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. SIGNATORIES ORGANIZATIONS 1 IBASE, Brasil, Cândido Grzybowski member of WSF International Council
2 International Alliance of Inhabitants, Cesare Ottolini, coordinator
3 Habitat International Coalition (HIC)
4 Ubuntu Forum Secretariat, Josep Xercavins, Coordinadtor
5 Third World Network, Martin Khor - Director
6 Le Monde Diplomatique, Bernard Cassen, journaliste et directeur général
7 Coordinación de Mujeres del Paraguay, Clide Soto, Carmen Vallejo, Carolina Thide
8 Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Anriette Esterhuysen - Executive Director
9 Social Watch, Roberto Bissio, International secretariat
10 Social Development Network, Edward Oyugi, Executive Director/ Kenya
11 Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT), Brasil
12 Articulacion Feminista Marcosur (South America), Virginia Vargas, Lilián Celiberti, Line Bareiro, Carla Batista, Guacira de Oliveira, Yuma Schumager
13 ATTAC - Brasil, Antonio Martins, member of WSF International Council
14 Attac Vlaanderen (Belgium), Francine Mestrum
15 Jubilee South, Vinod Raina
16 WSF Karachi Organising Coommittee, Karamat Ali
17 Pakistan Peace Coalition
18 REMTE (Latinoamerican Network of Women Transforming the Economy / Red Latinoamericana Mujeres Transformando la Economia), Magdalena Leon T.
19 Network for Social Justice and Human Rights (Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos), Maria Luisa Mendonça, Brazil
20 ALAI (Agencia Latinoamericana de Información), Sally Burch
21 Alternatives Internationales, Gustave Massiah
22 All India Peoples Science Network, Amit Sen Gupta
23 Focus on the Global South, Walden Bello
24 Istituto Paulo Freire, Isabel Pato
25 Network Institute for Global Democratization (NIGD), Dr. Teivo Teivainen
26 Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO), Emilio Taddei
27 Lebanese women council
28 ABONG (Brazilian Association of NGOs), Carolina Gil
29 Red Afrolatino-americana e Afro-Caribenha de Mujeres, Nilza Iraci
30 Geledés - Instituto da Mulher Negra/ Brazil
31 Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN)
32 Campaign against fundamentalisms, Lucy Garrido, Cecilia Olea
33 Bahrain Center for Studies and Research, Mohamad Noman Jalal
34 FASE, Fátima Mello Director/Brazil
35 Cotidiano Mujer/ Uruguay, Elena Fonseca, Elena Bitencur, Ana Cristina González, Adriana Fontán
36 LGBT South-South Dialogue
37 Red Nacional Género y Economía, México, Leonor Aida Concha
38 Observatorio da Cidadania- Brasil, Fernanda Carvalho
39 Action for Economic Reforms, Men Sta. Ana
40 Red de Educación Popular Entre Mujeres de América Latina y el Caribe (REPEM), Ximena Machicao
41 Internatinal Council for Adult Education - ICAE
42 Third World Network (TWN) - Africa
43 Espaces Marx / Transform!, Elizabeth Gautier
44 Encuentros Hemisféricos contra el ALCA
45 Convergencia de los Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Américas (COMPA)
46 Centro Memorial Dr.Martin Luther King,jr, Habana, Cuba
47 FAMES (Forum des Femmes Africaines pour un monde de l'Economie Solidaire) Senegal
48 Grassroots Global Justice, USA
49 Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC), National Coordinator Cheri Honkala, USA
50 ARCI - Italian Working Group for World Social Forum, Raffaella Bolini
51 Instituto del Tercer Mundo (ITeM) - Clara Píriz, Presidenta 52 Global Policy Forum Europe, Jens Martens INDIVIDUALS 1 Hans von Sponeck, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq (1998-2000)
2 Noam Chomsky
3 Karine Lacasse, Alternative, Canada
4 Graciela Rodriguez/EQUIT Coordinator and IGTN Global Coordinator
5 Atila Roque/Brazil INESC
6 Chikako Nishiguchi/Japan
7 Valeria Bismar
8 Illena rivera/Venezuela
9 Jean Kasaparbauer/US citizen, Caucasian-German
10 Hadi Bismar/Lebanese Canadian
11 Eva Friedlander /United States
12 Jean Marie Kraemer/Lebanon
13 Rafic Baddoura/medical doctor
15 Leila Sharaf/Jordanian senate
16 Shirley Walters/Cape Town- South Africa
17 Yvonne Underhill-Sem, Cook- Islands/New Zealand
18 Lea Maria/journalist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
19 Jorge Beloqui/Maths Professor at the University of São Paulo
20 Chola Mtonga/Zambia
21 Professor Vijay Naidu/Director, Development Studies-Institute of
Geography-School of Earth-Sciences-Victoria University-Wellington
22 Mariama Williams/Jamaica
23 Noji Matutu/Johannesburg -South Africa
24 Charaf Ahmimed/IDRC-Canada
25 Elsa Duhagon/ Uruguay
26 Magela Sigillito, Uruguay
27 Pablo Accuosto/ Uruguay
28 Amanda Soares de Brito/ Brasil
29 Minar Pimple, MDG campaign
30 Sunie Arima/Action Aid International