Brital man wanted for burglary arrested: Army
The Lebanese Army arrested a man wanted in connection with several armed robberies in the Bekaa Valley town of Brital,...
Sunday, 7 December 2014
Qatar ends mediation of Lebanon’s hostage crisis
BEIRUT: Qatar ended its mediation of Lebanon’s hostage crisis Sunday after the killing of Lebanese policeman Ali Bazzal, as the Lebanese government struggled to contain the fallout of the murder and anger mounted among the families of the 25 remaining captives.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it had launched the mediation efforts upon the request of Lebanon, and for strictly humanitarian reasons. But it said it was putting an end to its mediation after its effort to resolve the crisis failed.
Qatar said it regreted the killing of Bazzal and it renewed its commitment to exert all diplomatic efforts to save lives.
During condolences in the eastern village of Bazzalieh – Bazzal’s hometown – members of the families made speeches accusing the Lebanese government of inaction and negligence.
The “sluggish” performance of the committee – made up of ministers and security officials – tasked with overseeing the hostages file, also drew the criticism of Speaker Nabih Berri Sunday. Berri told his visitors that the involvement of multiple intermediaries at once made the issue even more complicated and he called on the appointment of a single security figure to take charge of the file.
“They [the government] need to agree on one security figure [and task him] with overseeing the file in coordination with the government. A specialized [security] expert needs to deal with that file,” Berri said. “We have a lot of strong [bargaining chips] that we have yet to use.”
A concise statement, issued after an emergency meeting of the crisis cell Saturday evening, said the committee took “necessary decisions” and reiterated that the government and the Lebanese were united in the fight to release the abducted servicemen and safeguard Lebanon’s security.
The Nusra Front announced that it had executed Bazzal late Friday in a tweet with a picture of a man said to be of the captive with a machine gun firing shots at his head.
“Our revenge will not be [taken] against Arsal,” one of the parents said during a news conference from Bazzalieh, in reference to the northeastern border village from where the captives were abducted by jihadis in August.
“Our revenge will be taken against the Grand Serail,” he added, in reference to the headquarters of the Lebanese government.
“You have never known courage,” one parent said, addressing Prime Minister Tammam Salam, calling on him to act quickly to free the 25 remaining captives.
Some of the families in north Lebanon blocked for a second day the Qalamoun road in north Lebanon linking Tripoli to Beirut, but they reopened it Sunday evening.
The families had closed the Qalamoun road and the highway linking Downtown Beirut to the capital’s port – a main artery – after news emerged of Bazzal’s killing late Friday, bringing traffic to a standstill across the capital. The families have been camped outside the Grand Serail in Downtown Beirut over the last two months to pressure the government to negotiate the release of the servicemen.
More than 30 policemen and soldiers were abducted by militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front during a five-day battle with the Army in Arsal in August. Four have since been executed, and seven released.
Residents of the village of Bazzalieh also issued a warning overnight Saturday to all Syrians residing in areas surrounding the town, calling on refugees to immediately evacuate the area. Tensions between refugees and Lebanese host communities heightened after the Bazzalieh residents vowed to prevent aid from reaching Syrian refugees.
Bazzal’s family described Syrians living in Arsal, in the northeastern region bordering Syria, as “a bunch of terrorists, takfiris and not refugees, and that was evident when they attacked the Army in Arsal.”
“We will not allow any international or local organization to transport aid to these terrorists ... and anyone who blocks a road in solidarity with them will be supporting terrorists.”
Hours after the Nusra Front announced in a tweet that it had executed Bazzal, residents of Bazzalieh kidnapped three men near the town.
The kidnappers shot and wounded a Syrian man who accompanied the three. He was transferred to a Baalbek hospital.
The three have since been released, thanks to efforts by Speaker Berri, he revealed to his visitors. “I have contributed to the release of the three men, but the [kidnappers] have yet to deliver to us the bodies of any of the servicemen they killed,” he said.
Assailants set fire to Syrian refugee tents in northern Lebanon Sunday, hours after gunmen shot dead a Syrian child and wounded a man in the northeast.
Early Sunday, unidentified gunmen opened fire on Syrian refugee tents in the northeastern town of Ras Baalbek, a security source said. He said one Syrian child was killed and a Syrian man wounded in the attack.
Syrian refugee tents were also burned in the village of Mashha in Akkar early Saturday, after a statement was issued by local residents demanding Syrians leave the village. No casualties were registered.
In a statement issued on its Twitter account, the Nusra Front vowed to kill more servicemen if Lebanese authorities fail to release the women and children it had arrested on suspicion of links with jihadi groups.
Saja al-Dulaimi, the ex-wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and their daughter and two sons are being detained by Lebanese authorities. Also in custody are Ola Mithqal al-Oqaily, the wife of ISIS commander Anas Sharkas and her two children, a 4-year-old and a 6-month-old.
The Muslim Scholars Committee, a gathering of Salafist sheikhs, issued a proposal over the weekend, titled “The Dignity and Safety Initiative.” It calls for the release of the detained women in return for the freeing of the 25 servicemen.
The sheikhs also called on the government to approve a swap deal.
“Swapping the captives for the detained is a necessity just like the extension of [Parliament’s] mandate was a necessity and the dialogue [between the Future Movement and Hezbollah] was [portrayed to be] a necessity.”
The killing of Bazzal drew condemnations from across the political spectrum, including the Future Movement and Hezbollah.
