Shunpiking Online Vo.3 No.6 Frontline report: Regarding Israeli fliers By MOUNIR

BEIRUT (10 August 2006) - TECHNICALLY, the terrorist who holds citizens as hostages, the terrorist commands them what to do. Currently, Israel threatens the people of Lebanon not to use vans, or simply commands them to evacuate. It is worth to note that most of the time Israel does not warn its victims; the simplest example is what happened in el-Shayah couple of days ago. The el-Shayah was outside the bombardment area in el-Dahhieh (suburbs of Beirut), and without warning, two buildings were bombed. Actually a second example would be the bombing of citizens during a funeral to bury their beloved ones killed by the hands of the Israelis.

The case of el-Shayah is one of many tragedies. Israel keeps claiming that it warns the Lebanese citizens. That concept started couple of days before the Qana massacre in order to cover up for the massacres. For almost two weeks, Israel bombed blindly without caring about the victim's sect, even though they stressed on the Shiite areas because Hezbollah is a Shiite party, while the whole Lebanon, on Television, considers Hezbollah as a national resistance movement against a racist Zionist nation.

El-Shayah in 48 hours has witnessed the death of over fifty victims. Till today Israel decided to warn the people of el-Shayah to evacuate. Such "warnings" are simply to cover-up for the massacres taking place, especially over 1000 citizens have become martyrs.

Plenty of people in the danger zone of el-Dahhieh and the South went to their relatives in el-Shayyah and Hayy el-Sollom. Now, Israeli fliers, for a change, warned people to evacuate, but the main question to where? Already el-Shayah was a major central point for the refugees to live with their relatives. Most of the people over there are from the lower-class population, and Israel dictates on Lebanese to leave, but again leave towards where? To sleep on the roads, like already plenty of people did? A quarter of the overall Lebanese citizens in Lebanon are already refugees. That means every three Lebanese citizens, there is one refugee. Most of the public schools are full, with no capacities to fit more refugees. A severe case of hygiene has been spreading, while aid is short.

The case of the refugees in Beirut is still better than the South, where Israel threatens to bomb every mini-van or trucks of aid, which is alleged to contain "terrorist weaponry" heading to Hezbollah. The people of the South have been mostly without electricity, and in short of basic needs.

The first time Israel warned citizens to evacuate was during the early days of the war, and it was the strangest evacuation. After Israel bombed extensively the roads, the gas stations, and every known infrastructure in the border line villages, the "merciful" Israeli Defense Forces decide to send fliers to a village called "Marwaheen." That village was already bombed extensively without any notice, and they warned the villagers to fully evacuate.

Now, to CNN, that can be an act of mercy, but to the people of Marwaheen, it was a stamp of doom. What CNN neglected to mention was the fact that they only gave the people only one hour to evacuate, after bombing half the cars, gas stations, roads in previous days, and as well as some refugees seeking asylum in neighboring villages. The people of Marwaheen attempted to seek refugee at UNIFIL, but the UNIFIL refused to welcome the refugees, and the people were bombed while going back home in order to await their doom since they have no mans to leave. They bombed them in a ruthless manner because their "one hour" grace period has passed. Now a person can ask, is this warning an "act of mercy?"

Yesterday, Israeli planes hovered above Beirut and threw fliers. Luckily, this time the boxes opened (review article: Eye Witness: Dangerous Boxes rather Missiles). In the flier, the Israelis clearly said that our future is betted on, but they blamed the resistance movement. The glitch in such analogy is that who is issuing the command to bomb civilians, while the resistance clearly said that they will only retaliate to the size of the bombardment. Sadly, no retaliation can ever equate to the massacres and atrocities of the Lebanese. The flier of yesterday said as follows:

"To the Lebanese Citizens:

Why did Hasan [as in Hasan Nasrallah] attack the nation of Israel?

To liberate the Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons?

He could have liberated them ages ago through negotiation without bringing destruction to Lebanon

Hasan came out to a dangerous adventure and returned empty handed

When Hasan plays with fire, this is Lebanon burning

Hasan betted on your future, and here you are paying the price

Nation of Israel"

Now, Israel could have resolved to diplomacy just as they did couple of years ago with Hezbullah, while the Red Cross was the vehicle of exchange. If anyone to be blamed for those atrocities, it is the state of Israel. They already admit that they are killing the Lebanese in this flier and actually take pride in the burning of Lebanon, but they still blame the resistance. They expect a whole nation to yield to Israeli demands just like that. Someone should ask why Lebanon is still united against Israel despite they are sending more fliers? In the end, just like a terrorist who holds his/her hostages at their mercy till satisfaction, Israel is just continuing with these atrocities till it find a save face "victory" to present to its people. Their situation is moving from bad to worse, as their chief of staff was replaced, while their ministers are losing their nerves, and were yelling at each other which forced Olmert to tell them to calm down. How many "fliers of mercy" is Israel going to send us still?

Source:http://www.samidoun.org/?q=node/310

*Samidoun, Relief Center-Sanayeh, is a grouping of grassroots activists and volunteers, all united to provide relief to internally displaced people who had fled Southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut due to the ongoing Israeli aggression.