BY JEAN-LUC DUVAL AND MARK GILSDORF

DEARBORN, Michigan - Chanting "Israel out of Lebanon Now!" and "Down, down Israel! Free, free Lebanon!" 7,000 people demonstrated here against Israel's renewed attacks against Lebanon.

The April 21 demonstration, bristling with large Lebanese flags and picket signs denouncing the Israeli aggression, began with a march on the east side of this suburb of Detroit.

Among the most vocal demonstrators were groups of high school and college women of Lebanese origin, some wearing the traditional Muslim head scarf. They were in the forefront of the march leading the chants, one of the most popular of which was, "Death, death to Israel! Free Lebanon Now!" Many of the youth chanted in Arabic, "In our blood, in our heart, we'll sacrifice our lives for south Lebanon!"

"I didn't support Hezbollah before. But now I do," one protester commented, expressing the sentiment of many at the march.

Dearborn and the surrounding metropolitan Detroit area is home to the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the United States, including one of the biggest populations of Lebanese descent outside of Lebanon. Almost daily protests have broken out in response to the renewed aggression by Tel Aviv.

Lebanese youth, many of whom have lived through the war in Lebanon and lost relatives to Israeli bombs, have been in the forefront of these actions. At Fordson High School 250 students walked out of class April 17, according to Zeina Baydoun, one of the organizers of the action. They then marched to City Hall for a rally.

A similar walkout was planned for Edsel Ford High School, but when administrators got wind of it they prevented students from leaving the building. So the students had the rally on school grounds.

On the evening of April 19 about 150 people gathered for a candlelight vigil and speakout at Henry Ford Community College organized by the Michigan Arab Student Coalition and students from that campus.

On the streets of Dearborn the level of support can be seen by the many Lebanese flags that have appeared in the windows of grocery stores, meat markets, and other small businesses, as well as signs such as "Stop Israeli terrorism in the Middle East!"

Mark Gilsdorf is a member of the United Steelworkers of America.

BY MARNIE KENNEDY AND RON POULSEN

SYDNEY, Australia - Five thousand demonstrators, mainly of Lebanese origin, marched here April 20 to demand an end to Israel's terror against the people of Lebanon. Called by the newly formed Australian-Lebanese Solidarity Committee for Lebanon, the demonstration was largely built by word of mouth in a few days.

The march was led by a banner demanding, "Stop the holocaust against the Lebanese people!" Hundreds of other signs were brought, including a huge placard entitled "American Peace" that depicted a figure holding a dove in one hand and a bomb behind its back.

Rows of women joined the march, some pushing baby carriages up to 10 in a row. Young people, many of them high school age, marched together leading the chants.

One group of young men insisted they be interviewed by a passing TV crew. Koder Jomaa told them their demand was, "Get Israel out of Lebanon."

"It's not a holy war. It's a war for land," he said.

Nick Rodintsis, originally from Greece, said he was outraged by the Sydney Morning Herald's front page, which highlighted the killing of 18 Greek tourists by an antigovernment group in Cairo, Egypt, while news of Tel Aviv's slaughter of 100 Lebanese civilians in a United Nations compound was given little prominence.

Mohammed Zarqa, a Palestinian marcher, said, "Palestine is now like a volcano. Palestinians don't have guns; Israel has everything but Israel can't win."

Marnie Kennedy and Ron Poulsen are members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union.

BY CANDACE WAGNER

WASHINGTON, D.C. - "One, two, three, four - we don't want your bloody war," chanted 1,000 people in front of the White House April 21, protesting Washington's support for the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

The crowd included many Lebanese-Americans, as well as Palestinians and other Arab-Americans. There was a small participation of other nationalities.

Three students at Montgomery County Community College in Maryland came to the action together. One is from Lebanon, one from Palestine, and another from the Philippines. The Lebanese student said that he was "100 percent behind Hezbollah" until they could drive Israeli forces out of southern Lebanon. Ricky Loyola from the Philippines said he was upset that the U.S. media called Hezbollah's actions "terrorist" while calling the Israeli military's massacre of women and children "a mistake."

Albert Mokhiber, vice chair of the board of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), spoke, demanding an end to all U.S. aid to the government of Israel. He appealed to those present to donate to organizations helping refugees in Lebanon and to make blood donations. "Every night we will be picketing at the Israeli embassy," he announced to the cheers of the crowd.

The protest was organized by the ADC, which held its national convention in Washington over the weekend. The 500 conference participants came from many cities across the United States and Canada. The three-day meeting was marked by the dramatic events in Lebanon of the previous week.

A panel entitled "Rebuilding Lebanon: Country and Society" produced a lively discussion. The talk by Hala Maksoud, a Lebanese professor at George Mason University in Virginia, was by far the best received.

"How can we be but angry," she asked, "when we see many Arab leaders and Arab apologists accepting the distorted Israeli logic and blaming Hezbollah for providing Israel with the excuse to launch this campaign? We Lebanese know better. We know most of all that resistance to occupation is a legal act sanctioned by international law, whether it is carried out by Hezbollah or any other party. They blame Iran and Syria for funding and arming Hezbollah. It is because they cannot believe that this resistance is indigenous, home-grown, the natural result of occupation."

Some 700 people gathered here for another protest April 23, including several busloads from Detroit.

Candace Wagner is a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 27.

Hundreds have turned out for protests in other cities across the United States and Canada. Some 150 people turned out April 18 for a demonstration in Toronto called on a few days' notice by the Canadian Arab Federation. One hundred rallied outside the Israeli consulate in Chicago two days earlier.

Seventy-five demonstrated in downtown San Francisco April 22, including many members of Arab student organizations. The General Union of Palestinian Students, the Arab Student Association, and others called for further protests in the Bay Area April 25.

In Boston, 400 people participated in an April 23 protest at Harvard Square, and 50 turned out for a rally in New York the next day.  
 
 
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