Berri: Final touches underway for Future-Hezbollah dialogue
BEIRUT: Final touches are being put to the agenda of dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah which is expected to kick off before the end of the month, Speaker Nabih Berri said Sunday, as officials from both sides said the talks were designed to prevent sectarian strife.
“The agenda of dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah still needs final touches before it can start ahead of the end of this month,” Berri was quoted as saying by Ain al-Tineh visitors.
He said Wednesday’s Parliament session – the 16th attempt to elect a new president – is destined to fail like previous ones over a lack of quorum.
A special envoy of French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius arrived in Beirut Sunday night for talks with Lebanese officials on the political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a president for more than six months. Jean-Francois Giroux, the director of the French Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Department, will also discuss developments in the region and expanding bilateral ties.
Berri’s remarks come as preparations have been stepped up to launch the long-awaited dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement deemed essential for reducing Sunni-Shiite tensions and facilitating the election of a consensus president.
Officials from the two rival parties have voiced hopes that the upcoming dialogue would ward off the threat of sectarian strife.
“Hezbollah is going ahead with the internal dialogue [with Future] out of its concern for national unity because with this we prevent strife,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, deputy head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, said during a memorial ceremony in the southern village of Taibeh.
He said when Hezbollah and Future announced their decision to engage in dialogue, this evoked a wave of satisfaction across the country.
“It was a message for the interior and abroad that Lebanon is recovering from sectarian tensions sweeping the region. We have again blocked the road to strife. This is what protects the country, strengthens Lebanon and increases its immunity in facing the takfiri dangers,” Qaouk added.
Future MP Ammar Houri said in a statement: “We are going to dialogue with Hezbollah while we are in a phase that is probably unprecedented with its gravity. We are now amid a vacancy in the presidency post ... We are trying to reduce this sectarian tension and prevent Lebanon from sliding into this fire that is surrounding us in every direction.”
Ahmad Hariri, secretary-general of the Future Movement, hoped that the talks would lead to a comprehensive national dialogue.
“We are ready for dialogue I, dialogue II and dialogue III for the sake of Lebanon,” Hariri said at a dinner in his honor by Future MP Jamal Jarrah at a hotel in Chtaura Saturday.
He stressed that without sacrifices Lebanon could not be protected. “From our position we will not spare any opportunity to rescue Lebanon from all dangers. We hope that the expected dialogue will be a prelude to a comprehensive national dialogue that will be crowned with the election of a new consensus president who can bring all the Lebanese back to the ‘Baabda Declaration,’ safeguard the Taif Constitution and neutralize Lebanon from the Syrian fire in which some Lebanese are being burned,” Hariri said, in a clear reference to Hezbollah’s military involvement in the Syrian war.
For his part, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai called for collective prayers for the election of a president and resolving the country’s political and economic problems.
“We cannot persist with deaf ears to the screams of citizens who are facing livelihood, economic and security crises,” Rai said during Sunday’s Mass in Bkirki. “Therefore, we call for collective prayers by citizens, monasteries and institutions for the election of a president and bringing the country out of its political, socioeconomic and security crises.”
Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov wrapped up a two-day visit to Lebanon by meeting separately with Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and MP Walid Jumblatt before he left Sunday for Turkey.
A statement released by Hezbollah said “Russian President Putin’s special envoy” met with Nasrallah Saturday night to discuss political developments in the region, with particular focus on Lebanon and Syria.
Bogdanov met Jumbatt at his residence in Clemenceau Saturday night in the presence of Agriculture Minister Akram Chehayeb, Health Minister Wael Abu Faour and Jumblatt’s son, Taymour.
Hariri killers used cell phones to lay false trail to Tripoli
BEIRUT: A new court document has shed fresh light on a mysterious network of telephones used by a team of assassins who allegedly killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and their efforts to implicate the city of Tripoli in the crime.
Late last week, prosecutors at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon asked the trial chamber to admit the testimony of eight witnesses whose IDs were used to fraudulently buy SIM cards used by the assassination squad to carry out the Hariri assassination plan on Feb. 14, 2005 – the so-called “red network” of telephones.
“All of the statements pertain to residents of Tripoli, whose names were listed as the subscribers of the Red Network phones but whose identification documents were used without their knowledge,” the prosecution said in a court filing.
“The prosecution further alleges that the Red Network SIM cards were purchased and topped up with credit in Tripoli for the purpose of laying a false trail of responsibility for the attack, by suggesting that the perpetrators were based in Tripoli,” prosecutors added.
The “red network” has long been a key mystery and stumbling block for investigators. The telephones were identified as early as 2005, and their users are believed by prosecutors to have been the individuals who tracked Hariri on the day of the attack and carried out the bombing.
Red network phones were operated from Jan 4, 2005, and all of them ceased working two minutes before the assassination.
But almost none of the individuals who used those telephones have been identified – the only one who has is the alleged leader of the assassination squad, a man identified as Salim Jamil Ayyash.
Ayyash, who prosecutors say is a supporter of Hezbollah, is related by marriage to Mustafa Badreddine, a Hezbollah commander accused of complicity in the attack and who is related to the party’s assassinated military chief Imad Mughniyeh.
In addition to Badreddine and Ayyash, the STL indicted three other Hezbollah members in connection with the attack. Their trial in absentia is ongoing in The Hague.
All of the red network telephones were activated in Tripoli and purchased using forged IDs of city residents, suggesting that the assassins believed the SIM cards would eventually be tracked by investigators, and sought to misdirect them toward the Sunni-majority northern city.
