beirut update
dear citizens of earth,
please do not post political comments or comments of hate or blame on my blog. though i appreciate that everyone is entitled to their opinions, i do not want my blog to be a platform for political debate.
i am an artist, not a politician.
our beautiful world is in such a fragile state right now. let us rise above hate.
remember love.
remember love.
please do not post political comments or comments of hate or blame on my blog. though i appreciate that everyone is entitled to their opinions, i do not want my blog to be a platform for political debate.
i am an artist, not a politician.
our beautiful world is in such a fragile state right now. let us rise above hate.
remember love.
remember love.
posted by zena at 5:16 PM
64 Comments:
Thank you dear Zena for being eloquent, clear, and still sane enough to express exactly how I have been feeling for the past 19 days.
I hope humanity should make it rise above all present misery. Art is a perfect way to achieve this. Love is another. Let sanity and beauty rule this world for once and so long.. finally.
Greetings, Zena.
Please keep strong.
We need people like you.
hi Zena!
your blog has been quoted by a famous german newspaper. you're doing a great job.
hope war will end soon over there - on all sides !
NO one deserves to suffer from barbarous religious-political ideas.
greetz
Zena, I saw your interview on CNN and thank you for your eloquence and level-headedness during these trying times. I have been a long-time believer of the adage "violence begets violence". Thank you for saying that in a public forum and reminding the world that violence never solves anything, merely compliates matters.
Artists see the 20 or so different greens in a tree, water...
We suffer when it get's mucked up.
Stay brave and safe...
A fellow Artist from Michigan, US
Thank you for level headed interview on CNN. Unfortunately, we no longer have real jounalists and we no longer hear real news. I believe neither side is right - but the US journalists support for one side over the other is extremely disturbing. Until the root cause for the issues are discussed in full and all parties treated as equals, there will not be peace. This current disaster will not solve the issues but further extend the pain on both sides.
Please remain safe and when the time comes, help re-build the beautiful country of Lebanon. Beirut did not deserve this nor the innocent Lebanese people. My prayers are with you.
i like the way talk
i like the way you walk
i like the way you smile
but the most of all
i like the way YOU MOVE
ps: don't expect that you will make your audience the same as your favourites tend the world to become like Paulov's dogs .. you should care more to explain those who hate Arabs that YOU ARE NOT AN ARAB, but THAT SOMETHING ELSE what ever you are!
Surreal6 said ... censured, so what .. it has been written!
dear Zena, i have just heard you on CNN and immediately recognized your name. i am Bojana, your colleague from the International Museum of Women, but you may not recognize my name, because i was eliminated from the group. i left a message to you and others on the site of the IMW with the appeal. i am deadly serious. i have read as well your letter on the electronic intifada and can recognize your surprise. yes, i know that you have lived in dreams - i haven't. those you have respected have ooled me to the extent i hardly can explain at this moment while i feel as hurt as all people in Lebanon are. and in Iraq! and in Palestina, and in Croatia and Bosnia and Kosovo and Eypt and Armenia, and Azej... you know very well that we cannot stop telling about the crimes that have been committed against people without to would have been given a chance to understand why we must be as punished. i am pleased to have heard you on the CNN report, but i don't appreciate the coincidence that we have actually "met", but haven't been acquanted by those who have had created the opportunity that we could . i have been living in Amsterdam since 2002, arround the corner is a synagogue, not very far is a neighbourhood where some youngsters of Maroccan (what a coincidence if i just think of the Ministery of Defence of Izrael) origin caused some headaches to the city governers. i feel as i am toren between all these identities that seem to be distinctively important. you all celebrated the success of the International Museum of Women, i shed tears here because i was so appreciated in december when invited, promised to would take a part in the exhibit few months later. i was orginizing an event here in amsterdam and had a very good communication with a representative in Los Angeles and Amsterdam. i introduced the two organizations to each otherand shortly after i was exposed to a schock that my work didn't take place. i tried to get the explanation from ms. Paula Goldman and she doesn't manage to would have been honest. this is why i propose that you, the artist, take the responsibility of their politicised pretension and do as i suggest - TAKE OFF your contribution, stop feeling that a Jewish lobby in Los Angeles has given you a feeling as you would be privilidged and shared their respect. what you have experienced is the manner that has taken place against many individuals through longer time, now you were introduced to it yet not on personal level, but on a national. this is even harder. please, stop imagining that you as a friendly person cannot contribute to achange. start acting now, and act there where you can hurt the msot - at the diplomacy they have pretended. if you wish i may expose the letters i wrote to them and my contribution. i expressed in my work nothing but love, empathy and personal sacrifices for one word we love all : LOVE .. i didn't ignore Allah ... was that my crime and the reason why i was mistretaed by Paula Goldman??!! is love for Allah a curse?! if, all the art may become cursed, because thy is our only best teacher to have cretaed beauty through human hands and mind.
please, Zena El-Khalil, act now, don't hesitate!
