The Point

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Which way ahead

Protesters outside Corbett Hall, 22 July 2006

I've never gotten an email from the Red Cross before today. There's probably a good reason I'm on one of their mailing lists, but until this morning I had never received any messages from them asking me to donate, not for Darfur, not for Java, not for Aceh. It probably says something, then, about the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon right now that they are appealing so directly for help aiding civilians.

This Saturday I saw a group of protesters gathered outside Corbett Hall at the University of Alberta pleading for an end to the bloody conflict, which has claimed hundreds of Lebanese and Israeli lives and displaced an estimated 750 000 people in Lebanon. This isn't the first protest of this kind in Edmonton since the rockets started firing two weeks ago; earlier, about 500 people gathered in front of the Legislature to demand a ceasefire. These are not just Canadians with family in Lebanon (and some from Edmonton have already lost family members), and these are not just a group of eccentrics and anti-Israeli protesters. It takes a lot to get people in Edmonton out on the streets, and a lot of people from all backgrounds here just want the violence to end.

BBC has reported accusations of Israeli soldiers using Palestinian civilians as human shields during incursions in Gaza, Human Rights Watch has published a report condemning the use of cluster bombs in Israeli army attacks in Lebanon, and the United Nations has warned both Hezbollah and Israel may be guilty of war crimes for using excessive or indiscriminate force as the humanitarian crisis in the region mounts. On her recent visit to Beirut, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice showed only the faintest interest in supporting an end to the bloodshed in the region before Israel has unilaterally accomplished its goals, however grave the cost.

There has been a lot of talk about UN Security Council Declaration 1559, which called for the disbanding disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias in the region, as well as the withdrawal of foreign troops (which Syria reluctantly followed through on last year after an upswelling of public pressure in Lebanon following the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri). Since Syria's withdrawal, not much has been done in following through with the rest of the resolution, a situation which has made Israel understandably nervous, since Hezbollah had been lining up rockets along the border well in advance of the kidnappings that were the immediate provocation for the escalating war there now. So the Israeli government has been arguing that since no one else has stepped in to enforce Resolution 1559, it must do so itself, by any means necessary. Well, I wonder if Stephen Harper would use the word 'measured' to describe other violent unilateral enforcements of UN Resolutions, like, say, the ones condemning the construction of the barrier through the West Bank.

This is not how peace goes forward.

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posted by Christopher at 4:42 p.m.

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