In their statements, all of the witnesses who were registered as the owners of the red network telephones said they were not the actual users of the phones. They had all purchased new mobile phones or handsets from shops in Tripoli before the attack, and the ID cards they used at the time were used later to fraudulently buy the telephones for the assassins.
The mobile phone dealer who sold the red network telephones is a witness who is expected to testify before the court.
The alleged assassins also purchased the Mitsubishi Canter van used in the attack from a shop in the Tripoli suburb of Beddawi, prosecutors claim.
This supposedly false trail to Tripoli is not the only element of the case that prosecutors say is faked: another is the televised confession of a man called Ahmad Abu Adass, who took credit for the attack on behalf of a fictional group of Sunni militants.
Abu Adass had disappeared from his home days before the assassination with one of the suspects during a supposed trip to Tripoli. The suspect later called Abu Adass’ family and told them their son had decided to go to Iraq to fight the American occupation.
But a video aired on Al-Jazeera on the same day as the Hariri assassination featured Abu Adass claiming responsibility on behalf of a group called Nusra and Jihad in Greater Syria. Prosecutors say the confession was coerced and part of a broader plot to mislead the investigation.
The mystery of the missing assassins has fed into alternative theories in the Hariri case. Some argue only Ayyash was a member of the assassination team, and the other suspects, all supporters of Hezbollah, may have simply been conducting routine surveillance or were unaware of a broader plot to assassinate Lebanon’s former premier.
“Right now there is nothing that reveals the content of these telephone conversations between the accused,” defense lawyer Antoine Korkmaz said at the start of the trial in January. “These telephone conversations do not necessarily mean there is a plot to kill someone.”
It also raises serious questions about the failure of the investigation to identify the individuals on the ground who supposedly carried out the attack, as well as the possibility that those individuals were drawn from extremist groups who have so far not been implicated in the case.
Some defense lawyers have raised the possibility that the attack was in fact carried out by fundamentalists, pointing to the confessions of a cell of 13 individuals who were arrested by the Lebanese authorities after the attack and who admitted to complicity in the Hariri assassination but later recanted their testimony.
Prosecutors are seeking to admit the testimony on the red network telephones as they launch into the second phase of the trial, which will look at the political context of Hariri’s killing and the breakdown of relations with Syria and President Bashar Assad in the run-up to the attack, as well as the raft of telecommunications evidence that allegedly implicates the suspects in the surveillance and killing of the charismatic Prime Minister.
MP Marwan Hamade is expected to resume his testimony on the tense relations between Hariri and Assad Monday, before being cross-examined by defense lawyers.
Hariri mobilizes Future Movement in Bekaa Valley
CHTAURA, Lebanon: A top Future Movement official launched an internal dialogue over the weekend with the party’s base in the Bekaa Valley, hoping to roll back Hezbollah’s influence in the region and to promote an anticipated dialogue with the party.
The Future Movement’s Secretary-General Ahmad Hariri met with Bekaa Valley officials at Chtaura’s Park Hotel during a two-day visit in which he discussed the upcoming dialogue with Hezbollah and its necessity amid the ongoing problems facing the country.
Officials hope the anticipated dialogue will reduce sectarian tensions in the region, which have been exacerbated by the ongoing captivity and killing of Lebanese servicemen by ISIS and the Nusra Front.
Hariri’s meetings focused on the need to mobilize the Future Movement in the Bekaa in order to rebuild the party’s influence in light of the rise of extremist movements.
Hariri stressed the need to support the Lebanese Army in the face of allegations that the military is discriminating against Sunnis, and heard concerns from local officials about Future’s decline in the region.
“Our political sacrifices ... pale in comparison to the great sacrifices of the Lebanese Army,” Hariri said at a dinner during his tour. “What is happening to the Lebanese Army in the form of terrorist attacks has nothing to with political differences, but is linked to the insanity of Hezbollah’s complicity in Syria which opened hell on Lebanon and the Lebanese.”
Hariri told visitors of the need for dialogue but also stressed that the Future Movement does not trust Hezbollah, and that the dialogue may eventually reach a stalemate.
But he said the dialogue would not confer legitimacy to Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria or its opposition to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which is trying five members of the party for their alleged complicity in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Attendees at Hariri’s meetings stressed the need for the Future Movement to launch new projects in the Bekaa Valley that would provide new jobs for citizens and boost the party’s support.
Hariri lamented the killing of policeman Ali Bazzal, who was killed Friday by Nusra while in captivity. But he said the killing should not lead to sectarian tensions and the militants ought to be combatted by promoting coexistence.
Bazzal’s widow tearfully recalls husband
BEIRUT: At a recent protest in Riad al-Solh, family members of captive security forces each took a candle to light for their loved ones. Rana Fliti, the widow of policeman Ali Bazzal, took one but refused to light it. “I said I wouldn’t light the candle until he came home,” she explained.
Bazzal was murdered by members of the Nusra Front over the weekend after being held for more than four months. He was shot in the back of the head while kneeling somewhere in the no-man’s-land between northeast Lebanon and Syria. He was the fourth captive serviceman to be killed.
“Now I will never light the candle,” Fliti said, with a heaving sob.
In the wake of her husband’s killing, Rana Fliti shared stories of his life and, through tears and gritted teeth, slammed the government for its failure to save him.
From playing Playstation video games together to watching comedy movies after putting their young daughter to bed, Rana described a blissful domestic life that was abruptly cut short when he was kidnapped in August.
Bazzal, Fliti said, was a kindhearted jokester fond of slapstick humor. After the birth of their daughter, Maram, Bazzal put on one of his wife’s maternity gowns and stuffed it with pillows. “He made me laugh,” Fliti recalled, mustering a nostalgic chuckle.
