For an immediate and unconditional cease-fire



International appeal



Today, July 30th, another massacre was committed in Lebanon: More than

sixty civilians, among them 37 children, were killed by Israeli bombs

while they were sleeping in shelters in the village of Qana. They died

not very far away from the mass grave holding the bodies of 106

civilians burned by a previous Israeli attack in April 1996 inside a

shelter provided by a UN battalion



Reacting to this terrible news, the only sane decision that needs to

be made immediately is that of a ceasefire.



A ceasefire would allow for humanitarian relief to reach the innocent

victims, for the bodies to be buried instead of being eaten by the

dogs, and for all the underlying problems to be negotiated and

eventually solved. More victims can only produce more hatred.



In the last few days, Lebanon has been promised by the EU, the UK and

the US help in rebuilding its infrastructure and humanitarian aid to

assist the eight hundred thousand internally displaced persons and

"humanitarian corridors", but they stopped short of demanding a

ceasefire, which encouraged Israel to continue with its "mission" of

unilaterally enforcing the resolution to disarm Hezbollah. With that

same logic, Hezbollah could argue it has a mission to enforce the many

UN Security Council resolutions demanding Israel to withdraw from the

occupied Palestinian territories and to implement the right of return

of the Palestinian refugees.



On July 27, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that Israel had

given civilians ample time to leave southern Lebanon. "All those now

in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to

Hezbollah," he said, according to the BBC. The same strategy is in

these days deployed in the Gaza Strip where the populations of

neighborhoods and refugee camps are asked to leave their homes. This

comes down to blatant collective punishment of entire populations.



The escalating violence in Lebanon can not be solved unilaterally with

self-proclaimed righteousness by any party. Peace is negotiated

between enemies, not with friends. And the first step to any

negotiation is a ceasefire. Or is it that every child has to die so

that they do not grow into "terrorists"?



A year ago, the UK Prime Minister championed the cause of including in

the UN mandate the "responsibility to protect populations from

genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity".

Yet the UN, the European Union, The United States and the United

Kingdom have failed in their responsibility to protect the Lebanese

and Palestinian children. Or even to clearly condemn the latest

Israeli criminal acts.



The international civil society and social movements are raising their

voice and mobilizing throughout the world not only to express their

indefectible solidarity with the Lebanese people, but also to build a

huge international barrier against the global war of re-colonization

of the world.

We are demanding

An immediate and unconditional cease-fire, in Lebanon as well as in

the Palestinian Occupied Territories!

The implementation of full sovereignty to Lebanon and the national

rights of the Palestinian people!

No NATO forces on the Lebanese territory!

We support the call of the international solidarity delegation in

Lebanon for an international day of protest and solidarity on August

12th.