21T18:59:00.000+03:00

The Australian ambassador to Lebanon Lyndall Sachs has said she thinks the evacuation, or in the language she prefers, voluntary departure, is going "very well". She estimates the number of people who have already left at around nine hundred. She says she expects the process to continue for at leas a few more days but possibly longer "depending on demand". While the number of people eligible to be moved to Cyprus is placed somewhere between five and ten thousand she makes it clear that this was always guess work, and considering that the majority of these are Lebanese Australian with family in the country, it is very unclear how many of them will take the offer of evacuation and how many will choose to stay with their relatives and wait out the storm.

There are no plans at present to close the embassy or evacuate its staff, and the ambassador had been informed by the department of foreign affairs and trade that she could expect a "long and fruitful career" in Beirut.

There are however many in the press and elsewhere who predict that once the bulk of foreigners leave and the bulk of the international press who have been largely focusing on the departures themselves follow, we will for the first time experience the full force of Israel's attack.

It might seem strange to say that the Israeli's have been 'gentle' with Lebanon so far, considering the hundreds of civilian dead and the sorry state of the roads, the power system and the air and sea blockade currently strangling the economy. But compared to the bombing which accompanied the Israeli occupation in 1982, we have seen nothing yet.

However, hopefully both a large chunk of the international media in the country and a corresponding portion of Israel's increased sensitivity to world opinion will remain as a bulwark against a major increase in aggression. This is not guaranteed however as Israel's stated goals, the release of their two captive soldiers and an end to Hezbollah's ability to menace Israel from the south are no where insight.

Indeed it is unclear how either of these goals can be realized. The rhetoric of their leader Hassan Nasrallah regarding both rocket strikes on Israel and the release of the captives has only hardened as the crisis deepens. Last night in an exclusive al-Jazeera interview he stated that even "if the whole universe comes against [them]" they will not release the captured soldiers under any terms that do not include a prisoner exchange.

Indeed, the original raid in which the soldiers were captured was named "Operation True Promise", in reference to a promise made by the general secretary of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, to the family of Samir al-Qantar, a Lebanese prisoner who has been in an Israeli jail over for the deaths of three Israelis since 1979. Apparently, Nasrallah gave his word that the next time Hezbollah celebrated the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, Qantar would be there to celebrate, and issued orders for his men to seek an opportunity to abduct Israeli soldiers as early as six months ago.

Regarding their presence on the border, equally little movement seems imminent. Hezbollah are not a force that can be wiped out with air raids shelling and rocket attacks, their roots are deep within population. They, and their weapons cashes, are distributed throughout Lebanon in private houses and businesses as well as caves and mountain strongholds. The while the IDF is spouting claims involving made up figures such as a thirty percent destruction of Hezbollah's infrastructure the list of Hezbollah's military achievements in this brief war, including successful rocket attacks on Israeli naval vessels, tanks and civilian targets inside Israel, continues to grow.

Furthermore, considering the fact that Hezbollah came into existence during, and as a response to the Israeli occupation of the south, it does not seem that even if the Israelis do reinvade the south in earnest they will be able to achieve this goal. Rather they will be engaged once more in a war against a guerilla movement which is interwoven with and indistinguishable from the population a large.

Perhaps the only way for Israel to achieve its goal is to turn the other elements of the Lebanese population against Hezbollah - to initiate a new civil war in this country. It is very possible that this is a consciously conceived strategy of the Israelis. Pamphlets have been circulating in Beirut which depict Nasrallah's head on the body of a snake and can be translated as "the resistance defends the country, but the country will pay for the resistance". It is unclear whether these were airdropped along with the pamphlets politely asking residents of areas about to be targeted to leave their homes so they can be bombed, or whether they are produced locally. What is certain however is that they were not circulating before this war began.

FROM CAROLINA

2006-07-20T21:25:00.000+03:00

The following is an article written by a Canadian friend of mine here in Beirut who was living with a Palestinian family one the camps in South Beirut and who has now fled with them to the relative safety of Hamra, West Beirut.

