bye bye nahr al baredI was watching Al Jazeera. They were showing the Oscar winning West Bank Story (I hadn’t seen it yet). After the screening they showed a discussion between Palestinians and Israelis who had also seen the film. Suddenly, a news alert flashed across the screen and as the competing Felafel and Hummus stands burnt to the ground, Al Jazeera let us know that once again, the Lebanese Army was bombing the shit out of what was left of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. They are hoping to flush out the remaining Fatah al-Islam gunmen inside. So far 300 people have died in the fighting and all but 80 of the 40,000 residents of the problematic camp have fled. This fighting has been going on for months. No really. I’m not kidding – 300 dead and 40,000 homeless. I’m serious. Here – read about it on the BBC. Or on Reuters.

Now I know these Fatah al-Islam gunmen dudes are supporters of Al Quaeda and all – but with 40,000 people forced out of their homes, you’d expect some UN guys to say something or at least some cool footage of weeping civilians. With 40,000 people frightened away by intense violence, someone had to have wept. I’ll keep monitoring the news. I’m sure we’ll get the footage of this human rights catastrophe pronto. Any minute now, I’m sure.

Oh, and I enjoyed West Bank Story. Didn’t enjoy the post-movie conversation as much, but the movie was hilarious.

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ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

22 Comments

  • OK, just for old time’s sake I’ll call ‘Genocide!’ Or almost more accurately ‘Gross Geneva Convention violations!’ But hey, they’re Arabs, so it really does not count. They get one of these every decade or so. Gratis. And if you’re not there, and it’s not reported on with lots of flashy mad pictures and film, then it simply did not happen. So look for this to disappear down the memory hole. But yeah, 40K refugees, all due to the general idiocy & lawlessness of terror and the tolerance of same, it Don’t Count unless ‘da Jews do it! You heard it here first. Err, OK, Again. And again…and…

    Cheers & Thanks for the update. I knew it was coming, they did the last very friendly evacuation of the families of the terror ‘suspects’ last week. Very nice touch. That was Geneva Convention. So was the airfare out of the country & some of the immigrants landing with family in the US (according to the BBC). Cheers, ‘VJ’

  • I’m with Rabbi Yonah on this one, the more they kill each other, the less time they have to kill us.

  • what G-d damn planet are you from? its not called a refugee camp for nothing. this is not the first time those Palestinians find themselves evicted and running for there lives.

    Lest we forget that they are in a refugee camp because of us. We were the first to displace them and we continue to evict them till today and ethnically cleanse the area of them. amirite?

    Sweety, you need to look up what a “Palestinian Refugee” is. Refresh your memory.

  • That would be a good excuse if it was 1950, but it 2007. 90% of the palestinians in nahr al-Bared were born in Lebanon, and they should get citizenship and be treated like any other lebanese. Why are the palestinians the only people in the world were refugee status can be inherited?

  • Yep, I with Gordo on this one. And it’s the same issue in Jordan & elsewhere too. Basic human rights. Demanded from Israel when there, but never quite a priority for any of the despotic Arab regimes that contain most of the refugees. It’s a telling double standard. And no it was not Israelis shelling that refugee camp. They’re there because they are needed 2-3 generations on as political pawns, nothing more nothing less. And they are looked on as a distinct criminal class or worse by every Arab ‘host’ nation that houses them. That’s the truth and the bottom line. Cheers, ‘VJ’

  • Your right, it is 2007, and many of them still have deeds to their homes in Jaffa, Jerusalem, Haifa, Bethlehem, and all across the Holy Land. So why do we insist on the other nations to let them become citizens when we don’t do the same?

    I dont think Israelies are allowed to criticize others on “basic human rights” when we’re the worst violators of it. Or have we forgotten we have an illegal occupation going on?

  • “So why do we insist on the other nations to let them become citizens when we don’t do the same?”

    Because they were born in those other nations, not in Israel. Some 25 year old who was born in Lebanon, but who has grandparents who come from Haifa should be a citizen of Lebanon, not a refugee, just like a german whose grandparents fled the sudentland after ww2 or a turk whose great-grandparents fled Thessilonika in the 20s or a hindu whose grandparents who fled Karachi, during the division of India are all respectivly citizens of Germany, Turkey, and India, even though at some point their recent ancestors were refugees from Czechoslovakia, Greece, and Pakistan respectivly. Why are all other people of the world able to get over these things and settle in other countries, yet the palestinians must remain refugees eternally?