Bojana K. Grabar
sign.grabar@amis.net
bayyna@maktoob.com
July 30, 2006 5:38 AM
yes, the occupation of north-eastern Slovenia by the Federal Yugoslav army in July 1991 was prevented like this, but it is difficult to accept this as a solution when once people were chased by complete destruction as it obvioulsy has happened .. Izrael must be punished! only citizens could do thi, but as we hear majority Izraelits support the military agression. it is easy to presume that they suffer of a post-shock Hollocaust syndrome - brain washed. the mistake of the world sympathising with izrael has been through all the post-2ww tolerating interpretations that n the nazi camps the majority annihilated were jews, what confronted the reality and left in denial all thos who suffered the most and many ofthese are nationals of countries as Lebanon, Sirya, Egypt, oppressed in Iran or Pakistan: in general identified as Armenians or Gypsys .. many live in Izrael as well accepted the citizenship, but the reality id very different as we may proof the "second-class" citizens having Arabic names generalized .. the state of Izrael is anyhow occupied by those who have successfuly assimilated with the power mechanisms, but are descendents of those who placed in ractise the ethnical cleansings centuries promoted by the offensive Ottomans ...
Yes LOVE will stop Israel from committing war crimes.
Quit dreaming. Don't be afraid to state the obvious. Israel is destroying Lebanon because it can, because it thinks it's special and above the law and it thinks that Arabs are disposable.
I'm also an artist, but I have my feet planted on the ground! Stop dreaming, your dreams will not stop the killings! Silly woman...
Allah. There is no god but He,-the Living, the Self-Subsisting, Eternal.
Great idea to show the world how Lebanese people want peace, want to live, we don't want other people's wars on our land anymore...
From a Lebanese who really cares about his country.
I listened to your interview on CNN. You show up on a worldwide network, talking from a country at war, having your blog promoted/mentioned BECAUSE of the war going on, you mentioned 9/11 and so forth - and yet you ask people to refrain from making political or emotional comments in your blog?
Sorry, but in what kind of Disneyworld do you live? I don't get it. Is this true artistry?
The Epic of Inferno & Muse
By Munir Mezyed
In the beginning it was the word
and the word became mournfulness.
What shall I say...?
Will poetry be enough
to soothe the madness of death
and halt this everlasting bleed...?
My sorrow is going insane,
and god is dead within my soul,
while my soul becomes a coffin of smoke...
Thus I behold naught
But fire succeeding fire
and autumn following autumn....
I come out
Searching for a wheat stalk
For a love poem
I find the sparrows of poetry
Sucking blood from the trees’ breast...
A dove flies away from my weary soul
Hovering over the wrecked roofs
Hit by an arrow...
Fluttering to the sacred stairs
Rolling, bleeding to death...
We pass from wound to wound
Flee from massacre to massacre
As we are about to extinguish a fire
Another fire starts burning...
We carry the sun
Then why do the walls of darkness
and the columns of smoke enfold us....?
Oh Beirut, Forgive,
And blame me not...!
If I divorce my white dove,
Slaughter all the sparrows of poetry,
and disbelieve in every thing...
Oh Beirut,
My pain is the pain of Christ
on His awful cross...!
I search for a path will lead me
to the Caliph but to no avail...!
The devils mock at me
Saying: he is dead and saturated with death...!
Oh Beirut,
Your are a mermaid,
Copulating god day and night,
Casting her silver bracelets on the sand,
Loosing her tresses over the sea
Spraying her perfume over the poets’ odes.
So why then do we usurp viciously her virginity
And water her blood and tears...?
Oh Beirut,
The sea nymphs are crucified
In an old palm tree
with birds their golden skulls
Smashed, hanged on the trunk....
Black water flows into the sacred soil
Fire
Burning the meadows of prophecy..
whilst the hand of winds vandalizes
The garden of delight...
Ah! I wish my poesy
Had the power to shake the soul’s leaves
And enliven the dead..
For lo! The hour of defeat is the hour of silence..!
Blessed is the poesy singing the sun..!
Blessed are the roses glittering in our souls
To shatter darkness
Growing in the cheeks of dawn
Watered with our blood…
Trickles of light are leaking calmly
Out of the chamber of the sun
Verses are shedding sadly
Out of the bleeding spirit...
Under the sky
The colors of inferno..
On the shores where sorrows grow
Olive trees are garnished with blood
Roses of love cast into the lake of fire
The sound of death is howling loudly
Like a wolf touched by insanity…
Blood in the birds’ songs
In the sliver brooks
In the celestial shores
cry and mourn, o grievous soul..!