Beirut, July 19, 2006

Day 7 of Israel’s bombing of Lebanon.

I am feeling very angry right now, I don’t know at what, or at whom or why but I feel very angry right now. I don’t feel like doing anything, not even writing and yet here I find myself.

This summer, as last summer, I was living among the displaced only to now find myself displaced with the displaced. I don’t fear for my safety for some odd reason, although most foreigners are panicking. I don’t want to leave and I know I would never forgive myself were I to board the supposed boats that Harper has sent for us Canadians.

At first everyone in Bourj Al Barajne camp was happy and almost giddy to see a break in the depressing everyday reality of their lives as Palestinians in Lebanon. It had only been days prior when the sound of fireworks and gunfire echoed through the night celebrating Italy’s victory over France. Now people are recounting stories to me about the war, the siege, having had to eat rats. ‘This is nothing’. No one is afraid, yet. Israel’s rockets and sonic booms shook my family’s house as we watched from the roof as Haret Hreik went up into flames and smoke. The billowing and raging fire from the airport only ten minutes away blocked the rising of the red moon. Still however, during the first few days of last week, the shebab discussed whose pigeons flew the highest; arguileh’s were being smoked while people still gathered on their roofs. During these first few days it was almost comforting to have the entire family strewn between the rooms of the house; helping to stock up on food; gathering to watch the news; discussing opinions and estimating when and how the war will continue or end.

This was the first time I didn’t leave the camp for four complete days, not even to the entrance to see the normally busy and noisy streets of Haret Hreik outside. No ‘services’ or buses I was soon told. Although consciously I am not afraid, I think my lack of appetite and constant trips to the bathroom, are telling me otherwise. I didn’t want to leave the camp. I don’t like having the privileges of a foreigner. As I walk through the alleys of Bourj to write an email home, my friends ask ‘badik hon?’ ‘ma haiffe?’.

I am new to the sound of bombs, planes that drop bombs, machine gun fire. By Friday night more people are increasingly nervous. I have noticed myself feed off of peoples’ calmness or panic. I am fine while alone. However Saturday morning I go to visit my neighbour only to discover she has left with her children to the mountains. Soon, visiting family from Denmark comes crying saying their goodbyes. They are leaving for Syria to make their way back to Denmark. I haven’t been able to sleep properly since last Wednesday. I am exhausted and yet can not sleep. I find myself on a diet of sweet Nescafe and waking up various times through the night to the sounds of planes or what I think are the sounds of planes.

People cheer as Nasarallah announces the sinking of an Israeli war ship. The rocket was fired from atop the wedding hall where I had attended a wedding with my mother and friends from Shatila only a week previously. Although I too feel great happiness at this, I can’t help but fear what type of retaliation awaits us.

Late Saturday afternoon I decide to try and make my way to Hamra. I pack two pairs of pants, two t-shirts, my important documents and underwear in a knapsack. My family is lucky to find transport for me. The streets are deserted. We drive underneath the familiar ‘jisr al mataar’ that I always walk under to go visit friends in Shatila. However, there is no more bridge left.

Everything feels surreal to me. Only 3 months ago I stood in the town of Maroun Ras, the site of the kidnapping of the Israeli soldiers, overlooking the border with Palestine. Only a week and a half ago I was visiting southern, western and northern Lebanon with my mother. She left the day before the Israeli soldiers were taken. We had been in Saida, walked in Manara and through Bir Abid to catch a bus to Baalbeck. Since then the bridge to Saida has been burned, over forty buildings have been felled in Bir Abid and Haret Hreik or as is mainly known on the news as the Dahieh; the road to Damascus has been destroyed; Baalbeck has been incessantly targeted by Israel; the lighthouse in Manara was struck by a missile; over 200 innocent victims have been killed in Lebanon. It is hard to believe how fast life can change and all that was seemingly important becomes insignificant.

