Legal Activists of Color: 'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'

http://www.commondreams.org/

Published on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 by Inter Press Service

'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'

by Dahr Jamail

QANA - Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, have told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike

The Israeli military has said it bombed the building in which several people had taken shelter, more than half of them children, because the Army had faced rocket fire from Qana. The Israeli military has said that Hezbollah was therefore responsible for the deaths.

"There were no Hezbollah rockets fired from here," 32-year-old Ali Abdel told IPS. "Anyone in this village will tell you this, because it is the truth."

Abdel had taken shelter in a nearby house when the shelter was bombed at 1 am. When the bombings finally let up in the morning, he went back to the bombed shelter to search for relatives.

He found his 70-year-old father and 64-year-old mother both dead inside.

"They bombed it, and afterwards I heard the screams of women, children, and a few men -- they were crying for help. But then one minute after the first bomb, another bomb struck, and after this there was nothing but silence, and the sound of more bombs around the village."

Masen Hashen, a 30-year-old construction worker from Qana who lost several family members in the air strike on the shelter, said there were no Hezbollah rockets fired from his village. "Because if they had done that now, or in the past, all of us would have left. Because we know we would be bombed."

Qana had been a shelter because no rockets were being fired from there, survivors said. "When Hezbollah fires their rockets, everyone runs away because they know an Israeli bombardment will come soon," Abdel said. "That is why everyone stayed in the shelter and nearby homes, because we all thought we'd be all right since there were no Hezbollah fighters in Qana."

Lebanese Red Cross workers in the nearby coastal city of Tyre told IPS that there was no basis for Israeli claims that Hezbollah had launched rockets from Qana.

"We found no evidence of Hezbollah fighters in Qana," Kassem Shaulan, a 28-year-old medic and training manager for the Red Cross in Tyre told IPS at their headquarters. "When we rescue people or recover bodies from villages, we usually see rocket launchers or Hezbollah fighters if they are there, but in Qana I can say that the village was 100 percent clear of either of those."

Another Red Cross worker, 32-year-old Mohammad Zatar, told IPS that "we can tell when Hezbollah has been firing rockets from certain areas, because all of the people run away, on foot if they have to"

While IPS was interviewing people in Qana at the site of the shelter Monday, Israeli warplanes roared overhead. Vibrations from nearby bombing rattled many buildings. At least three villages in southern Lebanon were attacked in Israeli air strikes Monday.

Following the international outcry over the air strike, Israel declared a 48-hour cessation of air strikes in order to carry out a military probe into the Qana killings.

Despite the false Israeli statement that it was halting its air strikes, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Army Radio that the stoppage "does not signify in any way the end to the war."

Israel has rejected mounting international pressure to end the 20-day-old war against Hezbollah. The United Nations has indefinitely postponed a meeting on a new peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon.

While defending the Israeli air strike on the civilians in Qana, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman told the UN Security Council that Qana was "a hub for Hezbollah", and said that Israel had urged villagers to leave.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in reply to questions in New York Monday that the bombing was "totally, totally its (Hezbollah's) fault.

Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-02.htm

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http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745185.html

haaretz.com

Last update - 21:04 01/08/2006

Livni: Qana attack led to turning point in support for Israel By Yoav Stern, Yuval Yoaz and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents

...It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time...

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http://www.democracynow.org/

Democracy Now!

Survivors of 1996 Qana Massacre Sue Israel Military Chief For War Crimes

In April of 1996 the Israeli Defense Force shelled Qana's U.N. compound, killing 106 civilians who had been seeking refuge inside. The Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a class-action lawsuit against former IDF Chief of Staff and Head of Intelligence, Lieutenant General Moshe Ya'alon. The suit alleges that Ya'alon commanded the attack and is guilty of war crimes, extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity. We talk with Maria LaHood, an attorney on the case with the Center for Constitutional Rights. [includes rush transcript]

...AMY GOODMAN: Well, we're hearing a lot about what happened today, actually this weekend in Dearborn, Michigan. There was a protest of up to 1,000 people protesting the current attack on Qana. They gathered at the memorial for the Qana attack of 1996. What happened then? Why are you involved?