But Bazzal was also deeply considerate, Fliti said, and loyal to his family. After Fliti lost her wedding ring, Bazzal started putting aside small bills to save for a new one, despite their tight economic situation. “He would save LL1,000 and LL5,000, a little at a time. Then he took me out to dinner and when we arrived, the juice was already on the table. He had put the new wedding ring in a cup of juice!” Rana recalled, fondly.
Fliti and Bazzal’s initial courtship was met with opposition by their families. The Flitis, a notable Sunni family from Arsal, were displeased that their daughter would marry a Shiite from the neighboring area of Labweh, where Hezbollah enjoys wide support. Despite their families coming to blows over the marriage, Bazzal sought to reassure his wife that neither religion nor inter-clan strife could drive them apart.
“He always told me that regardless of how many difficulties we faced, nothing would keep him away from me except death,” she said. “But death came, and now Ali is gone.”
Fliti recalled, with sadness and regret, the last time she spoke to her husband on the phone. The Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group that was holding Bazzal captive, allowed him to call his wife on Eid al-Adha last October. “He told me, ‘Rana, stand by me.’”
“I’m overwhelmed with guilt because I couldn’t do more for him,” she told The Daily Star.
With little progress being made to secure the release of the captive servicemen, Rana Fliti traveled to the outskirts of Arsal and met with Nusra militants herself in September.
Soon after her trip, the government took a more active role in the negotiations, but Fliti said officials didn’t do enough.
Fliti did not mince words as she criticized how Lebanese officials have handled the case. “The government procrastinated,” she said. “Officials kept saying: ‘There is nothing we can do.’ Well then someone should have taken their place, someone who could have gotten better results.”
“You lack conscience,” she said, addressing the government directly. “If you have an ounce [of conscience] left, you’ll bring these hostages back home to their parents.”
Fliti denounced the attacks against Syrian refugees over the weekend, ostensibly committed in revenge for her husband’s death. “I have said from the beginning that not all refugees are terrorists. Some of them are, and those are the ones who need to be held accountable.”
To her husband’s killers, Fliti had but a few words to say. “You are murderers, and your day will come,” she said. “There is no religion, no morals, no humanity that permits what you have done.”
Fliti said that she would shelter her young daughter as much as she could from the tragedy. “I will not raise her to have hatred in her heart. I will raise her the way Ali wanted.”
French official’s visit part of Iran-backed bid to break presidential impasse
A senior French official arrived in Beirut Sunday night as part of an Iranian-backed initiative by Paris to help break the six-month-old presidential deadlock, diplomatic reports said.
The visit by Jean-Francois Giroux, the director of the French Foreign Ministry’s Middle East Department, comes straight after Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov ended a two-day trip to Beirut during which he had talks with rival Lebanese leaders, including Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, on the presidential impasse, the Syrian crisis and regional developments,
Giroux’s visit comes as part of a flurry of political activity to be undertaken by some Western states aimed at creating conducive circumstances for the election of a new president as soon as possible by distancing Lebanon from regional conflicts, diplomatic sources said.
In addition to the French official’s visit, Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy, is scheduled to arrive here Tuesday for talks with Lebanese leaders on the presidential deadlock, the Syrian refugee crisis and cooperation between the EU and Lebanon.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani is also expected to visit Beirut in the next two weeks.
Giroux’s visit is part of a regional tour that will also take him to Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Vatican for consultations on the Lebanese crisis, diplomatic reports said.
His talks with Lebanese leaders will focus on three inter-linked issues: first, electing a consensus president from a list of five candidates; second, approving a modern electoral law on whose basis parliamentary elections would be held; and third, the formation of a new national unity government in which all the parties would participate, the reports said.
They added that since these issues were interlinked, a solution could not be achieved except with the approval of the internal parties, as well as regional and international sponsors. The reports stressed that the French initiative came at Iran’s request.
In order to break the presidential stalemate, political and diplomatic sources said Lebanon’s crisis should be separated from the negotiations between Western powers and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program, the ongoing talks over the Syrian war and the Iraq crisis, and Saudi-Iranian relations, even though there is a new atmosphere signaling that Riyadh and Tehran are in agreement on the importance of electing a president for Lebanon.
The Vatican is playing a key role with Saudi Arabia and Iran to help finalize a solution for the presidential crisis based on two factors: prevention of Lebanon’s drift toward a comprehensive vacuum and total chaos if something happened and led to the resignation of the current government; and the strengthening of the Lebanese political system to prevent its disintegration at a time when efforts are underway in more than one regional state to find democratic systems similar to the Lebanese one, the sources said.
The majority of the political class in Lebanon has become convinced that linking the presidential crisis to a political settlement in Syria or in the region is no longer realistic. Lebanese leaders have heard it directly from Bogdanov that there will be no solution to the Syrian crisis unless the regime and the opposition sit together at the negotiation table without preconditions. The Russian official also urged Lebanese leaders he met to engage in an internal dialogue on the presidency, the next government and parliamentary elections.
Similarly, the same sources said that the launch of the planned dialogue between the Future Movement and Hezbollah would constitute an internal platform to kick off a draft agreement on a president with Christian blessing as part of a regional deal in which all the Lebanese factions would participate at a later stage.
In tandem with the Western diplomatic activity in Lebanon, Prime Minister Tammam Salam is scheduled to visit France on Dec. 10-12 for talks with President Francois Hollande and other senior French officials on the Lebanese crisis and regional developments.