Saturday I am lucky to find a room for thirty five dollars a night. All of Dahieh is in Hamra. Everyone looks out of place. People here live in a different world then in Dahieh. Girls still take time to blow dry their hair, pick out sexy outfits and gather with their friends at the Macdonalds. Cars go by blasting music. It’s as if they are all unaware that their city is being bombed only 10 minutes away. Yet this indifference and ignorance doesn’t come as a surprise to most.

The text messages from my family in the camp all through Saturday night were too chipper to be sincere. By Sunday I begin looking for a place for the rest of the family. They arrive with three plastic bags of food, a bag with their important papers and the clothes on their backs. They tell me that from one to five in the morning the shelling across the street and down the road from the camp did not stop. My family had stood in the living room crying, those who I believed unable to be afraid, left the camp first thing Sunday morning.

I go to visit my fellow ex-pats. One Canadian, one Australian, one German. All wish to remain in the country. Perhaps my reasons for wanting to stay are more personal but I am also filled with an overwhelming feeling of guilt and responsibility at what is happening here. How, how, how, how, how, how can I abandon a family I have come to love so much? How, how, how, how can I leave those who welcomed the closest person I have to me, my mother, into their home; those who shared their house, their family, their stories, love and lives with her? How, how, how, how can I leave now? How can I leave when the going gets rough? Simply because I am a foreigner? How can I leave when I know my own government supports the Zionists, who were only looking for a reason to invade Lebanon once again? How can I leave feeling that people in the world deem my life more valuable than all those left to suffer here in Lebanon?

Israeli commandos invaded southern Lebanon this morning. Apparently Hizbollah has been waiting for this.

But what can you do? many ask. To be honest I have no idea. I began organizing children’s activities with the refugees at Sanayeh, distributing food. I can write, get the message out, the truth. I can simply show solidarity with the people I love by staying here. I haven’t suffered at all when I think all the people who have lost everything in the South; those who have sought safety with no food, five children and nothing to go back to.

But there are people who love me across an ocean who are sick with worry. I feel guilty for staying as well.

What will happen when all the foreigners leave Lebanon? Once the evacuations have ceased? It is then that Israel will be able to achieve its ‘very clear goals’ which apparently will only take ‘a few weeks’ according to Major General Moshe Kaplinsky. However what war against terrorists targets dairy farms, pharmaceutical plants and paper mills?

I am tired of watching the news. I am tired of asking for translations and people are tired of translating. I figure when I bombed hits we’ll hear it.

The frustration of my friends and family from the camp is growing. I can see it. Mine is as well but I feel guilty letting it. I have a boat coming to ‘save’ me; I haven’t lost my job because there is no more work; I haven’t been displaced yet again; I haven’t suffered at the hands of those who stole what was once mine and now claim the right to defend their country. I won’t have to rebuild shit. All I will have to do is go back to the comfort of life in Canada and recount what is was like to have ‘survived’.

At the same time, everyone is becoming impatient with each other. Tension is high; bread is becoming scarce. And yet many just worry about their brothers in Gaza and West Bank and not about themselves. There is nothing anyone can do right now, areas we thought were safe are no longer. The mainly Christian part of Beirut, Acharafiye, was bombed this morning. Is it not obvious to anyone what Israel is trying to do? Has anyone stopped to think why Hizbollah kidnapped the two soldiers to begin with?

I don’t have any answers but perhaps the UN can save the civilians as they did in Rwanda, Yugoslavia and so many other countries in the world? Yes, let’s let the UN come and save us with a special mission to Southern Lebanon. Perhaps they will care for those left in this country once we foreign nationals are all gone; perhaps they will care just as much as they cared for those in the bus carrying more than 30 women and children who were turned away from the UN compound seeking refuge only to be bombed while following orders from the Israeli leaflets dropped on their town of Marwahine.

