"This is the third day of mass actions shaking the city. The day before yesterday 3,000 students marched to the U.S. embassy. Today we marched to the CNN offices. People are very angry!" said Bekdash, a member of the organizing committee for the marches, in a phone interview February 19.

"We have targeted the U.S. embassy and CNN because we hold the American government responsible for the destruction caused by the Israelis," he said. Three electric power plants were destroyed, plunging more than half the country into darkness. Twenty Lebanese were wounded by Israeli air raids February 8.

The raids were in retaliation for seven Israeli soldiers being killed in ambushes in Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon, carried out by Lebanese fighters for national sovereignty organized by the political party Hezbollah.

Israeli foreign minister David Levy has threatened to "set the soil of Lebanon on fire." Israeli forces have occupied parts of south Lebanon for more than 20 years. In 1982, a massive Zionist invasion made its way to Beirut and entered the capital, opening the way for the massacre of several thousand Palestinian and Lebanese toilers.

"The U.S. government had the arrogance to blame the resistance fighters for these bombings," said Bekdash. "That is why we are demanding the expulsion of the U.S. ambassador from Lebanon. Our protests are also a clear sign of solidarity with the resistance fighters in the south. We are all demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Lebanon."

The protest marches were initiated by student associations from the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese University, and other universities. They were joined by the General Confederation of Lebanese Trade Unions as well as by Hezbollah, Progressive Socialist Party, Communist Party, People's Movement, and the Association for the Fulfillment of Land and Humanity. Some banners carried by the marchers proclaimed in Hebrew, "This land is ours."

Protests at both the U.S. embassy and at the CNN offices were attacked by units of the riot police, who beat a number of demonstrators, sending 40 to the hospital with broken limbs. Many police units refused to charge the demonstrators, Bekdash said, showing "how unpopular the Israeli occupation is."

Reflecting the popular pressure, Lebanese prime minister Salim Hoss met with the demonstrators and told them, "We are all the resistance."

Likewise, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak saw it necessary to carry out a surprise visit to Lebanon February 19, the first by an Egyptian president. A joint communiqué issued by Mubarak and Lebanese president Emile Lahoud expresses support for the right of the Hezbollah guerrillas to fight the Israeli occupation, stating, "The resistance is a result, not a cause, of the occupation."

Meanwhile, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Washington is starting to back off from its initial support to the bombings, with its ambassador telling Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak that continued attacks on Lebanese villages could harm the peace process.

Tel Aviv's continued war and occupation in Lebanon is increasingly unpopular among working people in and out of uniform in Israel itself. According to the Washington Post, a current poll found 57 percent want Israel out of Lebanon now.

The same article quotes several Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. One said he is "no longer ashamed to say we are afraid. Every one of us understands we can die at any moment." Another soldier said, "There are too many losses. Every day is more difficult," while yet another is quoted, "You have to understand. We will not win this war." CNN World News reported February 20 that protests have been set up by the group 4 Mothers at the Israeli prime minister's office demanding the withdrawal of the troops.

Barak has promised to withdraw from Lebanon by July of this year.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home