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To: PetitiononlineFor an immediate and unconditional cease-fire
International appeal
Today, July 30th, another massacre was committed in Lebanon: More than
sixty civilians, among them 37 children, were killed by Israeli bombs
while they were sleeping in shelters in the village of Qana. They died
not very far away from the mass grave holding the bodies of 106
civilians burned by a previous Israeli attack in April 1996 inside a
shelter provided by a UN battalion
Reacting to this terrible news, the only sane decision that needs to
be made immediately is that of a ceasefire.
A ceasefire would allow for humanitarian relief to reach the innocent
victims, for the bodies to be buried instead of being eaten by the
dogs, and for all the underlying problems to be negotiated and
eventually solved. More victims can only produce more hatred.
In the last few days, Lebanon has been promised by the EU, the UK and
the US help in rebuilding its infrastructure and humanitarian aid to
assist the eight hundred thousand internally displaced persons and
"humanitarian corridors", but they stopped short of demanding a
ceasefire, which encouraged Israel to continue with its "mission" of
unilaterally enforcing the resolution to disarm Hezbollah. With that
same logic, Hezbollah could argue it has a mission to enforce the many
UN Security Council resolutions demanding Israel to withdraw from the
occupied Palestinian territories and to implement the right of return
of the Palestinian refugees.
On July 27, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that Israel had
given civilians ample time to leave southern Lebanon. "All those now
in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to
Hezbollah," he said, according to the BBC. The same strategy is in
these days deployed in the Gaza Strip where the populations of
neighborhoods and refugee camps are asked to leave their homes. This
comes down to blatant collective punishment of entire populations.
The escalating violence in Lebanon can not be solved unilaterally with
self-proclaimed righteousness by any party. Peace is negotiated
between enemies, not with friends. And the first step to any
negotiation is a ceasefire. Or is it that every child has to die so
that they do not grow into "terrorists"?
A year ago, the UK Prime Minister championed the cause of including in
the UN mandate the "responsibility to protect populations from
genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity".
Yet the UN, the European Union, The United States and the United
Kingdom have failed in their responsibility to protect the Lebanese
and Palestinian children. Or even to clearly condemn the latest
Israeli criminal acts.
The international civil society and social movements are raising their
voice and mobilizing throughout the world not only to express their
indefectible solidarity with the Lebanese people, but also to build a
huge international barrier against the global war of re-colonization
of the world.
We are demanding
• An immediate and unconditional cease-fire, in Lebanon as well as in
the Palestinian Occupied Territories!
• The implementation of full sovereignty to Lebanon and the national
rights of the Palestinian people!
• No NATO forces on the Lebanese territory!
We support the call of the international solidarity delegation in
Lebanon for an international day of protest and solidarity on August
12th.Sincerely,
The Petition to Petitiononline was created by and written by Chandram ( chandramwrites@gmail.com). This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.
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