Carolina Vergara Lamarre

AUSTRALIAN EVACUATION

2006-07-20T21:22:00.000+03:00

Austin Gerassimos Mackell - Beirut

The first the Australian couple Christine and Mazhar Mallouhi knew of anything being wrong was last Wednesday morning when the Israeli’s bombed the airport. Mazhar was out for his morning walk when he saw fighter jets swinging in from the Mediterranean to deliver the blasts. Christine was in their house in Bchamoun, South Beirut, which was shaking with the blasts.

¨My son told me ´the airport is being bombed´¨ Christine related to me ¨And I said, ´well that’s not normal´¨

The couple, who are both writers, (Mazhar in Arabic and Christine in English) had not followed the news of Hezbollah’s deadly raid on the IDF, the two Israeli soldiers taken captive or the preliminary bombing raids in the south. They had been busy with work and with organizing the wedding of their son Tarek and his fiancé Shireen. They were planning a large ceremony in August with over one hundred and fifty people, twenty five of whom were to fly in from Australia. A reception complete with fireworks in a mountain country club just outside Beirut was to follow.

In the next few days they would witness out their windows the destruction of southern Beirut. The airport was hit again, this time buildings collapsed and the fuel tanks set ablaze – billowing black smoke into the sky. The Palestinian refugee camps and southern suburbs were bombed repeatedly. They had been told by the Australian embassy that they would be called when it was time to evacuate. However, fearful of being trapped in south Beirut and missing their boat they decided to move.

On their drive north their fears were validated. The airport road, the main road out of their neibourhood, had been bombed already so they decided to take another route, only to discover that it was currently being bombed. They turned back and braved the damaged and largely empty airport road and found a hotel in Hamra (West Beirut).

Well ahead of schedule, the marriage was performed in Shireen´s parent’s house with fifteen people present. Their son informed them of the ceremony only an hour before and Mazhar was forced to attend in shorts and sandals.

On the day of their evacuation they were crowded into the conference hall of the Crown plaza hotel in Hamra´s Main Street with roughly two hundred other Australian citizens.

Shareen Irani had been in Beirut learning hairdressing for the previous five months and was heartbroken at the idea of leaving her job, apartment friends and possessions behind. Her mother has told her that she is taking a mattress to Sydney airport to set up camp and wait for her there.

Andrew Sassine had only arrived four days before the bombing began planning on a two month holiday. He was considering continuing his holiday in Cyprus until he was told that there would be a luggage limit of eight kilograms (just over half the fifteen kilo weight limit given to Americans), including food for the journey which they were instructed to bring.

The Issa family, also holiday makers, had arrived in Beirut a month earlier to visit relatives and see the country in summer. They had been waiting for hours, being told repeatedly that each hour would be the last. Their frustration, palpable; Lillian is worried about her young daughter Ruby, whose asthma has flared up. Ruby coughs with a dry harshness that reminds me of a pack a day smoker.

They were filed into a convoy of four buses, and taken down to the Forum De Beirut, a larger conference center closer to the port which the British and Germans were using to coordinate their evacuation. Transferred to a British naval vessel, they joined roughly a thousand British citizens for their trip to Cyprus. The British navy will be supplying them with water and basic medical attention aboard the vessel. No embassy official could tell me what assistance if any they will be receiving from the Australian government once in Cyprus.

Only those due to be evacuated on a particular day will be informed of the details of their departure. It seems this policy has been instituted to prevent the already stretched embassy staff from being swamped by more people than they can offer spaces to. How long it will take for the remaining five to ten thousand evacuees to be moved is unclear. They are leaving in dribs and drabs transported by American, British and Canadian boats to Cyprus and possibly soon Turkey as well. Unless things accelerate it could be weeks before the process is complete.

FINALLY

2006-07-18T18:55:00.000+03:00

Finally, Contact.

The Dutch and the French have began their evacuation on Monday. Since then son have the Jordanians the Brazilians and a host of other countries. The Canadians are beginning tomorrow, the British are also underway and the Americans, lagging behind are loading their boat in the harbour now. As for the Australians, I have no bloody clue, apparently it will be some time "in the next few days" to Cypress or Turkey. Until today, the only contact I have had with them is two e-mails, which I got by signing up to the travel advisories mailing list, each containing nothing but a link to the DFAT travel advisories page for Lebanon, which begins with the words "We strongly advise you not to travel to Lebanon at this time because of the deteriorating security environment." Thanks guys.