Blood and hatred
are the new phrases of the book of mores
For Lo! Wars are the language of the fools..
God’s eyes are watching the flood
mocking at our idiocy
For Lo! The hour of defeat is the hour of silence…!
By the word what they inscribe!
They are falsifiers
They were born from poisons
Their tales
Their myths
Are fraught with killing and hatred
O Jerusalem!
Eternal is the night
The night of the villains..
Once upon a time
Drunken Deity kidnapped the belle
From the meadows
And disappeared in the sea..
Thus the world beheld the light
Coming out from the land of Canaan...
Europa, Europa,
Grieve not, nor be afflicted
Heaven is bashful from your tears
And the drunken Deity is burying his disgrace...
Trying again to capture the land of the sun...
O land of the sun..!
Every soul will pass away
But You will always remain the Muse…
For lo! I mourn not you
But mourning man and god
The hour of defeat is the hour of silence..!
Streams of blood will flow
Into the scared soil
Nourishing the violet roses
So let the storm of poetry shake the tree
Blowing the leaves of evil
Behold, Poetry is the bread of the Poor
The dreams of the rebels …
And love will defeat the devil and Mot..!
O Jerusalem..!
Eternal is the night
the night of the villains
The sons of the devil in the wings of death
Challenging the almond and the olive trees..
Intoxicated with poisons of human serpents
Gulping poisons from the children’s skulls,
So joyfully they behold the blood
And Dance on the pipe of an elf
Deafening the ears of heavens
Filling the ether with cries and yells…
In heaven
The goddess of love cries:
I am dead..
And the belle is falling
In the belly of an evil whale…
O Jerusalem
Grieve not, nor be afflicted !
Eternal is the night
The night of the villains..!
Every tree narrates a tale
A tale of heroes who died as martyrs
O Jerusalem
Here
Since the beginning of creation
Under your sun
The angels of god have bathed
In the dew of the heavens
And in the fragrance of your soil…
O Jerusalem
Here
Christ was born
Here where he walked and dreamed
Here
Where he was crucified..
Eternal is the night
The night of the villains..!
Sing O Fairouz
Songs are the new divination
So let the world hear your songs
And wipe out the tears
from the eyes of the oppressed..
I could hear the bell ringing
Calling Christ to arise..!
________________________________________
You had one of the best interviews on CNN I have ever seen. You did not finger point but rather saw it as it is,,,,tradegy for everyone
You were excellent on CNN. I wish the people who can change things were watching.
Best Wishes
Canadian
as i am writing planes fly upon metn region sky i cant believe the arrogance of these people daring to send their striker planes flying low on all lebanese territories few hours after their assasinating strikes on southern lebanon nothing seems to stop them they dont care of civilian lives they are possessed by a sort of insane logic of war
however they have already lost image battle because they dare to underestimate peoples voices and opinions around the world
i cant believe these guys who dare to blame and justify anyone but them in the killing of innocents they cannot understand love language
real picture of Ehud Olmert as a Nazi concentration camp commander.
http://www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/buitenland/nieuwsbericht/asp/artnr/107917/
copy and paste to a new window or search Ehud Olmert dagbladet in the images section of google
the whole link is
www.elsevier.nl/nieuws/buitenland/
nieuwsbericht/asp/artnr/107917/
now it is very clear that Israel killed Rafiq Hariri, to force syria out and then attack lebanon.
http://www.wsws.org/
articles/2005/feb2005/hari-f17.shtml
You did a great interview for the people of Lebanon today on CNN. Maybe somebody who can stop the bombs was listening. keep the great job.
G
ano
thanks so much for posting this lovely and amusing link!! I hope that your family didnt get killed by the Nazis in Holand or europe wherever you are...
however it seem that posting this link wishes that you and your closest will get killed by Nazi's and terrorists
you make me vomit :)
Zena
I posted this morning on other comment page.And just wanted to let you know, please keep writting. I hope And pray this becomes a gilmer of hope.
Its odd how something so very wrong can bring so many wonderful people together
Our Prayers Are we you and the Children of Tommorow
CH
Upsate New York
Zena,
You were great on CNN and just different from all. Hope they all understand that VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE. Loved how u linked all things and sent your messages through....
Keep it up
zena:
get the message from 'johannjs' out to your people. it will work and the war will end, thanks johannjs
THE WHOLE WORLD ARE ALL READING YOUR BLOG.KEEP IT UP.FROM YALLAL,THE GAMBIA WEST AFRICA TO CENTRAL FALLS,RHODE ISLAND IN THE UNITED STATES.THANKS.