It will be Salam’s first visit to France as prime minister since he met Hollande on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s meetings in New York in September.
Salam is expected have discussions with French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian about military cooperation between the two countries, and a $3 billion Saudi gift to equip the Lebanese Army with French weapons, an official source said.
The Lebanese-French talks will focus on the presidential election, bilateral issues, including assistance to the Lebanese Army, French aid to several development projects in Lebanon through the French Agency for Development and the Syrian refugee crisis. Salam will be accompanied by Deputy Premier and Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil and a number of advisers.
Palestinian Cubs and Roses resume after a decade
SIDON, Lebanon: After 10 years the 1972 Cubs camp is back in Ain al-Hilweh, enabling Palestinian youngsters to train to become future fighters against Israeli occupation, as envisioned by Fatah Movement head Yasser Arafat in the 1970s.
Arafat ordered the creation of the Cubs to educate and train children, men and women to fight the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
The new training camp was established in the Taamir neighborhood of Ain al-Hilweh.
“Yasser Arafat visited the camp whenever he had the chance, but with the Israeli invasion in 1982, the camp was destroyed,” a retired Palestinian officer said. The destruction of the camp was a huge blow to the Palestinian resistance, which was forced to leave Lebanon and set up headquarters in another Arab country, Tunisia.
The Cubs camp renewed its activities during the ’90s and children once again donned military garments in preparation for training. But the program was stopped again by the end of the decade for no specified reason. Sources told The Daily Star the order to close the Cubs camp came from Ramallah.
An agreement between Israel and the Fatah Movement could have played a role in the camp’s closing, sources explained.
But by November 2014, the Cubs camp resumed its work, training the next generation of Palestinian freedom fighters. Youngsters begin combat training using sticks.
“To the left, to the right, in your place,” screams a trainer at the Martyr Mohammad Mawaad Camp, one place in Ain al-Hilweh where the Cubs convene. “Storm, storm, storm,” reply the youngsters, between 6 and 13 years of age.
Sunbul, commander of the Cubs camp, has spent more than 30 years training youngsters. As a Cub graduate himself, Sunbul said top Palestinian officials also spent their youth training at the camp.
“Palestinian officials who were 6 and older in 1972 graduated from the Cubs camp,” Sunbul said, adding that the Cubs used to train in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
“The last time I saw Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] was before the [1982] invasion and before that when he visited the camp and supervised a graduation ceremony for Cubs.”
Sunbul, who firmly calls on the youth to stand in line silently before giving orders to commence self-defense training, believes that the Cubs camp helps to keep the memory of Palestine alive among children.
“The organization welcomes new members starting at the age of 6 and training is constant until the age of 18, at which point the trainee is a young man or woman and ready to become a fighter,” Sunbul explained.
In the beginning trainees are given lessons on Palestinian history, then asked to participate in physically demanding activities, such as high jumping and tightrope walking. By the age of 12, Cubs are taught street fighting techniques, Sunbul added, in which sticks are used as weapons.
There is also a separate training program for females who are referred to as “Roses.”
“We remember late President Yasser Arafat, who used to say that a Cub from our Cubs and a Rose from our Roses would one day raise the Palestinian flag atop Al-Aqsa,” Sunbul said.
The Cubs will be participating in a ceremony to mark the creation of the Fatah Movement on Jan. 1.
Ten-year-old Mohammad narrowly missed a hurling fist during a combat training session.
“I am training for Palestine and my return to my homeland,” said Mohammad, who hails from Saffuriya, and is in Grade 4.
His comments were echoed by Bassem Slim, 13, in Grade 6.
“I have been training for a month to protect my people in the future and to return to Palestine through education, self-confidence, preparation and training,” Slim said. “My rifle will be to win Palestine and for nothing more.”
In the Cubs training camp there is little patience for making mistakes, said Ahmad Awad, another trainer.
“We train him [the Cub] to jump from a height of three meters so he can land standing on his feet,” Awad said, stressing that this requires much effort, technique and patience.SIDON, Lebanon: After 10 years the 1972 Cubs camp is back in Ain al-Hilweh, enabling Palestinian youngsters to train to become future fighters against Israeli occupation, as envisioned by Fatah Movement head Yasser Arafat in the 1970s.
Arafat ordered the creation of the Cubs to educate and train children, men and women to fight the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
The new training camp was established in the Taamir neighborhood of Ain al-Hilweh.
“Yasser Arafat visited the camp whenever he had the chance, but with the Israeli invasion in 1982, the camp was destroyed,” a retired Palestinian officer said. The destruction of the camp was a huge blow to the Palestinian resistance, which was forced to leave Lebanon and set up headquarters in another Arab country, Tunisia.
The Cubs camp renewed its activities during the ’90s and children once again donned military garments in preparation for training. But the program was stopped again by the end of the decade for no specified reason. Sources told The Daily Star the order to close the Cubs camp came from Ramallah.
An agreement between Israel and the Fatah Movement could have played a role in the camp’s closing, sources explained.
But by November 2014, the Cubs camp resumed its work, training the next generation of Palestinian freedom fighters. Youngsters begin combat training using sticks.
“To the left, to the right, in your place,” screams a trainer at the Martyr Mohammad Mawaad Camp, one place in Ain al-Hilweh where the Cubs convene. “Storm, storm, storm,” reply the youngsters, between 6 and 13 years of age.
Sunbul, commander of the Cubs camp, has spent more than 30 years training youngsters. As a Cub graduate himself, Sunbul said top Palestinian officials also spent their youth training at the camp.