  • Gordo, stop taking the apartheid guy so seriously. He is so ignorant about the situation in Israel that he doesn’t realize that Palestinians who live in Israel are citizens. The only other Middle East country where they have been patriated is Jordan, but Jordan is a monarchy so the only democracy in the Middle East with Palestinian citizens is Israel. A Palestinian born in Lebanon has no rights in that country even if he is 58 years old and has lived there his entire life.

    Also, don’t take the “we” part too seriously. Apartheid is not only not Jewish, but whenever he posted here in the past, he tried to link to one of the most antisemitic sites on the Internet.

  • I doubt Lebanon will ever grant citizenship to the Palestinians because it’s made up of a delicate ethnic balance — there are 18 “confessions” there. when the numbers shift, conflict erupts. citizenship for the Palestinians means adding 400,000 sunnis to the mix — something the shia and especially the xtians will never agree to.

  • Yeah, that’s true xisnotx, but Israel has an even more delicate balance issue, don’t you think? Not patriating people born on their own soil after 6 decades and you let it glide with an easy justification that you would never provide to Israel – just like the world is treating the destruction of this camp with a mild wink and nod in comparison with the far smaller and milder (and better justified) Israeli action in Jenin in 2002.

    Also, if you wish to take Lebanon out of the equation, what about Kuwait, Egypt, Syria or any of the other Arab nations and the way they treat the Palestinians?

  • A former student of mine from Syria once told me that Palestinians are considered scum throughout the Arabic world; he claimed the only tie, if any, a few states felt in support of Palestinians was that of a shared faith. Several of his fellow students, that also came from an Arabic background (Middle Eastern as well as Northern African) supported that student’s stance.

  • Why are all other people of the world able to get over these things and settle in other countries, yet the palestinians must remain refugees eternally?

    Um, isn’t that “eternal refugee” status the basis of Zionism? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just curious how you distinguish the 19th century “wandering Jew” who yeared for Jerusalem from the third-generation Palestinian “refugee” who does the same. And I don’t buy “the Torah says so” as a legitimate answer.

  • i dont know if it’s more delicate, TM, if you look at the way Lebanon ripped itself apart for years, and may again.

    also, I wasnt seeking to justify anything, just explain it. I think if the refugee problem gets resolved, probably Syria will allow them to stay, but not Lebanon. Note that it was Siniora who demanded that the Arab peace initiative in 2002 include ROR. Kuwait, Arafat blew that one by supporting Saddam, and in Iraq, Palestinians are living in camps again near the Jordanian border.

    Sarah’s right, the Palestinians are like the Jews of the Arab world. I went to a conference once where I was quite impressed by the incredibly visceral hatred Lebanese Christians had for Palestinians. One Xtian group during the civil war that used to massacre them, the Guardians of the Cedars, had as their slogan, “It’s the duty of every Lebanese to kill a Palestinian”

  • That should be interesting, having hundreds of thousands of Palestinians evicted from Lebanon even though almost all of them were born there. Oh wait, didn’t Kuwait evict 300,000 of them and nobody said anything?

    My point, which goes back to ck’s post, is that the double standard against Israel is so glaring that its proponents should be embarrassed.

  • “I dont think Israelies are allowed to criticize others on “basic human rights” when we’re the worst violators of it.”

    Oh yeah, much worse than–China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, etc. etc. etc. Give me a break.

    Here is a brutal statistic for you:

    In 2 1/2 years of Intifada II, the IDF killed about 2,000 Palestinians. As you know, the IDF has some pretty heavy weaponry.

    Fairly recently, one week of communalist (Hindu vs. Muslim) violence in Gujarat, India left 2,000 dead. One week. These people were armed with clubs, knives and their fists. No tanks, no copters, no missiles.

    Think about it.

  • Please, WEV, let’s not call it “intifadah II,” the proper name is “The Palestinian War of 2000.”

  • What were you doing watching “Al Jazeera “?

    All it is is just a terrorist mouthpiece full of lies. A modern day Pravda.

    Why does such propaganda interest you?

  • WHAT??? I just went there because they were showing West Bank Story and I’d never seen it. A modern day Pravda?? Oh my god! Thanks for the heads up Jake – who knows what might have happened had you not warned me. As you can tell from my writing, I am very susceptible to terrorist propaganda.