The Dutch have been receiving SMS updates on the progress of their evacuation efforts, as have many other European nationals. My American and Canadian friends were complaining to me that the only way their embassy would contact them is by e-mail, at least theirs was a specific and detailed e-mail for their citizens already in Beirut explaining to them the details of how the evacuation will be ordered when it finally takes place. For example, one small bag per person, bring food and water for the trip with you. Priority given to medical cases, families and short term residents. Appallingly the Americans have also announced that their citizens will be required to sign a promissory note agreeing to pay for the cost of their evacuation upon their return home. As one American put it, they are being forced to pay to flee from bombs which we paid for with our own tax dollars. Even more appallingly the Americans have said that they will be splitting families. For example if you are an American citizen married to a Lebanese then you can not bring your spouse. If the children are American citizens and the parents are not then one parent can accompany them and the other must stay put. They are forcing families to choose between staying together and staying safe.

The Australian embassy, more appallingly still, has, until today, told us nothing. Furthermore, they are the only embassy I have heard of that will not register its citizens either by phone or in person. A friend who is also an Australian citizen took his own details (passport number, contact details etc.) along with his sisters and mine to the embassy in hard copy in the hope assuming that they would be eager to know exactly how many Australian citizens there were and how to contact them He was turned away and referred to the smartraveller.gov.au web-site. I was sure he was wrong, our government would not show us such contemptuous indifference. I tried to call. The woman took my name (actually she refused to record my middle name) and noted that I was a student but refused to take either my passport number or my contact details. Again, I was referred to the web-site where I had to fill out three pages of mostly useless information on the same generic form as any other Australian who is travelling or has plans to travel anywhere else in the world.

Considering the fact that the power is often out in large sections of Beirut and consistently out in other parts of the country and that internet and phone services are this would require many of us (including myself) to ignore the only relevant advice to be found on the DFAT web-site: "If you are in Lebanon you should remain in a secure location indoors, monitor the media and follow public announcements of the local authorities."

So do we stay inside and risk being left behind in the case of an evacuation or do we risk travelling to find internet access? For me the dilemma was not huge, I am staying within walking distance of a number of internet café's with their own generators and reasonably reliable (if remarkably slow) internet access, for many of those trapped without power in the south by bombed roads and bridges this would be, at worst impossible or at best, extremely dangerous. The confusion does not end there, apparently "We expect also that some Australians may be able to leave on ships organised by consular partners including Canada, the US and the UK." when and how this will be possible, as the American evacuation is under way now and the Canadians will begin tomorrow.

After registering my details on the web-site and having my sister repeat the process for me from Australia days later I have received the first confirmation that my government even knows I am in the country. No time or place to meet for evacuation and no details of what i can bring, who will be taking me or where I will be taken should I choose to leave.

Summer Is Cancelled

2006-07-16T18:48:00.000+03:00

SUMMER IS CANCELLED

Austin Gerassimos Mackell.

Everything was going well. As soon as I got to Beirut on my student exchange program I liked it. The atmosphere was an electric and instantly appealing mix of Mediterranean and Arab culture. The depth and variety of history and culture was amazing, the food was great and cheap, the women were beautiful, and the local beer Almaza didn't give you a hangover no matter how much of it you drank. The locals were the most welcoming people I've come across in my life, and the buildings had all these cool bullet holes in them. It was a place that owhere you can party 'til the call to prayer in style. I had originally only planned to stay for six months, but shortly after my arrival I decided to extend my stay for the whole year.