“Palestinian officials who were 6 and older in 1972 graduated from the Cubs camp,” Sunbul said, adding that the Cubs used to train in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
“The last time I saw Abu Ammar [Yasser Arafat] was before the [1982] invasion and before that when he visited the camp and supervised a graduation ceremony for Cubs.”
Sunbul, who firmly calls on the youth to stand in line silently before giving orders to commence self-defense training, believes that the Cubs camp helps to keep the memory of Palestine alive among children.
“The organization welcomes new members starting at the age of 6 and training is constant until the age of 18, at which point the trainee is a young man or woman and ready to become a fighter,” Sunbul explained.
In the beginning trainees are given lessons on Palestinian history, then asked to participate in physically demanding activities, such as high jumping and tightrope walking. By the age of 12, Cubs are taught street fighting techniques, Sunbul added, in which sticks are used as weapons.
There is also a separate training program for females who are referred to as “Roses.”
“We remember late President Yasser Arafat, who used to say that a Cub from our Cubs and a Rose from our Roses would one day raise the Palestinian flag atop Al-Aqsa,” Sunbul said.
The Cubs will be participating in a ceremony to mark the creation of the Fatah Movement on Jan. 1.
Ten-year-old Mohammad narrowly missed a hurling fist during a combat training session.
“I am training for Palestine and my return to my homeland,” said Mohammad, who hails from Saffuriya, and is in Grade 4.
His comments were echoed by Bassem Slim, 13, in Grade 6.
“I have been training for a month to protect my people in the future and to return to Palestine through education, self-confidence, preparation and training,” Slim said. “My rifle will be to win Palestine and for nothing more.”
In the Cubs training camp there is little patience for making mistakes, said Ahmad Awad, another trainer.
“We train him [the Cub] to jump from a height of three meters so he can land standing on his feet,” Awad said, stressing that this requires much effort, technique and patience.
Lebanese women underrepresented in the workplace
BEIRUT: Women in Lebanon continue to outnumber men in universities but are underrepresented in the workplace due to social norms, discrimination by employers and an inhospitable economy, experts say. The World Economic Forum’s annual Gender Gap Report found that only 26 percent of working-age women are in the workforce in Lebanon, compared to 76 percent for men. There were particularly few female legislators, senior officials and managers.
However, Lebanon ranked first in terms of the proportion of women in secondary and postsecondary education, with more women enrolled than men.
Social norms that dictate that women should give up work in order to attend to domestic duties are the most evident reason for the lack of women in Lebanon’s labor force.
A study on women in the labor force in Lebanon by the Collective for Research and Training on Development found that social norms limited women’s professional activity and that some women preferred to stay at home, rather than fulfill career aspirations.
This mentality is common throughout the Arab world, and is the main reason why, according to United Nations agency the International Labor Organization, Arab women are the least economically active on the planet.
Lebanese women are more active than most of their Arab neighbors, but by global standards, Lebanon still trails far behind.
Most women that overcome these social norms enter the services industry. Banking, finance, trade and tourism employ about 70 percent of working women.
According to a survey of 342 Lebanese female workers by the World Bank in 2009, 68 percent of all women workers are single and young – the average age is 31.
Wages, flexibility of work, the workplace’s proximity to home and the availability of nursery places were the main priorities of women seeking work.
Entering the labor force comes with its own set of difficulties. According to Economist Muna Khalaf, employers are often wary of hiring women.
“Women are joining the labor force, but priority is given to men in general,” Khalaf told The Daily Star. “If [an employer is] given a choice between someone who is equally qualified, [the employer] would choose the man.”
Khalaf gave the example of a banking executive she had spoken with who said that he preferred to hire men, as women were likely to become less productive once they married and had children.
There is also a lack of female employers, a problem faced by societies across the globe. Women often have difficulties rising to hiring positions within companies as they hit the ‘glass ceiling’ – a phrase used to define the barrier stopping minorities and women from advancing within their careers.
Nassib Ghobril, a senior economist at Byblos Bank, believes that Lebanon has many capable women in the labor force, and questioned the methodology that had been used in the WEF’s report.
He said Byblos Bank provided a family friendly environment and any employer would lose out if they discriminated against women.
“Someone who tells you: ‘I don’t recruit women because they’re going to get married and have children’ [is hurting] their institution,” Ghobril told The Daily Star.
“[The] female participation rate ... depends on the sector you’re looking at – I cannot generalize. If you look at the banking sector, for example, there is a more accurate representation of the population in the labor force.
“I can tell you for example the ratio is 50/50 at Byblos Bank.”
The law and the economy play a factor in making the labor market a suitable environment for women.
Currently, laws that directly affect women are often contradictory. For instance, a labor law introduced in 2000 that called for no discrimination between women and men in the workplace also introduced a 7-week maternity leave; this contradicts the Social Security Code, which gives women 10 weeks maternity leave. Both are lower than the ILO-recommended 14 weeks.
There are also no laws on equal pay within the private sector, which has led to inequalities in what women and men receive for the same work.
Economist Kamal Hamadan said that the main issue was that the Lebanese economy did not create jobs that were suitable for highly educated women.
The economy in Lebanon has experienced “jobless growth” over the past several years, Hamadan said. Even during its peak growth period, 2007-2010, the job market experienced little expansion, which meant that highly educated graduates – who were mostly women – lacked job opportunities.
“Seventy percent of investment in Lebanon is going to construction,” Hamadan explained. “Construction does not provide jobs for ... highly qualified males or females.”