Zena, while I really respect your sentiments and appreciate your effort to be away from politics being an artiste, I wonder if any of us can really be away from politics. You statements are political, my reaction is political; in fact all that we do in public (and even private) space is political. It's not such a bad word. The reason it has become bad is because well-meaning people like us have allowed some self-centred people to hijack it from us. I wish we all return to politics in all its meaning, and recover the lost ground. The onus is on us as much as it is on those in Tel Aviv or Washinton DC or Beirut. Let us all stand for once.
Thank you Zena, for getting the word out about what's going on. Not enough people in America know of these things because our media has become more and more controlled.
I'm sorry about everything that is happening there. It hurts to hear about the devastation to people, environment, and animals.
And it was wise of you to request that people not post hateful comments. You do not need this forum to become a microcosm of the hatred that is currently trying to ruin Lebanon.
hi zena. we really should remember love more often. keep on writing. and even more important: keep on loving. thank you for this blog.
warm greetings from here.
after your eloquent request I find it hard to believe that people cannot abide by your wishes.
I wish you nothing but peace....and I hope it comes soon.
stay well.........dear child.
"i also manage to get my voice heard. i also manage to touch a few people. i am grateful for that."
ZENA, I AM GRATEFUL FOR WHAT YOU ARE DOING, TOO.
I am a Brazilian, son of a Lebanese father and a Russian mother, and, although having visited Lebanon once in '96, I have never been very closely related to my lebanese origins.
The conflict is driving my attention to my ancestors' country filling me with sorrow and the sense of injustice and revolt.
But your words are bringing my faith in the Lebanese, filling me with love for these very, very strong people like you.
You make me proud of my Lebanese origins, and for that, I deeply thank you.
Have faith in yourself, and the gods bless you!
Ah...you seek to be an island in the ocean around you. Good luck.
hey, i am coming all the way from Manila, Philippines and I watched as you were interviewed on CNN. I wish you strength and hope that one day, this will all be over. In Filipno, I will say "Mabuhay ka" which means thrive and let live.
Dear Zena,
I am so happy to see that most of the new comments have abided by your wish. I would like to thank you and all the people who commented for this. Maybe there is hope in the world after all.
Thousands of Israelis protest military offensives
Malaysia Sun
Sunday 30th July, 2006
Thousands of Israelis have held demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Um al-Fahem, to protest the Israeli army's offensives in Lebanon and Gaza.
The protestors have participated in recent anti-war rallies but their voices grew louder Sunday following the bombing of an apartment building in Qana in southern Lebanon, which killed fifty-five civilians, including 37 children, and an unknown number of women, who were sheltering in the basement of the building.
Demonstrations have involved thousands of Israelis, Jewish and Arab, who oppose what they call Israel's targeting of civilians. Many in Sunday's group in Haifa referred to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a 'murderer.' They say they want an immediate ceasefire, an immediate release of captured soldiers, and immediate negotiations with Hezbollah and Hamas.
In the Galilee, dozens of Ta'al activists demonstrated against the war and waved signs that read, "Peretz, Olmert and Rice are responsible for war crimes."
Ynet news reported there were only a few dozen demonstrators in Haifa, but they were later joined by Arab residents. These residents carried Palestinian flags and also censured the government, particularly the prime minister and defense minister, Ynet said.
Rally organizers said that they intended to continue protesting until the war ends, and appealed to other Israelis to join them. They conceded that, up until now, few Israelis had joined them in their efforts.
Thousands of Um al-Fahem residents participated in a demonstration that took place in the village, carrying signs against Israeli occupation and against Israeli policy. Demonstrators shouted "Israel is a terrorist state," and, "the people of Gaza and Lebanon won't surrender." The mayor of the village spoke at the conclusion of the rally, pointing an accusing finger at leaders of Arab countries for not condemning Israel's 'massacre' in Lebanon. He also accused Israeli leaders of 'also harming Muslims in Israel'.
In Tel Aviv, some 300 people demonstrated outside the ministry of defense building, in three separate protests: On one side of the street stood Meretz members, including former MKs (members of Israel's parliament) Yael Dayan and Naomi Hazan. Next to them, members of the Arab 'Hadash' party and the Gush Shalom movement protested against the deaths in Qana and demanded a cessation of the fighting. On the opposite side of the street, the Labor party's youth movement held a counter-protest in support of the government.
Gush Shalom representative, Uri Avneri, regretted that the voice of the left was not heard in the media and claimed that 'the public is being brainwashed.' Former MK Tamar Gozanski, who was also present, responded to the claim that the former unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 led to the current situation: 'We, who don't want even one day of war, are responsible for war? Both sides have armed themselves in the past five years. We can't acquire missiles and demand for them not to.'
