[www-features] FEATURE PROPOSAL / Bomb Number Five, Salaam

Wed Aug 9 10:38:32 PDT 2006

Hello www-features group,

I'm a member of the editorial collective of Cyprus IndyMedia (from its very
beginning), writing to you to suggest a Feature article. This is the first
time I'm sending anything here.

The Proposed Feature article is below.
I'm sending it in the format suggested in the docs page titled:
"How-to propose and post a feature"
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/How-toProposeAndPostAFeature#How_to_propose_and_post_a_featur

The material is in html format for easy use.

I do not have access to the editing or admin tools to post it. If the
www-features
work group agrees to publish the Feature, we will need your help to post it.

The original article is here:
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/201/index.php
and here:
http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org

We look forward to your feedback, or if there are no objections, to seeing
the Feature published. The material is below, under a double line like this
: ============

Many thanks to the indymedia.org.uk collective for enabling this by helping
with bandwidth!

Thanks very much,
Sue Scandale,
Cyprus IndyMedia volunteer

===========

Header :
________

<a href="http://beirut.indymedia.org">LEBANON</a>/<a
href="http://cyprus.indymedia.org">CYPRUS</a> :WAR

Title :
_______

Bomb Number Five,Salaam

Picture :
_________

http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/7/lebanon-two-bodies-aflame-150.jpg

Abstract :
__________

<br>by <b>Raida Hatoum</b>, and <b>Cyprus IndyMedia</b>

<img
SRC="http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/usermedia/image/7/lebanon-two-bodie
s-aflame-150.jpg" NOSAVE BORDER=0 height=75 width=150 align=LEFT>
 I've lost count of the Days. And the Bombs. And the Dead
Beirut, first weekend of August
 &nbsp;
Dear Friends,
I am so sorry for not being able to respond earlier to your letters.
I was hoping that you won't be worried, and that you would think about
the electricity and internet problems as potential reasons for the delay.
Because of the Israeli siege the authorities are increasing the outages
and rationing our electricity so it can last for the coming 15 days. As
you might know, we were supposed to receive gasoline and fuel but of course
Israel changed its mind and the ships carrying the fuel are now waiting
in Cyprus.
 &nbsp;
And I am very grateful for your amazing efforts and courage and the
work you are carrying out, all this you are doing, and your words and love
are encouraging me really to survive - thus I wrote today to you despite
my tiredness of writing about the war... the injured children, the sick
and scared displaced children…the massacres of yesterday. And the new ones
today…

Body :
______

I love you all please be fine and strong and we shall meet soon my
dear friends.
The Israeli war of genocide, destruction and siege is now on Day 24,
but for myself I lost count ...as if this is how I lived all my life. Only
when the numbers of those who are killed day after day are mentioned in
the media I realize that I was paralyzed or numbed... and I realize that
the war has eaten up another day of people’s lives.
<img SRC="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2006/08/347276.jpg" NOSAVE
BORDER=0 height=253 width=380 align=RIGHT>Till
yesterday 955 were killed: 30% of them are children.
 More than 3200 were injured: 40% of them are children.
 The numbers of the displaced people - refugees - has reached a million.

