Emma Brown, Melbourne

On July 18, 65 people who attended a public meeting organised by the Victorian Peace Network heard a firsthand account of recent events in Lebanon and Palestine from Dr Bernard Sabella, a recently elected Fatah member of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Sabella, who has worked with refugees in Gaza, the West Bank, Galilee, Jordan and Lebanon, slammed the Israeli government’s military attacks on Palestine and Lebanon, and pointed out that the Palestinian Authority, backed by Fatah, was ready to negotiate with Israel, but would not succumb to strong-arm tactics.

Arguing for Palestine’s right to self-determination, Sabella asserted that this was not a religious war, but a matter of occupancy and civil rights.

Despite the blockade and bomb-and-destroy tactics employed by the Israeli military, Palestine and Lebanon will not be beaten into submission by this arrogance of power, Sabella argued. He added that the civil wars between Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon and the respective local populations that Israel is trying to initiate will not occur. Rather, there will be an increase in retaliatory attacks on Israel and the possibility that other countries will ally themselves with the oppressed peoples of Palestine and Lebanon.

From Green Left Weekly, July 26, 2006.
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