Despite demonstrating on the same sidewalk, Meretz members made sure to distinguish between themselves and the other ralliers. 'We're a Zionist party, that's the difference,' explained Yael Dayan. 'I would never in my life voice some of the statements that the Gush Shalom members are yelling. We're looking out for the good of Israeli residents in the north and think that there is an opportunity to use negotiation.'
The protest drew responses from passing vehicles, said Ynet, some who honked in support, some who yelled in dissent. One stone was even thrown, ironically, at the less radical Meretz crowd. At a certain point, police arrived to protect the protestors.
Likud supporter Roee Sasa quarreled with the Gush Shalom-Hadash protestors, in an argument that almost came to blows. 'What they're doing undermines the Israel Defense Forces and the residents of the north. When hospitals were hit, I didn't hear the radical left. This is collusion with the enemy; Nasrallah is rejoicing,' Sasa declared to Ynet.
Israeli jounalist Gideon Levy is continuing his critcism of the offensives. "The devastation we are sowing in Lebanon doesn't touch anyone here and most of it is not even shown to Israelis," he says. "Those who want to know what Tyre looks like now have to turn to foreign channels like the BBC."
"Since we've grown accustomed to thinking collective punishment a legitimate weapon, it is no wonder no debate has sparked here over the cruel punishment of Lebanon for Hezbollah's actions," he adds. "The only criticism being heard about this war is over tactics. Everyone is a general now and they are mostly pushing the israel Defense Forces to deepen its activities. Commentators, ex-generals and politicians compete at raising the stakes with extreme proposals," he says.
"Haim Ramon "doesn't understand" why there is still electricity in Baalbek; Eli Yishai proposes turning south Lebanon into a "sandbox"; Yoav Limor, a Channel 1 military correspondent, proposes an exhibition of Hezbollah corpses and the next day to conduct a parade of prisoners in their underwear, "to strengthen the home front's morale," Levy points out.
"Lebanon, which has never fought Israel and has 40 daily newspapers, 42 colleges and universities and hundreds of different banks, is being destroyed by our planes and cannon and nobody is taking into account the amount of hatred we are sowing. In international public opinion, Israel has been turned into a monster, and that still hasn't been calculated into the debit column of this war. Israel is badly stained, a moral stain that can't be easily and quickly removed. And only we don't want to see it," says Levy, who is a journalist with the national daily newspaper, Haaretz.
Meantime more than 600 people, including Israeli professors and senior Meretz party officials, have signed an international petition calling for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, according to Haaretz.
Also on Sunday an Israeli soldier, Amir Fester, was sent to prison for 28 days for refusing to do army service during the current crisis.
I've been wondering about you since reading your letter in The Guardian.
Stay strong, yours is such an important voice.
I'll stay anonymous here and continue with what I'm doing in my world of blogging.
Dear Zena,
Slamon aleikom
words are not capable to describe your suffering.
just wanted to let you know that there many people who are saddended and stand with you.
I am also sorry that you have to read garbage like the note above by
"vomiting at Ano".
I see why it is impossible to reach peace, there is too much hatred .....
I hope you delete his message too, I found it very unpleasant and intolerant.
http://fas.org/asmp/fast_facts.htm
we need more people like you on this planet
http://209.67.212.138/~lebanon/
we do not have freedom either,
watch americans being arrested for protesting against the war
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
Dear Zena,
Love would not have been enough to stop the Nazis 50 years ago. And don't forget, they had no such powerful allies as the US. for these new conquerors now.
Love is just for those, who know what this term means. I'm so so willing to believe what you suggest but I'm more and more convinced that mankind in a desperate need to wake up and reconsider the old paradigm.
Luv
Laszlo
(a humble hungarian who loves you and your country and raring to be back to Beirut the soonest possible)
any doctors you know,
doctors without borders need surgeon and anesthesiologist
http://www.leger-uten-grenser.no/?module=Articles;action=Article.publicShow;ID=1451
good work zena..But dont u think that the westen media/population is not puuting more pressure for the governments to react.
I sit here and sigh in sorrow to see that. Protests all over the world is what is the need if the hour to make some deaf ears listen to the cries of innocent children and women dying.
May God be with you guys,
Thank you so much for maintaining a blog account like yours. I believe there is a big need for the whole world to see just exactly what these uncalled-for attacks are doing to Lebanon. I was able to watch your interview on CNN and I agree with your viewpoints, especially your last words on air, "Violence begets violence."
INSHAALLAH, this will all send soon. Be safe.
I would like to link your site, if that's ok. I am a Filipino Muslim. Thank you.
thanks for the link
those who do not believe in freedom of speech should not comment
for Zena,
I saw you on cnn and felt such empathy with you... an artist, like myself, a woman, like myself, a fellow human being who sickens at the suffering brought on by this war and the other wars. Like you I want it to stop.