Those 955 we refer to now as "numbers" and as "death toll"...they were
people like you and me, each one of them had a name, a family, a home,
siblings, partner, friends... each one of them had dreams and plans for
the future. This is War: it sweeps away your face, your name, your dreams,
your rationality, it kills your soul if it doesn't kill you for real.
In war there are no real survivors, no real winner and looser, the only
real thing is death, violence, more death and more violence, poverty,
displacement.
And social, economic, psychological and physical tragedy.
Among the 3200 injured, tens of them are burnt children, women and men.
Most of them are the only survivors of their families who were killed in
massacres which there is no way Israel can claim to be mistakes. Please
see their faces in the photos I send you.
<img SRC="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2006/08/347277.jpg" NOSAVE
BORDER=0 height=330 width=250 align=RIGHT>I
was watching the Israeli army officials of the so called Israeli "Defence"
Forces (IDF) explaining their "operation" in Lebanon. They show images
taken by their war planes: video images of cars, homes, and mini vans
before,
during and after they bomb. They claim that there were Hezbollah rockets
in those cars, homes and minivans ... but how come there are women, children
and men are being killed in those targets? These are murders in cold blood,
they are massacres, crimes against humanity. They dare to say that Hezbollah
fighters are using civilians to hide among them... while the Israeli army
is kidnapping children and women and men and tying them to the fronts of
tanks using them as human shields in the West Bank and Gaza - no?
When thinking about those who were killed and those who are still alive
but enduring unbearable physical and emotional pain, I crack down.
I like to think that I am fine, despite this catastrophic situation.
I cannot but be strong and rational, I don't want to fall into the trap
of depression or trauma, I try not to. But I admit that I am completely
tired emotionally and physically, I am scared, and I am in pain.
Some times I notice that I have been frowning all day and night, I hope
I got the correct word: it is when you bring your eyebrows and eyes closer
to each other when you are worried or confused and stressed. Whatever the
word is now I have wrinkle - a deep one -between my eyes...
I was not able to go to my work today as we had to endure a hell of
night yesterday and this morning, as you must have learned from the media.
<img SRC="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2006/08/347278.jpg" NOSAVE
BORDER=0 height=253 width=379 align=RIGHT>Couldn't
sleep at all although I tried to count through the bombings until I'd fall
asleep, like I tell my nieces and nephew: first bomb falls and I count
"one", second bomb falls and the children say in one voice "two", when
we reached bomb number five I was already in tears because I feel so
helpless
with those children, what can I do for them? Why should they be in this
situation counting bombs till they fall asleep instead of counting sheep
jumping over the fence... I know that when they were counting the bombs,
in their minds they were also imagining the bombs falling over homes and
shelters full of people, and I wondered are they now imagining children
of their own age being hit, screaming, being turned into corpses when the
bombs fall over their homes, or on top of them in cars and shelters?
I am not responding to the emails I receive. I try to respond but I
am drained, have no more words, no more comments, no more focus, nothing
is left to be said, and all of us here are just waiting with less
expectations,
waiting till our murderer gets enough blood and destruction, waiting until
the Israeli soldiers get tired, until Bush and Condy get bored with this
genocide and decide to move to another war sponsored and facilitated by
the Empire...
Some days I feel shy to write about us here because I cannot but think
about the Iraqis and the Palestinians. It is amazing but, yes, in such
times I am enduring I come to feel more of the pain and fear of others
who have been suffering for years... and I feel shame that what is happening
in Lebanon is perhaps taking attention away from what is still ongoing
in Iraq, West Bank and Gaza...
Sometimes I fall in the trap of guilt, I start to think that this war
and its outcome is because we who call ourselves anti-war activists,
anti-imperialist
activists, etc. were not effective enough, that we didn't work hard enough
to stop the war crimes against the Iraqis and Palestinians, we didn't manage
to make the US pay for the crimes it conducted around the world, we didn't
manage to make Israel pay for the crimes that it conducted in Lebanon and
West Bank and Gaza because we didn't raise awareness enough and we didn't
tell enough people - or is it that the world is moving down to the darkness?
<img SRC="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2006/08/347279.jpg" NOSAVE
height=301 width=250 align=RIGHT>What
a madness. Is no one able to stop this war? When I hear about the demos
around the world protesting the Israeli aggression I cannot but remember
the endless demos I participated in before the war on Iraq, during the
war on Iraq, after the occupation of Iraq, during the war crimes that are
still being conducted in Iraq, in West Bank and Gaza.... We march, we return
home but the war is never stopped. And the occupation is still a painful
fact and the conflict breeds into another conflict...
USA: what an administration, what a foreign policy, what a hell of a
Government and foreign policy! How ignorant they are, how racist, greedy,
criminal - what do they expect will be the outcome of all their support
and active participation in and the leading of crimes all around the planet?
We are waiting for the American citizens to pressure their Government
to stop the Israeli genocide of the people of Lebanon. Can they not affect
their policy makers? How come then we consider the USA a democratic state?
Ah, ok, this is democracy and they want to impose it on us now...

On my bedroom door there is a poster with peace and love symbol that
says:
 "'War, what is it good for? Absolutely Nothing. '
 - Bruce Springsteen, Nationality = American.
 Stop the War, Say it Loud".
Salaam,
 Raida
 ______
 &nbsp;
* Raida Hatoum was a founding member of the <a
href="http://beirut.indymedia.org" target="_blank">Lebanon
IndyMedia</a> organization in Beirut; she is a volunteer active with
the Palestinian Solidarity networks working at the Shatilarefugee
camp and with the Najdeh Association; member of the group which
published the Lebanese paper Al-Yasari (the

Leftist); and a committed Socialist.
 Cyprus IndyMedia editorial collective
Further Resources - caution, these include very disturbing
images
Raida's brother maintains a website which summarizes the atrocities
against Lebanon - a tiring and difficult work:
 <a href="http://waronlebanon.bravehost.com"
target="_blank">waronlebanon.bravehost.com</a>
The Civilian Casualties page, in particular, is emotionally and
physically difficult to process:
 <a href="http://waronlebanon.bravehost.com/casualties.html"
target="_blank">waronlebanon.bravehost.com/casualties.html</a>

A collection of photo albums published by Haitham Sabbah
 <a href="http://www.bubbleshare.com/users/profile/18822"
target="_blank">www.bubbleshare.com/users/profile/18822</a>
Full Color Pictures of the Atrocities
 <a
href="http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/200/index.php"
target="_blank">english-cyprus.indymedia.org/newswire/display/200/index.php<
/a>
<a
href="http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/media/all/display/168/index.php"
target="_blank"><img
SRC="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/images/2006/08/347271.jpg" NOSAVE BORDER=0
height=435 width=580></a>
<a
href="http://english-cyprus.indymedia.org/media/all/display/166/index.php"
target="_blank"><img SRC="347266.jpg" BORDER=0 height=290 width=577></a>
 &nbsp;
Many thanks to the
 <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk"
target="_blank">http://www.IndyMedia.org.UK</a>
 Collective for help with promotion and bandwidth.

&nbsp;
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