Farfahinne

The Israeli occupying forces retreated from the South of Lebanon, during the night. People woke up to discover that the Israeli soldiers and their Lebanese collaborators are gone. They directly headed to the Khiam prison and liberated with their hands the prisoners. This video shows these moments that cannot be forgotten, these moments of national pride and sense of victory against the occupation.

In 2006, Israel destroyed totally Khiam prison. This prison remained for years an eyewitness on the Israeli atrocities against militants and civilians. By doing so, Israel wanted to destroy what remains from its heritage. It didn't succeed much. Today Khiam prison was turned into a museum.

Have a look at the photo-reportage about Khiam Detention Camp : Electronic intifada

the statement distributed this morning by the AUB leftists, Palestinian Club, No Fronteirs, Secular Club, Civic Welfare League, Cultural Club of the South, Lebanese Mission Club, Freedom Club, Beirut Heritage Club, Lebanese Heritage Club, independent students, and many other student clubs outside the USFC representation.

A Note from a Deceived Student

“A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.” - Niccolo Machiavelli

Unfortunately our VP seems to agree with the founder of the most deceitful political school, turning the demands of thousands of students into a commodity that he sold under political pressure, selling with it everything the students struggled and risked being expelled for to benefit the relation between his political clan and the university’s Administration.

For the sake of objectivity, we must recognize our VP for his outstanding marketing skills. I presume that all of you have received a Blackberry message, a Facebook message or a flier inviting us to join the “REVOLUTION!”

I was glad to honor that invitation and do whatever it takes to oppose the tuition increase. Ironically, it was the first time when my father was asking me to skip classes. The 15 credits policy will turn my university education a nightmare for him, not to mention whether he would be able to ensure a decent higher education for my two younger siblings.

Feeling that I was contributing to a noble cause, I was proud to boycott my classes on Wednesday, May 19, 2010. : Revolution’s Day 1.

Revolution Day 2: More and more lobbying! There is no turning back right now!

Revolution Day 3: The disaster! Our VP might have learned from higher officials that “entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.” Why don’t we set up a deal with the university’s Administration, trading what thousands of students have protested for?

Mr. VP, thank you for turning us down. Good luck in your political career…

Students Coalition

Despite clear support from other clubs and participants in the strike, the PCC and BDS have decided to withdraw our support and participation from this activity. We intend to continue to fight for equality and accessibility of quality higher education for all people of Lebanon. We urge you to join us, but we also urge you to not to participate in the USFC's exclusionary, unprincipled strike. At 9:00 am today (Friday) we will be distributing a bayyan at Main Gate explaining our reasons behind our withdrawl from this so-called "strike." Please join us, we need your support. We do not take the USFC's actions lightly, and we will not tolerate their irresponsible, ill-mannered and frankly racist behavior against the Palestinian Cultural Club.

this is the Letter that the AUB students sent yesterday night:

join the strike- as many of you might have heard, AUB students are on strike. the university's already exclusivist policy is aiming at making it even harder for the low and middle incomes to access it, while forcing them to depend on loans.

the strike that took place on campus today and the support messages (that were individually read in the conference which graduating students were forced to attend) , along with the unity of the student body is something which didnt happen on this campus for more than 15years now.

this movement being mainly led by independent students, along with the support of the USFC(student council) is also something we are very proud of.

the strike didnt end, and as the administration is not answering our demands of not increasing the tuition fees , we are escalating , day by day, taking back our campus. please support us in all manners, your FB statuses, your blogs, your emails, your discussions with your friends, whoever can write articles and take pictures or post them.

in solidarity,

ميغيل أوربانو: “حيث تكدّس الإمبريالية ترسانتها العسكرية تكون مقاومتها دفاعاً عن الإنسانية جمعاء

Letter from AUB Students

The students chained "down Nicely Hall, West Hall, Bliss Hall and Fisk Hall"

في بلد المقاومة والصمود والتصدي والعزة..... في لبنان....بلد الكرامة والوعد الصادق.... في لبنان تمجّد الذكورية فيسمح للرجل المتزوج من إمرأة اسرائيلية، منحها وأولادها جنسية البلد المقاوم..... في نفس هذا البلد تحرم المرأة اللبنانية من منح الجنسية لأولادها!! تباً لك يا وطني

Naher el Bared camp in the North of Lebanon, will be striking this Thursday 20-5-2010. Schools, shops and associations will be shut downed this Thursday.
20-5-2010 marks the 3rd year on the destruction of the camp on the hand of the Lebanese army and Fateh el Islam group. Till this day the camp was not rebuilt.. And the construction processes is really slow. While UNRWA is suffering from lack of funding and waving that it will stop its aids to the Palestinians, all of that happening while the situation in the camp is worsening. The life quality is deteriorating with more people being impoverished and losing their life resources. This is not all: the Lebanese army is making a real siege on the camp. All the visitors are asked to have a permit issued by the army to be able to access. Even the Palestinians, residents in the camp or not, need to show their permits. People in the camp feel that they live in a real prison.