War and terror has also been a constant shadow in my life. My grandparents and several of my aunts and uncles died at the hands of Nazis. My country has faced it's share of hatebased attacks on it's citizens, people - just people - in markets, clubs and restaurants, in buses...just trying to go on with their lives, make plans, get married, raise families just like you.
I saw your paintings, lots of guns...you want peace but live with war. So do I.
But I am an Israeli. And, yes, I am human too.
in hope there will come a time when we can truly accept each other -
my love
http://www.ladysun.net/
please take a look at this site to see how Hezbollah treats iranian women who stand for freedom.
I wish you could upload the song "Insha'laah" by Salvadore Adamo on your website.
Azadeh
I'm glad to see someone has been able to keep their head in such a terrible time. Hate should be forgotten, and if it can't be, tolerance at least should be learned. One love from Norway.
One day i will visit Lebanon and i believe that i will find Beirut as the most impressing and beatiful city around the world...
'Li Beirut' from Fairuz is now playing on my playlist.
Wishes for peace from Turkey...
"No God But ALLAH"
I think it's interesting that a woman who calls herself an artist, that being a person who desires the freedom to creatively express herself to the world, would then turn around and delete the posts of others who are only trying to do the same thing!
I think you're a hippocrite, Zena!
Zena,
I know leaving is not the answer, but I would love to see you and your husband and your beautiful mind in a safe place. I am writing this from Key West, Fl with love and pain. Zena, how can we help ???...to stop this ??? I just have no words...
Jean-Claude (which i am sure you have stolen and your real name is freeky f***g a'''hole)
do not come back here and leave zena alone
for your info I am an american and hate to see my tax dollars
spent on a'''holes like you
I really hope that depleted uranium is not uses you can read about it here
http://www.ippnw.org/DUStatement.html
http://www.tolerance.org/about/tolerance.html
"What is 'tolerance'?
The word "tolerance" is surely imperfect, yet the English language offers no single word that embraces the broad range of skills we need to live together peacefully.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used the Greek term "agape" to describe a universal love
that "discovers the neighbor in every man it meets." The various disciplines concerned with human behavior have also offered a variety of adjectives: "pro-social," "democratic," "affiliative."
In its Declaration on the Principles of Tolerance, UNESCO offers a definition of tolerance that most closely matches our philosophical use of the word:
Tolerance is respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world's cultures, our forms of expression and ways of being human. Tolerance is harmony in difference.
We view tolerance as a way of thinking and feeling — but most importantly, of acting — that gives us peace in our individuality, respect for those unlike us, the wisdom to discern humane values and the courage to act upon them."
So may I ask the UN what is their modern version of the definition of TOLERANCE ???
hi zena, hi to all those who care to make the world a better place,
All you have to do is declare your tolerance. And then we'll all be one.
http://www.tolerance.org/101_tools/declaration.html
DECLARATION OF TOLERANCE
Tolerance is a personal decision that comes from a belief that every person is a treasure. I believe that the diversity "of any nation is" its strength. I also recognize that ignorance, insensitivity and bigotry can turn that diversity into a source of prejudice and discrimination.
To help keep diversity a wellspring of strength and make "any nation" a better place for all, I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.
To fulfill my pledge, I (type your name) will
examine my own biases and work to overcome them
set a positive example for my family and friends
work for tolerance in my own community
speak out against hate and injustice.
We Share A World
For all our differences, we share one world. To be tolerant is to welcome the differences and delight in the sharing.
i would like to visit beirut and lebanon - now more than ever...i saw your blog at cnn. wishing you all the best...i know what is war (ex-yugoslavia). god bless you. tomaz from slovenia.
Love will chase the Israelies out of Lebanon, and bring back the murderous hezbollah, how nice. Hezbollah has ruined your country and the Lebanese prime minister thanks them for it. What an idiot. Boy! when are you guys going to face the truth.
http://hrw.org/
http://hrw.org/
Human Rights Watch:
This report documents serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this report went to print. The Israeli government claims it is taking all possible measures to minimize civilian harm, but the cases documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have consistently launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military gain but excessive civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.
The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N. observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. However, those cases do not justify the IDF’s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian lives. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack.
By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets. The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents; the extent of the pattern and the seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes.
This report is based on extensive on-the-ground research in Lebanon. Since the start of hostilities, Human Rights Watch has interviewed victims and witnesses of attacks in one-on-one settings, conducted on-site inspections (when security allowed), and collected information from hospitals, humanitarian groups, and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, inspecting the IDF’s use of weapons and discussing the conduct of forces with IDF officials. The research was extensive, but given the ongoing war and the scope of the bombings, Human Rights Watch does not claim that the findings are comprehensive; further investigation is required to document the war’s complete impact on civilians and to assess the full scope of the IDF’s compliance with and disregard for international humanitarian law.
