Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Our second statement on the developments in Nahr Al-Barid.
Here is an English translation (I will put the French translation in the comments' section): (thanks to Zeina for English translation, and to Ghada for French translation).

Bayan/Statement 2
Accusations and Appeals
We, the undersigned:
Accuse the majority of our Lebanese leaders of using the Palestinian people and its resistance for their sectarian and petty agendas.
We accuse them of covering up the attack on an over-populated Palestinian-Lebanese camp by using the slogan of ‘sovereignty,” that is often employed in Lebanon against the weak and the poor.
We accuse them of adhering to a fascist ideology similar to the one that justified the siege of Tal Al-Zaatar and Dbayyeh camps in the mid-seventies, and of adopting Bush’s discourse on terror, as if the Palestinian people as a whole are supposed to carry the burden of a gang that Lebanese authorities themselves admit has no popular base in the camp.
We accuse them of covering up the creation of a security apparatus that is not subject to the jurisdiction and monitoring of the people and their representatives; just like those, who falsely claim sovereignty today, covered up the security apparatus during the period of the Syrian-regime’s control in Lebanon.
We accuse the 14 of March group in particular of propagating a project/plan that targets the arms of the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance, while reinforcing the weaponization of sectarian gangs. Such a policy will undoubtedly lead to an intensification of the conflict in Lebanon to the benefit of the Imperialist project spanning Morocco to Afghanistan.
We accuse part of the ‘opposition’ of standing silent vis-a-vis the plans of the ruling dynasty simply because they are targeting a ‘sect’ that currently has no protection in Lebanon –namely, the Palestinian people. We also accuse part of the opposition of regurgitating the discourse of hostility against the Palestinian people.
We accuse many of the Lebanese of closing their shelters and schools to the Palestinian refugees escaping from Nahr al-Barid camp, while Palestinian camps had opened their doors wide to the Lebanese displaced during the summer Israeli war on Lebanon.
We accuse our liberal intellectuals of propagating a discourse of sovereignty and revenge instead of solidarity, citizenship, and true humanity. We accuse them of hypocrisy when they condemn the killing of Israeli civilians, but do not lift a finger at raizing a camp on its inhabitants. In addition, we accuse them of advocating human rights in only one Arab country.
We accuse Lebanese ‘nationalism’, which attempts to build a country on the shattered pieces of the victims of random bombing of Nahr Al-Barid camp, of despicable racism.
We condemn some of the Palestinian leadership who due to sectarian, material and shameful interests, have worked to cover up this ongoing war.
We accuse the fanatical salafis (supported and funded by the same entities that support and fund the current ruling Lebanese government) of spreading hatred, sectarianism, the culture of ‘takfeer’, exclusion, and one-dimensionality.
We accuse those Lebanese who claim that the American aerial bridge is an innocent or humanitarian act of political naivety at best, and complying with the escalating war at worst.
Based on what was presented above, we demand:

  1. An end to all acts of war against Nahr al-Barid camp and a rejection to invade the inhabited camp.
  2. That the Lebanese Army’s leadership reassert that it is Israel, not the Palestinian people, that is the enemy (not the 'neighbor').
  3. A condemnation of the sectarian agitation that has become the normal strategy of the ruling dynasty especially since the north elections in 2005.
  4. Working to change the current inhuman circumstances in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, and providing the Palestinian people in Lebanon all civil rights until their eventual return to their homeland, Palestine.
  5. Ending all meaningless talk of ‘Lebanese services’ to the Palestinian cause, given that significant political actors in Lebanon have transformed this country into a den of conspiring against the Palestinian cause.
  6. That national and democratic parties, loyal to the long history of Lebanese-Palestinian common struggle, take the initiative to save the camp and its inhabitants.