While structural changes such as laws and economic policies may take time to reform, Khalaf believes that social norms in Lebanon are shifting to make entering the workforce easier for women in Lebanon.
She said she had noticed more men taking on the homemaking responsibilities, and the high cost of living in Lebanon was forcing families to accept that there was a need for two breadwinners in the home.
“In Lebanon, it’s very expensive so even if they don’t want to, most [women] very often have to try and join the labor market just to make ends meet,” she said.
“With the woman working and the man working, I think things are slightly improving. The man has to share with his wife, the way she shares with him in covering expenses, the duties of the parent.”
Mary Landrieu Loses Senate Seat In La. Runoff
Democrat Mary Landrieu was the lone Democrat from the deep south in the Senate. NPR's Arun Rath talks with Emory University professor Andra Gillespie about the changing political landscape of the South.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Israeli airstrikes target Syria positions near the Lebanese border: Al-Manar
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Russia closer to March 14 than March 8: Future MP
Hezbollah slams captive's execution, Army ambush
The killing of a captive policeman Friday was an attempt by jihadis to ignite sectarian strife in Lebanon, the deputy...
Siniora proposes Arab task force to tackle regional problems
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called on Arab leaders to form a joint task force to work on establishing one Arab stance towards major issues in the region.
“The problem is that we have forgotten that uniqueness and initiative still exist, that what unites Arabs much greater than what separates them, and that success is still possible,” Siniora said at the 13th summit of the Arab Thought Foundation in Morocco last week, according to remarks made available Sunday.
Titled “Arab complementation: the dream of unity and the reality of division,” the conference gathered officials and intellectuals from Arab countries to discuss the validity of Arabism in the contemporary context.
“We can midwife success from the womb of failure, and excellence can be achieved despite the murkiness of the dark,” the head of the Future parliamentary bloc added.
Siniora called for the creation of one Arab committee responsible for reactivating the Arab Peace Initiative that was once active in seeking an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Such committee, he said, would allow the various nations to agree on one position and action plan on the matter.
Arabs should learn from the European experience and establish a union based on common values, but they first need to agree on a set of principles that respect democracy, liberty and human rights, he added.
Religious moderation and reform in religious thought was also highlighted as an inevitable characteristic of an Arab union.
He presented a historical profile of Arabism and focused on the moments of failure, but stressed that strategic military and economic cooperation are as important now as they ever were.
“Complementation should not be merely economic, but should also be militarily strategic, cultural and social,” Siniora said, reminding of an article he had co-written with former Arab League President Amrou Moussa in which they suggest the creation of a joint Arab force to restore peace in Yemen.
Siniora said the heaviest challenges facing Arab unity was the “Israeli colonization” of Palestinian land and the “Iranian penetration” into Arab countries’ internal affairs. The remaining totalitarian regimes and the rise of fundamentalism, he added, are also among the biggest threats to the success of an Arabist project.
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GOP Unseats Landrieu In Louisiana
Republicans have reason to party in New Orleans this weekend. The GOP picked up a ninth Senate seat in Louisiana's runoff election Saturday — and by a wide margin.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
In Troubled Times, Does 'The Black Church' Still Matter?
A woman raises her hands during an interfaith service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach. David Goldman/AP hide caption
itoggle caption David Goldman/AP
A woman raises her hands during an interfaith service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, the church where The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach.
David Goldman/AP
African-American clergy, academics and activists will hold a march on Washington this week, protesting the grand jury decisions in Ferguson, Mo. and New York City and call on the federal government to intervene in the prosecutions of police officers accused of unjustified use of force.
I talked with Reverend Raphael Warnock and Eddie Glaude, Jr., two prominent African-American religious thinkers, about the role of black churches in the wake of major protests and demonstrations inspired by events in Ferguson and New York City. Warnock is the senior pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga. — a pulpit once held by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — and was in Washington to attend a conference hosted by the Black Church Center for Justice and Equality. Glaude is a professor of religion and chair of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. In 2010, he wrote an attention-grabbing essay called
Interview Highlights
How did the black church form? Why is it significant that black churches stay involved right now?
Rev. Raphael Warnock: The black church, born fighting for freedom, is that church among the American churches that has seen justice-making as central to its Christian identity. Now, the black church, like most institutions has always been a mixed bag. And so even though I'm a leader and pastor in the black church and the church of Martin Luther King, Jr., there's a kind of radical trajectory that comes out of the black church that I do think is distinctive, and for obvious and good historic reasons. It literally is a church organized by slaves as they responded to that primary contradiction in their lives.
What is your response to the news that the NYPD officer who killed Eric Garner won't be indicted?
Prof. Eddie Glaude, Jr.: I'm stunned. You know, I keep thinking about my son. He's a freshman at Brown. A few weeks ago, I got a text from my son saying that he was stopped by the police in Providence. He was doing an assignment and they stopped him and told him that he needed to get out of that park and they had their hands on their guns. So here we are with video footage of Eric Garner saying "I can't breathe," and I just go back to how vulnerable my child was and I'm just rageful. I can't put it in any other way. I feel like its open season and I'm trying to find resources to think carefully and deliberately about this moment, but I'm just worried about my baby and I'm worried about our babies. And it's hard to put it in words.
Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, pictured at a gathering last week of African-American clergy, academics and activists outside Washington D.C. Charles Pulliam-Moore/NPR hide caption
itoggle caption Charles Pulliam-Moore/NPR
Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, pictured at a gathering last week of African-American clergy, academics and activists outside Washington D.C.