The strike will mark the 3rd anniversary of Naher el Bared NAKBA.

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, (May 21,22,23) there will be an open sit it in front of the UNRWA in Beirut.

This is the statement issued by the High Reconstruction Follow up committee in Naher el Bared, in Arabic:

سنوات ثلاث مرت على جرح مخيم نهر البارد.... ومازال رهن الانتظار..يلوك المأساة بصمت.. واقع مرير يعيد انتاج النكبة والخيام من جديد وتنامى الشعور العميق بالاضطهاد والحرمان ... هو نداء من جرح مفتوح لمن يسمع...من حناجر يخرج صداها المضمخ بشظف العيش والحرمان في الامكنة المتعددة والمؤجلة والمؤقتة معاً.. كي يصير الوعد حقيقة... تستعاد الحياة الكريمة وتحفظ حق الوجود، بتنفيذ الالتزامات التى تعهدت بها الدول المانحة والاشقاء العرب، وتنفيذ قرارات الحكومة اللبنانية باعادة الاعمار كقضية سياسية بالدرجة الأولى. والتعويض و الاغاثة والنهوض بالحياة الاجتماعية والاقتصادية والمدنية فيه.
يا اهلنا في نهر البارد وكافة المخيمات
تدعوكم لجنة المتابعه الفلسطينية العليا لاعادة اعمار مخيم نهر البارد الى الى إحياء الذكرى الثالثة لكارثة مخيم نهر البارد، للمطالبة بـ:
- اولاً : الدعم المالي لأعادة الاعمار كونه واجب وطني وعربي ودولي.
- ثانياً: مطالبة الحكومة اللبنانية بإنهاء الحالة العسكرية الطارئة التي مازالت قائمة في نهر البارد رغم انتفاء اسباب استمرارها.التسريع باعمار المخيم وتذليل كل العقبات القانونية و البيروقراطية التي تحول دون ذلك.
- ثالثاً: اعلاء صوت ابناء البارد: ان تصريحي ليس هويتي.
- رابعاً: مطالبة الأونروا بتأمين الدعم المالي من أجل الاغاثة والتعويض والطوارئ واعادة الإعمار.
- خامساً: التمسك بالمخيم كشاهد على النكبة ورمز للهوية ومحطة على طريق العودة الى فلسطين.
يا أهلنا في مخيم نهر البارد ندعوكم لتلبية نداء الكرامة والواجب والحق، وما دعت اليه الهيئات الشعبية والفصائل الفلسطينية واللجان الشعبية في الشمال ومؤسسات المجتمع الاهلي المنضوية في اطار هيئة المناصرة. وذلك في وقفة الاعتصام في مخيم نهر البارد وخارجه بدءا من 18 أيار امام مجمع الأونروا في البداوي الى 20 أيار في قلب مخيم البارد قرب بناية جبر وتلبية الدعوة المركزية للجنة المتابعة العليا لاعادة اعمار نهرالبارد للإعتمام والإضراب عن الضعام في خيمة الإعتصام أمام مركز الأونروا الرئيسي في بيروت من صباح يوم 20 ايار الساعة التاسعه صباحا ولمدة ثلاثة أيام .
كما ندعو ابناء مخيم نهر البارد، من هم فيه ومن هم خارجه وحوله، وهيئة التجار واصحاب الابنية المهدمة والمتضرره والى النازحين في البداوي وحوله وفي البراكسات وفي مخيمات بيروت تلبية هذه الدعوة.
كما ندعو أهل مخيماتنا في لبنان الى الاضراب والاعتصام تلبية نداء لجنة المتابعة للجان الشعبية الفلسطينية.
هو يوم البارد الجرح واحد والامل واحد ولتكن الوقفة واحدة.

