2006/07/16
A Call upon the International and Regional Communities
Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND)
Say STOP to Israeli War on Lebanon
Lebanon has been under a war attack by Israel for the fifth day
since Wednesday the 12th of July 2006. The situation has been
deteriorating and the military attacks have been escalating.
Israeli aggression against Lebanon went far beyond a reaction to a military
operation targeting its soldiers. The capture of Israeli soldiers is serving as
a mere pretext for a major offensive attack by Israel on the aspirations and the
morale of the Lebanese people, as is the case with the Palestinian people
through the continuous attacks on Gaza. Israeli army is targeting Lebanese
civilians and civil infrastructure. The Israeli aggression against Lebanon can
be described as a collective punishment against all the Lebanese people. More
than 100 victims and thousands of injured inhabitants is the result of the first
four days of the attack. In addition to human losses, three airports were
targeted and all the coastal ports and transport and communications
infrastructure including wheat elevators, bridges, and power stations have been
bombed and rendered unusable.
Moreover, Israeli army was given the political encouragement and green light
from the newly elected Israeli prime Minster and his government to
systematically siege the Lebanese people and fragment Lebanese villages, towns,
and cities into isolated areas. ANND condemns Israeli military aggression
against civilians which is a direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention
that prohibits the attacks on the civilian infrastructure.
From an alive, peaceful, and secure country, Lebanon became a shattered country
not able to protect its citizens and cities. Lebanon is in an urgent need for
relief support and solidarity in order to face the challenges related to
displacement and injuries, in addition to the reconstruction plan of the
destructions resulting form the Israeli aggression.
The Arab NGO Network for Development calls upon the international community to
immediately intervene in order to protect civilians and to end Israeli
aggression against Lebanon. ANND joins the call of the Lebanese prime minister
to an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire under the support of a strong UN
Peacekeeping Mission supervision.
We call upon the international community to condemn the Israeli attack as “state
terrorism”. The targeting of civilians and deliberate creation of terror is
terrorism. We need a clear and wide affirmation from the international community
that human life is precious irrespective of nationality or religion. The right
to life and security is above any other consideration.
We call upon all concerned civil society organizations around the world to voice
out their refusal for the current attack on Lebanon and the ineffective role of
the United Nations whether at the level of Security Council or at the level of
their peacekeeping troops on the grounds which are failing to protect the
threatened civilians from the massacres resulting from Israeli attacks on
Lebanon.
We call upon Arab civil society groups to mobilize on a regional and
international level; to push their governments and their country missions at the
United Nations in New York to take action whether through diplomatic channels or
the United Nations channels to stop the brutal Israeli military attacks on
Lebanon. We ask them to push their governments to call for a General Assembly of
the United Nations, which have the right in the case of failure of the Security
Council, to take action against military attacks on any country.
We believe that the people around the world, who believe in human rights and the
right to life and security, have a big role to say NO against such an
unexplainable attack on Lebanon. We call upon them to take their refusal to the
streets, to voice their refusal to such fierce and brutal aggression over
Lebanon.
We depend on you.
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