Lebanon Videos & Lebanon News: Geography Videos // Current

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2 days ago

US Green Party Presidential Nominee spent 4th of July in Israeli Prison

Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney returned home today after 6 days being held by the government of Israel while attempting with 21 colleagues to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza on the vessel, the Spirit of Humanity.

“Don’t sign Miss Cynthia don’t sign!” So chanted a boisterous group of Palestinian teens and pre-teens in Beirut’s Shatila Refugee Camp demonstrating support for the Freegaza Humanity boat abductees on the 4th of July.

The students understood that those illegally arrested while in International waters had been offered a “get out of Jail Free” pass if they confessed in writing to violating Israel’s territorial waters.

The Spirit of Humanity boat, trying to bring emergency humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, was the topic of a lively discussion during a Sabra Shatila Foundation summer school civics lesson on “International law and the Question of Palestine”. The students were interested in the plight of some of their relatives and countryman in Palestine and the continuing siege of Gaza. Some had just finished their Baccalaureate exams and were wondering how they could continue their education given the severe impediments the government of Lebanon places on Palestinian civil rights, and their post exam relief seemed to energize them for the discussion.

A couple of the students had met Cynthia during her recent visits to Lebanon. When they learned that as a Congresswoman, she had introduced articles of impeachment against Bush, was a consistent anti-war voter during her twelve years in Congress, and that no member in Congress had achieved a more consistent, principled, voting record of issues of civil and human rights, including Palestinian rights, they really connected with the subject of the Freegaza aid boat, the Spirit of Humanity and her travails. “Those supporters of Palestine should not accept a false confession and should stay in Jail if necessary. They are patriots” was a commonly expressed sentiment.

The students understood that in refusing to sign the Israeli government prepared “acknowledgement/confession” the Freegaza group acted consistent with International Law. They learned that territorial waters, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is a belt of coastal waters extending at most twelve nautical miles from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it. They learned from media reports that in any case the Humanity was in International waters and that consequently Israel had no right to molest it.

The class adjourned sharing a general consensus that the Spirit of Humanity, enjoyed and will continue to enjoy on every subsequent humanitarian voyage, these freedoms as well as other internationally lawful uses of the sea within contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones, and on the high seas. Needless to report, were it possible for them, the whole class would like to be on the next Freegaza boat.Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney returned home today after 6 days being held by the government of Israel while attempting... more

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26 days ago

Carter in Lebanon

Carter in Lebanon By FRANKLIN LAMB The Former President Finally Met the Ayatollah the CIA Once Tried to Kill.... more

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27 days ago

Israeli War Crimes Against Children

Israeli War Crimes Against Children During Operation Cast Lead By Stephen Lendman... more

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1 month ago

Pro-Western Bloc defeats Hezbollah in Lebanon vote

A pro-western coalition has defeated Hezbollah in a crucial Lebanese election. The pro-western alliance, known as the March 14... more

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1 month ago

What about a Hezbollah victory in Lebanon? - slide show

Today, Lebanese are streaming into polling stations to cast their votes. President Jimmy Carter was seen on the Lebanon streets,... more

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1 month ago

War is Sin

War Is Sin By Chris Hedges War exposes the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves. It rips open the hypocrisy of our... more

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1 month ago

Lebanon and the Hariri murder: all roads lead to Hezbollah

Der Spiegel has learned from sources close to the Court and verified by the examination of internal documents, that the Hariri... more

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1 month ago

Biden in Lebanon ahead of key elections

Vice President Joe Biden came to Lebanon on Friday to reinforce U.S. support for the government ahead of key parliamentary... more

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2 months ago

Lebanese scrap kissing in fear of swine flu

Nevermind the fact that no one in Lebanon has been diagnosed with swine flu, or that only one person outside of Mexico has died... more

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2 months ago

Clinton: "Open and fair elections" For Lebanon

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Lebanon on Sunday to pledge U.S. support for the... more

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2 months ago

Clinton begins visit to Lebanon at a sensitive time

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in Beirut for talks with the Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. She will... more

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3 months ago

Sois Belle et Vote (Be Beautiful and Vote)

From youtube.com This ad from Lebanon was created by Free Patriotic Movement and it suppose to attract women voters. What do... more

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3 months ago

Save the St-Basil Convent in Beirut, Lebanon

The St-Basil Convent in Beirut, Lebanon is one of the last remaining Christian convents in Beirut, Lebanon that has not been sold... more

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3 months ago

International Tribunal Registrar Robin Vincent Resigns

In an unexpected move, Special Tribunal for Lebanon Registrar Robin Vincent has resigned. (Source Link:... more

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3 months ago

Lebanese Women - The Struggle for Equal Nationality Rights

CNN's Video Report {Copy & Paste}:... more

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3 months ago

Prisoners Play Jurors in a Land of the Guilty

"In a darkened concrete room the size of a large Manhattan loft, some 200 people sit jammed together on bleachers looking at a long table and 12 empty chairs under a spotlight. They've just heard a small band in the room's corner belt out a lament in Arabic with the chorus "oh my country, my country." There's no heating in the cold, bare space, but the powerfully built lute player with waist-long hair wears only a cotton undershirt over bristling muscles and tattoos. He sports delicately plucked eyebrows. A smallish man in suit and tie appears under the spotlight inches from the audience. He addresses the bleachers: "I hugged my mother for the first time in 18 years today. We're not allowed physical contact during normal visits. Until I joined this project, I had no friends, no hope. Since age 17, I'm serving a life sentence for murder . . . " As he talks, the chairs begin to fill with men of all ages in suits and ties, two Egyptians, an Algerian, a Nigerian who speaks only English, but most are Lebanese.

At Roumieh, Lebanon's biggest penitentiary, in the mountains above Beirut, something unprecedented in the history of the country is happening. Every Sunday for four months, inmates from the all-male prison are performing a play (interspersed with their own music and personal testimonials). What's more, they're doing it in front of an audience from outside, many of them women. The play's director is a woman from outside, a noninmate. They are performing an Arabic version of Reginald Rose's "12 Angry Men," originally an American TV drama and then a famous 1957 movie, in which the characters are sequestered jurors who argue bitterly over a murder case and, after much kicking and screaming, find the defendant not guilty.

According to the director, Zayna Daccache, an energetic 30-something actress famous in Lebanon for starring in a weekly political satire show on television, "prison inmates don't have rights the way they do in the West -- in the Middle East, this kind of thing doesn't happen. But as you know, Lebanon is a crazy, contradictory place. On the one hand, it's the most open and enlightened of the Arab countries; on the other hand, it's one of the most divided and troubled."

Ms. Daccache had come up with the idea because she had worked, some years before, with an Italian director putting on Brecht plays in Italian prisons. It took Lebanese authorities eight months just to agree in principle. She had applied in tandem with her friend Ghassan Moukheiber, member of Parliament for Jounieh and founder of a nongovernmental group that works for judicial reform. His political clout won over the authorities. Then it took Ms. Daccache a year of work in the prison to put on the play.""In a darkened concrete room the size of a large Manhattan loft, some 200 people sit jammed together on bleachers looking at... more