While not the focus of this report, Human Rights Watch has separately and simultaneously documented violations of international humanitarian law by Hezbollah, including a pattern of attacks that amount to war crimes. Between July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight, and July 27, the group launched a reported 1,300 rockets into predominantly civilian areas in Israel, killing 18 civilians and wounding more than 300. Without guidance systems for accurate targeting, the rockets are inherently indiscriminate when directed toward civilian areas, especially cities, and thus are serious violations of the requirement of international humanitarian law that attackers distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Some of these rockets, Human Rights Watch found, are packed with thousands of metal ball-bearings, which spray more than 100 meters from the blast and compound the harm to civilians.
This report analyzes a selection of Israeli air and artillery attacks that together claimed at least 153 civilian lives, or over a third of the reported Lebanese deaths in the conflict’s first two weeks. Of the 153 civilian deaths documented in this report by name, sixty-three of the victims were children under the age of eighteen, and thirty-seven of them were under ten. Israeli air strikes also killed many dual nationals who were vacationing in Lebanon when the fighting began, including Brazilian, Canadian, German, Kuwaiti, and U.S. citizens. The full death toll is certainly higher because medical and recovery teams have been unable to retrieve many bodies due to ongoing fighting and the dire security situation in south Lebanon.
The report breaks civilian deaths into two categories: attacks on civilian homes and attacks on civilian vehicles. In both categories, victims and witnesses interviewed independently and repeatedly said that neither Hezbollah fighters nor Hezbollah weapons were present in the area during or just before the Israeli attack took place. While some individuals, out of fear or sympathy, may have been unwilling to speak about Hezbollah’s military activity, others were quite open about it. In totality, the consistency, detail, and credibility of testimony from a broad array of witnesses who did not speak to each other leave no doubt about the validity of the patterns described in this report. In many cases, witness testimony was corroborated by reports from international journalists and aid workers. During site visits conducted in Qana, Srifa, and Tyre, Human Rights Watch saw no evidence that there had been Hezbollah military activity around the areas targeted by the IDF during or just prior to the attack: no spent ammunition, abandoned weapons or military equipment, trenches, or dead or wounded fighters. Moreover, even if Hezbollah had been in a populated area at the time of an attack, Israel would still be legally obliged to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian casualties resulting from its targeting of military objects or personnel. In the cases documented in this report, however, the IDF consistently tolerated a high level of civilian casualties for questionable military gain.
In one case, an Israeli air strike on July 13 destroyed the home of a cleric known to have sympathy for Hezbollah but who was not known to have taken any active part in hostilities. Even if the IDF considered him a legitimate target (and Human Rights Watch has no evidence that he was), the strike killed him, his wife, their ten children, and the family’s Sri Lankan maid.
On July 16, an Israeli airplane fired on a civilian home in the village of Aitaroun, killing eleven members of the al-Akhrass family, among them seven Canadian-Lebanese dual nationals who were vacationing in the village when the war began. Human Rights Watch independently interviewed three villagers who vigorously denied that the family had any connection to Hezbollah. Among the victims were children aged one, three, five, and seven.
Others civilians came under attack in their cars as they attempted to flee the fighting in the South. This report alone documents twenty-seven civilian deaths that resulted from such attacks. The number is surely higher, but at the time the report went to press, ongoing Israeli attacks on the roads made it impossible to retrieve all the bodies.
Starting around July 15, the IDF issued warnings to residents of southern villages to leave, followed by a general warning for all civilians south of the Litani River, which mostly runs about 25 kilometers north of the Israel-Lebanon border, to evacuate immediately. Tens of thousands of Lebanese fled their homes to the city of Tyre (itself south of the Litani and thus within the zone Israel ordered evacuated) or further north to Beirut, many waving white flags. As they left, Israeli forces fired on dozens of vehicles with warplanes and artillery.
Two Israeli air strikes are known to have hit humanitarian aid vehicles. On July 18 the IDF hit a convoy of the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates, destroying a vehicle with medicines, vegetable oil, sugar and rice, and killing the driver. On July 23, Israeli forces hit two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances in the village of Qana.
As of August 1, tens of thousands of civilians remained in villages south of the Litani River, despite the warnings to leave. Some chose to stay, but the vast majority, Human Rights Watch found, was unable to flee due to destroyed roads, a lack of gasoline, high taxi fares, sick relatives, or ongoing Israeli attacks. Many of the civilians who remained were elderly, sick, or poor.
Israel has justified its attacks on roads by citing the need to clear the transport routes of Hezbollah fighters moving arms. Again, none of the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch, independent media sources, or Israeli official statements indicate that any of the attacks on vehicles documented in this report resulted in Hezbollah casualties or the destruction of weapons. Rather, the attacks killed and wounded civilians who were fleeing their homes, as the IDF had advised them to do.
