Qana `stronger` on anniversary of "Israeli" attack

Qana `stronger` on anniversary of "Israeli" attack
Irish citizens attend commemoration to denounce what they say was lebanon`s bloody Sunday
Source: Daily Star, 30-7-2007
By Hani M. Bathish
QANA, SOUTH LEBANON: Along the road of remembered indignities, Qana is a somber milestone, but one that nonetheless fuels the resolve and drive of the people of the South to hold on to their lands, despite repeated "Israeli" attacks. The "Israeli"s "don`t know us yet," said Mohammad Chalhoub. "Death does not make us retreat - it only adds to our resolve. Our will today is stronger." Chalhoub, who lost his sister, brother and daughter on July 30 last year in what is often referred to as the second Qana massacre, has been confined to a wheelchair since then.
Clad in black, Chalhoub`s eyes watered slightly when he spoke of his family. "It was a day like today: we went to sleep, we were all together. Then, after midnight, just before the dawn they were all gone suddenly, young and old," he said.
Hizbullah organized a memorial ceremony on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the attack. Amal MP Abdel Majid Saleh and resigned Energy Minister Mohammad Fneish delivered speeches at the event as the families of the 27 civilians who died there a year ago sat quietly by the gravesides of their relatives.
Gray marble slabs inscribed in Arabic with the names of the victims were covered with flowers, while yellow Hizbullah flags and banners hung from the tent that covered the memorial site. The pictures of the 27 dead, mostly children, stared back at onlookers.
It was at dawn on July 30 last year, a Sunday, when 48 members from the Hashem and Chalhoub families gathered in the underground parking garage of their three-storey building to seek shelter from the "Israeli" bombing. Mohammad Chalhoub was with his family in that underground space, which he said was no bigger than 10 by five meters.
"Of course our feelings are of sadness and loss, but we stress that this sadness and tragedy does not make us give up or lose hope. "Israel"`s intention is for us to lose hope, but this [attack] only adds to our determination," Chalhoub said.
In the bombing Ahmad Hashem lost his elderly father, wife and three sons aged 12, eight and two, as well as six other relatives, 11 in all. His brother, a member of the resistance, also died in Qana during the summer 2006 war.
"A whole family is gone. The house is so empty now. Only my 13-year-old daughter and I remain. I feel like I live in an abandoned house," Hashem said.
Calm and somber, Hashem shows the quiet resolve of a man determined not to let the blood of his family have been spilled in vain. "Whatever the enemy does, we are steadfast," Hashem said.
"We support the resistance now more than we did before. We are ready to give them all the help we can," Hashem said.
The deaths of so many people and so many children all at once has had a devastating impact on those left behind, but anger at the attack and a desire to avenge the martyrs has taken over from feelings of loss and helplessness. "We were civilians once ... but this attack gave us more resolve and more courage," Hashem said.
Mahmoud Chalhoub, who was in Beirut during the war, lost his brother Hassan in the Qana attack. "Our feelings today are those of victory. Hopefully we will have a country that enjoys peace and security after "Israel" is wiped out," Chalhoub said.
Bloody Sunday, a term that could describe the Qana attack, is more commonly used to refer to the January 30, 1972, massacre of 14 civil-rights protestors in Derry in Northern Ireland by British troops. This link is one that the Bloody Sunday Trust wished to highlight as it showed solidarity with the people of Qana on the macabre anniversary in the face what the trust`s chairman called "US and "Israeli" aggression."
In 1972, 26 civil-rights protesters were shot by members of the 1st Battalion of the British Parachute Regiment led by Lieutenant Colonel Derek Wilford and his second-in-command Captain (later General and British Army commander) Mike Jackson.
Fourteen people, six of them children, died in Derry. Two protesters were injured when they were run down by army vehicles. Many witnesses, including bystanders and journalists, have testified that all those shot were unarmed. Five of those wounded were shot in the back.
"After the bombing of Qana in 2006, a group of us occupied a local factory in Derry owned by [US arms manufacturer] Raytheon, which made the bomb that was sold to the US and later sold to "Israel", which dropped it on Qana," said the trust`s chairman, Eamonn McCann, who was in Qana on Sunday to mark the first anniversary.
"At this moment in Derry we have 27 people outside the municipality holding up the pictures of those who died in Qana. We want to drive Raytheon out of Derry for what they did in Qana," McCann said. The group responded with the outrage many in Lebanon expected of the whole world, storming the Raytheon factory, smashing their computers and halting production, although only for a little while. The assailants were arrested and are awaiting trial.
"We will present Qana with a memorial stone on which we have inscribed a poem to remember both Derry and Qana," McCann said, adding that the trust wished to make a connection between the terrorism of British soldiers in Derry and that of the United States and "Israel" in Lebanon.
"The poem reads: Qana Derry, the dead lie in strange shapes, no one who yearns for justice is a stranger, no one who dies for justice is forgotten, Derry Qana, the miracle is love, one word one struggle," McCann said, adding that he hoped the slab of rock would be allowed through Lebanese customs.
Abbas Ismail, a resident of nearby Ain Baan, also paid his respects to the fallen martyrs of Qana on Sunday.
"We have pride in our victory, despite all that "Israel" did to us. The more massacres they carry out, the stronger we become," Ismail said.