In the past five months, everyone has told me that no matter how much fun I was having at the present, the summer would blow my mind. After the first ten days of July, I could see what they meant. The streets and bars were busier than ever. The pretty Lebanese women were in their skimpy summer best which they had been collecting and perfecting all spring if not since last summer. Tourists packed the streets, bars, and night clubs. People predicted as many as a million of them would be in Lebanon at one time or another during the summer, a figure equal to about a third of the population of the country. Fifty Cent, Ricky Martin, and Paul Vandyke had all just played in Beirut. Sean Paul was scheduled to perform, and later in the summer Deep Purple and Liza Minnelli would be performing at the ancient ruins in Baalbek.

Even the most pessimistic locals I spoke to about the political situation, and there were among the population many with dark predictions on this topic, assured me that nothing would happen till after the summer.

Then, after a huge night out (especially considering it was a Tuesday) I was going to sleep some time after dawn. I heard what sounded like fighter jets over head. Too loud and high pitched for normal planes. "Nah" I told myself, "You're imagining things," rolled over and went to sleep.

I woke up as the evening approached, and wandered down the street to a lovely little cafe called De Prague for my "morning" coffee. Several of my friends were already at a table so I joined them and I started talking about my crazy night and they all stared at me like I was crazy. "You haven't heard, have you?"
"Heard what?"
"The sh*t has hit the fan."

Seven Israeli soldiers had been killed and two taken hostage. The Israelis had begun their bombing of the south. Some say the impetus came from Iran and that Hezbollah's direct provocation of Israel, at such an inopportune time for the Lebanese, was a move by Tehran to divert the weight of world attention from its confrontation with the West over its nuclear program. Others say that Syria wanted to keep Israel busy with Lebanon so as to stall on the issue of the Hamas leaders such as Khaled Meshaal. This was, according to many, another case of Lebanon acting as a field in which the more substantial regional powers play out their never-ending world cup, using the Lebanese people as a ball.

Others, particularly the predominantly Shia supporters of Hezbollah, have given full credit to and rallied around their leader Hussein Nesralah, who they claim was acting out of sympathy for the thousands of Palestinians, including dozens of ministers from the Palestinian authority who have been kidnapped as part of the escalating conflict in Gaza.

Another motive often sighted for Hezbollah's actions, but not by their supporters, is that by generating further conflict with Israel it can prevent further pressure building within Lebanon for it to comply with UN security council resolution 1559. Not only does this Resolution call for the withdrawal of all foreign forces, it has also called for the group, which took arms with the stated and largely achieved [1] goal of driving the Israelis from Lebanese soil, to be disarmed along with all other Lebanese militias [2]. Hezbollah's main defense of its continued armed state was that the Lebanese army was simply not as well able to prevent further Israeli aggression; it was, after all, Hezbollah that eventually drove them out.

If their goal was to remind the Lebanese of just what a powerful threat was dwelling to the south, they have succeeded. However this may not have the effect of uniting the county behind them, as they might have planned. Many people see clearly that this time Hezbollah have provoked the wrath of that threat. They do not appreciate the fact that summer, with its potential of earning billions of dollars through tourism, is cancelled, or that the power is out and they are without air conditioning, or that they now are forced to lay awake at night worrying about their family, as bombs fall in unpredictable locations all across this tiny little country, roughly the size and population of greater Sydney.

It seems the current situation, at least in the short term, has begun to polarize the population over the question of Hezbollah, who many Lebanese, including many non-Shia, have referred to in the past respectfully as "The Resistance". A Druze friend of mine, who was sitting in my flat with me last night listening to the bombs land, turned to me and said, "Obviously, while the Israelis are here, we are with Hezbollah, but once this settles down, there is reckoning to do in this country." Another friend of mine, of Palestinian and Egyptian descent with equally little love for the Israelis, had said to me back on day one "I just wish those bearded mother f*ckers would calm the f*ck down and do a little math before they acted."

It could be Israel's hope that they can force other groups within Lebanon and its government to confront and control Hezbollah, but it seems doubtful that the government has the military or political strength to do this without plunging the country back into civil war.