In addition to strikes from airplanes, helicopters, and traditional artillery, Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions against populated areas, causing civilian casualties. One such attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed a sixty-year-old woman and wounded at least twelve civilians, including seven children. The wide dispersal pattern of cluster munitions and the high dud rate (ranging from 2 to 14 percent, depending on the type of cluster munition) make the weapons exceedingly dangerous for civilians and, when used in populated areas, a violation of international humanitarian law.
Statements from Israeli government officials and military leaders suggest that, at the very least, the IDF has blurred the distinction between civilian and combatant, and is willing to strike at targets it considers even vaguely connected to the latter. At worst, it considers all people in the area of hostilities open to attack.
On July 17, for example, after IDF strikes on Beirut, the commander of the Israeli Air Force, Eliezer Shkedi, said, “in the center of Beirut there is an area which only terrorists enter into.”1 The next day, the IDF deputy chief of staff, Moshe Kaplinski, when talking about the IDF’s destruction of Beirut’s Dahia neighborhood, said, “the hits were devastating, and this area, which was a Hezbollah symbol, became deserted rubble.”2
On July 27, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that the Israeli air force should flatten villages before ground troops move in to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers fighting Hezbollah. Israel had given civilians ample time to leave southern Lebanon, he claimed, and therefore anyone remaining should be considered a supporter of Hezbollah. “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,” he said.3
International humanitarian law requires effective advance warnings to the civilian population prior to an attack, when conditions permit. But those warnings do not way relieve Israel from its obligation at all times to distinguish between combatants and civilians and to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from harm. In other words, issuing warnings in no way entitles the Israeli military to treat those civilians who remain in southern Lebanon as combatants who are fair game for attack.
In addition to recommendations to the Israeli government and Hezbollah that they respect international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch calls on the U.S. government immediately to suspend transfer of all arms that have been documented or credibly alleged to have been used in violation of international humanitarian law in Lebanon, as well as funding or support for such materiel, pending an end to the violations. Human Rights Watch calls upon the Iranian and Syrian governments to do the same with regards to military assistance to Hezbollah.
This report does not address Israeli attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure or Beirut’s southern suburbs, which is the subject of ongoing Human Rights Watch research. It also does not address Hezbollah’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel, which have been reported on and denounced separately and continues to be the subject of ongoing Human Rights Watch investigations. In addition, Human Rights Watch continues to investigate allegations that Hezbollah is shielding its military personnel and materiel by locating them in civilian homes or areas, and it is deeply concerned by Hezbollah’s placement of certain troops and materiel near civilians, which endangers them and violates the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Human Rights Watch uses the occasion of this report to reiterate Hezbollah’s legal duty never to deliberately use civilians to shield military objects and never to needlessly endanger civilians by conducting military operations, maintaining troops, or storing weapons in their vicinity.
The armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is governed by international treaties, as well as the rules of customary international humanitarian law. Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 sets forth minimum standards for all parties to a conflict between a state party such as Israel and a non-state party such as Hezbollah. Israel has also asserted that it considers itself to be responding to the actions of the sovereign state of Lebanon, not just to those of Hezbollah. Any hostilities between Israeli forces and the forces of Lebanon would fall within the full Geneva Conventions to which both Lebanon and Israel are parties. In either case, the rules governing bombing, shelling, and rocket attacks are effectively the same.
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[1] Amir Buchbut and Itamar Inbari, “IDF: Hezbollah Did Not Intercept an Israeli Aircraft,” available in Hebrew at http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART1/450/601.html, as of July 28, 2006.
[2] Hanan Greenberg, “Three Reserve Battalions Called Up," available in Hebrew at http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3277527,00.html, as of July 28, 2006.
[3] BBC News Online, “Israel says world backs offensive” July 27, 2006
That oil spill is a graphic reminder of the personification of evil.
Man to Man is so Unjust - Marley
I am Abraham..i am Jacob..i am isaac..i am muhammad..everybody is muhammad..ibn arabi taught me that....Rumi taught me too....All taught about LOVE. We are One. Oneness is us.
remember love, indeed.
i love you, zena.
the world is a dark and scary place. i live among the ''everyday business'' people and it sickens me as the war(s) all over this planet sicken me.
remember love.
remember love.
that will be my mantra.
remember love.
Keep strong Zena. Our hearts with you.
From Turkey with Love..
You don't need to be a politician, ya Zeina. but...if you want to be a true artist, you need to stop censoring yourself and others. Art IS politics, and your politics express your inner world and the world around you. I do hope that one day you will wake up to the true meaning of an artist. For now, try looking around you, ya habibti.
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