Charles Pulliam-Moore/NPR
Rev. Warnock: It's a painful moment and somehow we've got to recognize where we are and how we respond in this minute. I don't have any easy answers to this. I heard the president say the other day that he's going to dedicate millions of dollars for more video cameras, for more body cameras, and this is on video tape. It doesn't matter if you're in Ferguson or New York; doesn't matter whether its on video tape or not; doesn't matter if you're running away from the police — Michael Brown — or literally standing there trying to reason with the police — Eric Garner. The message from both is that the life of a black man is less valuable than a handful of cigarillos. This is a slap in the face, a kick in the stomach because we're not talking about a conviction, we're talking about an indictment. I'm not a lawyer, but I paid attention in civics class; they told me in ninth grade that a good lawyer could indict a ham sandwich. And so apparently a black man's life is worth less than a ham sandwich.
What role do black clergy play given this news?
Prof. Glaude: I think to role of black churches in this moment is varied. One has to do with tending to the souls of people. These are trying times. I'm thinking about that wonderful line in Toni Morrison's Beloved, and I'm going to paraphrase here: "How much are we supposed to take?" So it's in these moments that churches and ministers ought to find a way to comfort the spirit, not to get us adjusted to the injustice, but to understand that we are justified in our rage and anger. Black churches have always been and continue to be wonderful resource institutions where we can build capacity in order to speak back and respond to crises. They should open their doors in order to provide folks a safe space in order to engage in the deliberative process. How are we going to mobilize in response to what seems to be open season on our babies?
Rev. Warnock: My role is not unlike it is at any other time; it's just that it's extremely difficult right now. We pastors have a two-fold role: priestly and prophetic. On the priestly side, our jobs is comfort the afflicted. On the prophetic side, our job is to afflict the comfortable. And the question becomes how can one remain true to both in this moment.
Lame Duck Congress Waddles Up Against A Deadline
As Congress wraps up for the year, it still must pass a federal budget, address immigration and release a torture report. NPR's Rachel Martin talks to NPR's Mara Liasson about Congress's agenda.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
Copyright © 2014 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Hezbollah MP urges government to trade ISIS wives for captives
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Bahrain FM likens Hezbollah to ISIS, Al-Qaeda
BEIRUT: Bahrain’s foreign minister Sunday likened Hezbollah to groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and condemned Iran for he described as interference in the Arab world.
“Terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS are not the only terrorist threat, for there is [also] state-sponsored terrorism and the best example of this is Hezbollah,” Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa said in a speech delivered in Bahrain’s capital Sunday.
Hezbollah is a “terrorist organization that receives significant support from some countries,” in reference to Iran.
Noting Bahrain's tense relationship with Tehran, Khalifa said that the serious differences between the Gulf-states and Iran is not limited to just the nuclear issue, but is also linked to the Iran's “blatant interference” in the internal affairs of Arab countries.
According to the foreign minister, any regional security structure will fail as long as Iran continues its current strategy.
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Lebanon hostage families offer condolences to slain soldier's relatives
BEIRUT: The relatives of the captive soldiers and policemen temporarily left their Downtown Beirut protest site Sunday to offer condolences to the family of policeman Ali Bazzal, who was executed by the Nusra Front Friday.
After reversing their decision to escalate their protests in response to Bazzal’s death, the families headed to the eastern village of Bazzalieh to offer their condolences and stand by the slain captive's family.
“Our revenge will not be [taken] againt Arsal,” one of the parents said during a news conference from Bazzalieh, in reference to the northeastern border village from where the captives were abducted by jihadis in August.
“Our revenge will be taken against the Grand Serail.”
Four members of the families’ committee made speeches from the funeral, all accusing the Lebanese government of inaction and negligence.
“You have never known courage,” the parent said addressing Prime Minister Tammam Salam, calling on him to act quickly to free the 25 remaining captives.
They stressed that they only expect the Lebanese state to act for the release of their sons, and that they will not refer to any other country or actor.
Meanwhile families of the remaining 25 Lebanese captives Sunday continued blocking the Qalamoun road in north Lebanon linking Tripoli to Beirut. The families closed the road Saturday after news emerged of Bazzal's killing late-Friday.
Nusra Front announced that it had executed Bazzal late Friday in a tweet with a picture of a man said to be of the captive with a machine gun firing shots at his head.
The families of the captives have been camped outside the Grand Serail in Downtown Beirut over the last two months to pressure the government to negotiate the release of the servicemen.
More than 30 police and soldiers were abducted by militants from ISIS and the Nusra Front during a five-day battle with the Army in Arsal in August.
Four have since been executed, and seven released.
Maronite patriarch bemoans Lebanon's social, political crises
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East Lebanon dairy farmers protest milk price crash
BEIRUT: Dairy farmers in northeast Lebanon blocked a major road Sunday to protest the sharp fall in milk prices prompted by the recent closures of labneh factories, the National News Agency reported.
The protesters blocked for half an hour the Labweh-Arsal road, pouring milk on the ground to signify that their product no longer has value, the NNA said.
The farmers called on Lebanese authorities to intervene before their industry collapses, after the price of 1 liter of milk sunk to LL700 ($0.46), which they say is less than the cost of production.
Last week the farmers said that they were selling a liter of milk for LL 500, nearly half the LL 900 amount it costs to produce it, due to a lack of demand.
The crisis began after the economy and trade ministry less than two weeks ago ordered shut six labneh factories in the eastern Bekaa Valley because of serious health violations.
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