MARIA LAHOOD: The military operation in 1996 was not dissimilar to what's happening now. The IDF had started to bomb and shell the villages in Southern Lebanon in order to try to disarm Hezbollah and try to put pressure on the Lebanese government to get rid of Hezbollah. It was going on for probably three weeks. There were about 700,000 displaced persons from Southern Lebanon, and a lot of them had taken refuge in UN compounds. One of the compounds was in Qana, and about 800 people had taken refuge there. On April 18, the IDF actually targeted the compound, killing over 100 civilians, like you said, and wounding even more....

- to continue reading click here - http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/01/1434249

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http://www.truthout.org/index.htm

truthout

Environmental "Crisis"
in Lebanon

...An oil slick caused by Israeli bombing of the Jiyyeh power station now covers 80km (50 miles) of coast.

Local environmental groups describe the slick as an "environmental disaster."

Almost as much oil may have entered the water as during the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker incident in Alaska, which led to widespread ecological damage...

- to continue reading click here - http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/080106EA.shtml

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Irish refused bombs sent to Israel

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1104532006

New Scotsman
July 30, 2006

Prestwick airport

By EDDIE BARNES AND MURDO MACLEOD

...One Irish official said that the bombs would never have been allowed on Irish soil.

The source said: "There is absolutely no way that we would allow munitions or weapons to be shipped through Shannon to a location where there is an actual war going on. We would not allow it. It is correct that we allow the US to transport troops to Shannon, but sending bombs to Israel is another matter and completely out of the question for us..."

- to continue reading click on the link above -

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Troops Homes Fast: Leading Members of Iraqi Parliament Call for Meeting with Anti-War Hunger Strikers
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0801-06.htm

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About - Everything About Anything

Troop Levels in Iraq to Increase - - http://usmilitary.about.com/b/a/257502.htm

...25,000 additional troops have been scheduled to deploy to Iraq...

to continue reading click on the link above

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http://www.amnesty.org/

Philippines: Government must prevent further political killings
(25/07/06)

...The government must take determined action to prevent political killings occurring and must do more to protect witnesses, said Amnesty International...

to continue reading click here -

http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA350072006

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Half-Hour for Haiti - - www.ijdh.org

ALU press release

Second Qana massacre
The Failure of both the International and Arab
Systems and the Success of the Resistance Approach

Qana again. The massacre committed by the Zionists on behalf of the American administration at Qana this morning today, Sunday, (30 July 2006) is reminiscent of the massacre of Qana, which took place in 1996 against civilians, including children, women and innocent elderly people without regard for values, morals, customs, or censure of public opinion. The massacres committed by the Zionist forces after the arrival of Rice to the region had been anticipated and planned with premeditation. This massacre is the same as the massacres that haven't stopped since launching this war of aggression against the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.

The Secretariat of the Arab Lawyers Union, which holds the international community and Arab officials full responsibility for the war crimes and genocide, which claim the lives of innocent people and destroy everything in our brotherly Lebanon, Affirms:

First: This evil war is exclusively American, by the Zionist gangs instigated and fully supported by the administration of the neo-conservatives in the United States of America.

Second: Relying on the so-called Organization of the United Nations in confronting the American Zionist arrogance, which looks like ploughing in water, will do nothing to protect Lebanon from the destruction.

Third: The position of the European countries is fully supporting the American-Zionist approach, and is no less serious.

Fourthly: The official Arab stance proves surrender, collusion and inability to confront the enemies of the nation, Unlike its capacity and despotism to confront the everyday increasing public rise.

Fifthly: This carnage confirms the blundering and despair of the occupation forces and its inability to confront the heroic Lebanese resistance, apart from being proof of the evident defeat.

Sixthly: Any kind of cease-fire will be through the weapons of the resistance, which is the triumph of all the forces of progress and independence in the Arab world.

Seventh: The only way to defeat the enemies of the nation internally and externally will be through the continuing popular support for the resistance, pressure on the subservient Arab rulers who are accomplices in the aggression to recant their positions and respect the will of the people.

Eighth: The need to boycott all Zionist and American goods and call upon all Arab Chambers of Commerce to freeze their commercial relations with the aggressors.

Ninth: The international community and peace-loving nations are required to work for the immediate and unconditional cessation of the aggression. Investigation of this human carnage should be carried out to bring the perpetrators to trial and compensate the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples for the damage caused by the war crimes committed by the Nazi Zionists and the American administration.