Amnesty International calls Israeli invasion 'war crime'

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Amnesty International has released a report accusing Israel of war crimes in Lebanon; it has also criticized Hezbollah for indiscrimate attacks on Israeli cities. In its report on abuses in Lebanon, Amnesty alleges that Israel deliberately targetted crowded civilian areas, not because they were being used by Hezbollah, but as a stated and central part of their war strategy.

You can read a BBC (UK) story about the report with quotes, or view the report yourself at the Amnesty website.

Finding hope

Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple's tongue,
for me to know how to give a word of comfort to the weary.
Morning by morning he makes my ear alert
to listen like a disciple...
I have not turned away."

-Isaiah 50:4-5

Dear sisters and brothers,

As I prepare for my return to Winnipeg after several weeks of family time, retreat in community, I am also getting ready to speak about my experience in the Middle East. I will be in Winnipeg for September, and on the West Coast for part of October. I look forward to seeing you!

Now that more of my colleagues in Lebanon are back on e-mail, I am hearing directly of the extent of the damage - the neighbourhoods leveled ("like a nuclear bomb," my friend Farah Kobeissy described it), the sorrow of many lost years of desperately needed tourism revenues, the staggering toll of civilian casualties.

Thanks be to God, as far as I know no one of my friends there have been hurt, although the death toll now stands at 1,300 and a few friends are still missing in action.

So what can we do as people called to be "peace-makers"? I have avoided proscriptions up to now, partially because I didn't want to provide answers, just my perspective and experience... but also because I just do not know anymore. I guess that could be something to pray for - that those of us in despair can find new ways forward, new ways to be and act.

It is clear, to me at least, that the old ways we've worked will no longer stand up to the powers that be. The powers of racism, surveillance and "security," - not the mention the more frightening powers of psychological warfare and the manipulation of our dreams - are at such levels that it is not enough to just take individual consumer actions, or even lobby the authorities to be nicer about their Empire-building.

Just when I was despairing that nothing can be done about Empire, I came across this quote by a former United Church moderator, from his biography, Grace Unfailing (1998, Millenium):

"The paradox of the rebel has always been that, while he (sic) has always been assailed as a subverter of the social order, his own driving force has been a social sense quicker and broader than that of his orthodox contemporaries [...]. The whole historical struggle for freedom has been a struggle to broaden the basis of fellowship. [...] Dissent has again and again proved itself to be the social growing point. Yet the dissenter has usually been shot at dawn or hanged..."

-Richard Roberts, former Moderator, United Church of Canada, 1926

'This much is clear: discipleship is the way of the cross.
And the cross has a distinct meaning for us.
It means punishment by the State for dissent...
...That is why I ask my fellow seekers,
"Can you--can anyone serious about following
Jesus today--remain safe and secure and legal?"'

-Phillip Berrigan, The Way of the Cross, 1989

Here are some of my thoughts on the post-war situation in the Middle East:

No doubt Hezbollah's support has increased (and will increase) dramatically. Neither Israel has regained its two kidnapped soldiers (they now say they will negotiate, Hezbollah's initial demand), nor has Hezbollah regained the thousands kidnapped by Israel when it occupied Lebanon.

Gwynne Dyer, in Toronto's NOW magazine, writes in the latest issue:

"The ceasefire in southern Lebanon will not hold. Israel will probably lose more soldiers in combat in the next month than in the past month (104). [...] The UN-sponsored ceasefire will not hold because Hezbollah has not been defeated. [...]

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, was quite frank: "As long as there is Israeli military movement, Israeli field aggression and Israeli soldiers occupying our land... it is our natural right to confront them, fight them and defend our land, our homes and ourselves."

Besides, the Israelis have now offered him an irresistably tempting target. Israel's assault on Hezbollah was as much a 'war of choice' was the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Seymour Hersh claims in this weeks New Yorker that the Bush administration approved in in order to deprive Iran (Hezbollah's ally) of a means of retaliation after U.S. air strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. [...]

It is hard to imagine that Hezbollah will resist the temptation to attack all the easy targets that [Israeli PM] Olmert has now given it in southern Lebanon. [...] There is the potential here for Israel's first serious operational defeat since the 1948 war. This might be a blessing in disguise for Israel if it persuaded enough Israeli voters that exclusive reliance on military force to smash and subdue their Arab neighbours is a political dead end.

(Quoted in NOW, August 17-23, 2006).

So everyone, especially the Lebanese people, seems to have lost, except those posturing for hero status. In the words of my friend, Ahlam Dirani, a theatre student:

It's so annoying to have the theory of human rights in our heads, but to be unable to practise it in our lives. We are victims of a political game. The countries who have no interest in Lebanon let us burn.

It's so frustrating to not be able to get through by phone or email to most of my acquaintances in Lebanon. I heard that people's phone batteries were dying anyway without electricity, so I didn't want to waste their energy anyway by calling over and over, making sure they were okay. But I wish for some words just to calm my worries.

Now Lebanon has to get back on its feet. How tragic, that this came after years of economic uncertainty, and suddenly all the previous reconstruction, all the little bits of a future being strung together, have been torn apart. Yeah, the buildings will go back up, the people will persevere, but no one will really trust in the future for a while, I don't think.

This has been crushing to Lebanon's spirit, more than just to its population or its infrastructure (though those took serious blows).

We need to become more vocal on global justice issues, and more clear with ourselves about the system we are facing. That takes wisdom, and I still believe that we can pray for that.

Prayer Request

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PRAYERS

God who is the promiser of justice, who bends our ear to the cry of the weary and despairing - We seek you and yearn for your peace, Lord. Help us to listen and not turn away. Help us to find our 'disciple's tongue' (Is 50:4) and follow you ever more closely. God, we have made an Empire in our image, but you call us to turn away from sin and power. Thank you that we are not alone. We pray:

• For the wisdom - in ourselves, our churches, our communities - to find creative new ways of living in and challenging Empire
• For the courage to risk speaking truth to power, even when it may harm us, and for Canadian churches to become more unshaking in our values.
  
• For the relief workers in Lebanon, as they dig through the rubble - may they be strengtened with compassion and endurance
• For those who have lost lives and family and home and work in this conflict, on all sides. Amen

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