Hezbollah's Shia support base, who are bound by religious affiliation and filled with gratitude for their liberty from the Israeli occupation to Hezbollah, will be less easily swayed. It has become a binary opposition for many of them - if you aren't with Hezbollah then you are with the Israelis, who, among their many sins, were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during their occupation of Lebanon. You may as well be with Satan.

This well of support is not however bottomless, the same friend who talked about a "reckoning" in Lebanon when the confrontation has died down also informed me of his cab ride over. The driver had been a Shia who had fought in the South with Hezbollah against the Israelis, "Isn't it great?" the cab driver had said, "We really humiliated them, caught them by surprise". My friend had nodded his head, but then posed a question, "Only, who is going to pay for this?"

The car went quiet and both men knew the answer. Lebanon was going to pay. While the Israelis dropped pamphlets warning civilians to avoid known Hezbollah infrastructure and while they were bombed to help "make a better future" for Lebanon they were also bombing the airport and the local roads, particularly bridges, as well as all major routes out of the country, imposing a naval blockade, isolating Lebanon from the outside world and destroying the lives of its inhabitants. Universities and thousands of business have already closed. The driver broke the silence to agree, that Yes, this was a problem. He pulled up his jeans to reveal two wooden legs and said "Nobody can say I don't hate the Israelis, but I have a family to feed".

Whatever Hezbollah was thinking when they did it, they did it, they gave the Israelis a reason to cancel summer.

My date with a cute girl from a little town just north of Beirut is cancelled because her parents are afraid to let her out of the house, the "Drum and Bass Beach Party" booked for tonight is off, there is no chicken at the kebab shop, and there are no donuts at "Dunkin' Donuts". The country is already grinding to a halt. It's only day three.

The reaction of those thousands of tourists who had arrived in the first few weeks of a beautiful Mediterranean summer to find themselves almost immediately in a country under bombardment and siege has been panic. A friend who works at the British embassy recalled being asked repeatedly when the helicopters were coming.

Those of us who have been here a little longer, particularly in Beirut, were perhaps inversely a little too calm. At first, most of us felt this was one of the many small tremors that ripple through Lebanese politics and die out. "A storm in a tea cup," I had texted home. Then last night we heard bombing for hours on end and throughout the day. At least ten have gone off in the last two hours within earshot of my apartment, located near the centre of Beirut, some close enough to set off car alarms. People have been calling from all over the world to either check that we are OK or insist that we should leave apparently, oblivious to the danger we would be bringing on ourselves in doing so.

A German friend of mine tried leaving today by the road to Aleppo, the northern crossing point with Syria. The road to the main crossing point, the Beirut-Damascus highway, was blown out last night. Today about four hours after she left the news broke that they had now bombed this road as well. if the roads were empty it would be an hour or two to the border, and she should therefore have been well clear, but this is the only way out of Beirut and many, particularly foreign nationals of other Arab countries, are leaving for fear of being trapped here. Her mobile phone has been either out of range, out of batteries, or out of commission since we tried calling, thankfully we just received an email assuring she has arrived safely in Aleppo. She will have been one of the last hundred or thousand to have left before the way was closed. It seems that any travel outside the country now requires the navigation of dangerous dirt roads through the mountains.

Since then our mobile phones have become unreliable, messages take hours lines are unavailable. Since then there have been reports of attempted Israeli landings in Sidon, not more than and a forty minute drive from here before they bombed the bridge, defeated by the Lebanese army. Since then the official death toll has climbed past seventy. Since then Israel has demanded the withdrawal of Hezbollah from the south and the destruction of its weapons as well as the safe return of its two soldiers before it will give Lebanon peace. Since then it has become clear that this is the beginning of something, and its end is not insight.

Summer is cancelled. The bullet holes no longer look cool.
[1] The exception being the disputed Sheba farms area which Lebanon, Israel and Syria have all made claims to at various times
[2] The level to which this has been achieved is very much debated as many are suspected of having remaining stockpiles and/or were integrated into the regular Lebanese army