لجنة المتابعة العليا لاعادة اعمار مخيم نهر البارد
الإثنين: 17/5/2010

updates:
AUB students are on strike agst the tuition increase

nearly 1000 thousand AUB students demonstrating on campus

I received that they managed to lockdown Nicely and several other buildings an hour ago





I was more than pleased to receive the following message from an AUB student activist:

"Dear friends,

You are all most likely aware of the new tuition policy that AUB is adopting next semester. This policy will affect everyone of us. We will not accept any increases in our tuition which is already too high for most people in this country to afford. The Palestinian Cultural Club has been actively collaberating with other AUB student groups and preparing for the strike tomorrow that will begin tomorrow at 8:00am.

Only a UNIFIED STUDENT MOVEMENT can stop this OUTRAGEOUS tuition policy. And for this reason it is of the highest importance that we all stand together and adhere to the UNIFIED STUDENT MOVEMNT'S call to BOYCOTT ALL CLASSES STARTING TOMORROW WEDNESDAY AT 8:00 AM.

There will also be a sit in at Main Gate tomorrow, Wednesday 12:00 pm.

We must all boycott our classes and be present at the sit in in high numbers for the strike to be successful.

SAY NO TO THE NEW TUTION POLICY
JOIN THE STUDENT MOVEMENT
TAKE BACK AUB! "

I don't know what to write.. I don't know what to say. I am speechless and TOTALLY OUTRAGED. I was waiting this day, the day that the court will pronounce its word and bring justice to the Lebanese women. I was saying to myself, that since the judge is a woman herself, she might be more sensitive and feel the misery in which many Lebanese women live, because they are not allowed to transfer their nationality to their children and husbands.. I was convinced that this judge will rule in favor of Samira.. Not only because she's a woman. But because I felt that she was sympathetic with Samira's case when I was at the court watching her reactions to the speech of Samira's lawyer. I discovered that all what i was thinking of were pure illusions and false impressions.
Who's Samira Soueidan and what is her story?
Samira is a Lebanese mother of four young children, who is married to an Egyptian citizen who died years ago. Samira obtained in spring 2009 the right to transfer her nationality to her children. But one year later, an appeal was lodged against the First Instance verdict. The appeal was launched from the Lebanese state (t was appealed by Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar)! The situation became the following: Samira is facing the Lebanese State at the court!
In fact, under the Lebanese law on nationality, a Lebanese wife married to a foreign citizen, cannot transfer her nationality to her children, contrary to the Lebanese husband, whose wife is foreign, is allowed the nationality transfer right to his children.
On Tuesday May 18 2010, the final judgment, denied Samira Soueidan that right "in the name of the Lebanese people".
What happened today should be a lesson to all those who think that the change may come from within this rotten system that happens to combine every bad aspects and illnesses of the modern civilization: sectarianism, racism, segregation against women, poor, workers, Palestinians, Syrians, black, refugees, and immigrants. And especially a lesson to ALL THE LIBERAL FEMINISTS who think that woman will bring justice to another woman.. Just because she is a woman!
The court decision today proved that woman (the judge in this case) can be the enemy of another woman! For all the liberal feminists, it's time to stop your illusions about liberating women through opposing men! What happened today proved that many women act in favor of the system. This system that oppresses women and men... poor women and poor men... who is sectarian... who has racist policies against refugees and foreign workers.. Who’s favoring those who maintain capital (bankers and big investors).. And it's the system that we need to change! Today’s verdict should be a lesson for us. To really relocate the enemy! It’s not the man: it's this rotten system!
The Nationality campaign should take another turn, should think about new strategies. The courts and the lobby of the national assembly are not the places anymore for such struggle. The streets are! We should think about how to create the widest popular movement that supports women in their struggle! in schools, universities, unions and Leftist progressive political parties. This is the only way to get our rights!
Women and Men, Lebanese or not, to the streets!...

FACTS: The Daily Star article's over the issue mentionned today that : "

There are around 18,000 Lebanese women married to non-Lebanese in Lebanon, according to a study by the UN Development Program. Around 80,000 children and husbands are potentially made stateless by the current legislation. Deprived of state protection and recognition, those without citizenship live in a precarious legal vacuum and cannot benefit from state education or health care, work in the formal economy or vote. They are vulnerable to arbitrary detention, have difficulty accessing the legal system and live under constant fear of deportation. Lebanon’s nationality law was formulated in 1925, at a time when Beirut was under French mandatory rule".