Internationals to deliver aid to Lebanon Saturday. Risk Israeli attack.

[Tom Joad]

HELP!

First the bad news....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060810/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_aid
GENEVA - The top U.N. humanitarian official said Thursday that relief workers have not been able to bring lifesaving aid to tens of thousands of people in Lebanon, and that the
U.N. Security Council must act to stop Israeli and Hezbollah fighting.

Jan Egeland said a plan worked out with
Israel, Lebanon and Hezbollah to funnel aid through humanitarian corridors has not worked the way each side had promised.

"It's a disgrace really because the parties to the conflict, the Israelis and Hezbollah, could give us access in a heartbeat and then we could help 120,000 people in southern Lebanon," Egeland said at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva.

Egeland said the fuel shortage has become "the single most worrying humanitarian crisis at the moment," noting that four hospitals in southern Lebanon already have run out.

The World Health Organization said it has enough fuel ready to keep hospitals in southern Lebanon functioning for a week as soon as it can move it by convoy.

Without fuel, "hospitals will be paralyzed and simply will not be able to perform lifesaving operations, keep vaccines cold, or run incubators for newborns," said a WHO statement.

It said a U.N. convoy of 15 trucks containing humanitarian relief, including medicines and health supplies, was unable to proceed to Baalbek in eastern Lebanon....

The good news is that there is civilian organized resistance to the slaughter.

http://www.lebanonsolidarity.org/
The first organized actions comes this Saturday (late Friday or very early Saturday morning U.S. time).
BEIRUT--On August 12, at 7 am, Lebanese from throughout the country and international supporters who have come to Lebanon to express solidarity will gather in Martyr's Square in Beirut to form a civilian convoy to the south of Lebanon. Hundreds of Lebanese and international civilians will express their solidarity with the inhabitants of the heavily destroyed south who have been bravely withstanding the assault of the Israeli military. This campaign is endorsed by more than 200 Lebanese and international organizations. This growing coalition of national and international non-governmental organizations hereby launches a campaign of civil resistance for the purpose of challenging the cruel and ruthless use of massive military force by Israel, the regional superpower, upon the people of Lebanon.

August 12 marks the start of this Campaign of Resistance, declaring Lebanon an Open Country for Civil Resistance. August 12 also marks the international day of protest against the Israeli aggression.

"In the face of Israel's systematic killing of our people, the indiscriminate bombing of our towns, the scorching of our villages, and the attempted destruction of our civil infrastructure, we say No! In the face of the forced expulsion of a quarter of our population from their homes throughout Lebanon, and the complicity of governments and international bodies, we re-affirm the acts of civil resistance that began from the first day of the Israeli assault, and we stress and add the urgent need to act!," said Rasha Salti, one of the organizers of this national event.

After August 12, the campaign will continue with a series of civil actions, leading to an August 19 civilian march to reclaim the South. "Working together, in solidarity, we will overcome the complacency, inaction, and complicity of the international community and we will deny Israel its goal of removing Lebanese from their land and destroying the fabric of our country," explained Samah Idriss, writer and co-organizer of this campaign.

"An international civilian presence in Lebanon is not only an act of solidarity with the Lebanese people in the face of unparalleled Israeli aggression, it is an act of moral courage to defy the will of those who would seek to alienate the West from the rest and create a new Middle East out of the rubble and blood of the region," said Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement and campaign co-organizer. "After having witnessed the wholesale destruction of villages by Israel's air force and navy and having visited the victims (so-called displaced) of Israel's policy of cleansing Lebanese civilians from their homes," continued Arraf, "it is imperative to go south and reach those who have stayed behind to resist by steadfastly remaining on their land."


You can help.
First, recommend this post so it gets the widest readership. Second, alert your congressperson and express your support, and your concern, as US citizens will be participating in this effort, and we should demand that Israel respect the lives of US citizens helping Lebanese civilians. You could also mention that you support an immediate ceasefire. See more here: http://www.pdamerica.org/articles/news/members-sign-res450.php

Cut and paste this info into an email and pass this around to everyone. Everyone.