Tragedies often leave imprints that are hard to erase. The 'Qana Massacre', in which more than 100 Lebanese were killed after Israel shelled a UN refugee camp in South Lebanon, is just one example.
Israel launched a barrage of shells into the UN base on 18 April 1996 and more than 100 civilians, men, women and children who were taking refugee in the base were killed. Israel said the bombardment was an "unfortunate mistake". A UN report concluded that the shelling of the base was "unlikely to have been the result of gross technical or procedural errors although this could not be completely ruled out".
While tragedies often touch the hearts of many, only some people decide to act. Rami Jachi, a 10-year-old Lebanese boy who was shocked and outraged by the gruesome pictures of the carnage at Qana, is trying to make a difference.
Rami has created the Qana '96 website in a bid to raise awareness on the plight of the survivors of Qana and at the same time generate money for those in need.
See also:
"Today, we the Palestinians are just like passengers on a ship struggling in the midst of a violent storm which propels it in the direction of a shore laden with rocks. Were this ship to continue on its already set course, its destiny is certain destruction on that shore's rocks. The predicament of the Palestinian people on this ship is very similar to that of the other Arab peoples: the captain and his sailors are up there on deck and in command of its control tower directing it to go wherever they wish, and the people are sitting down below in their rooms lacking any influence over the destination or anything that is transpiring up on deck; all they know is what orders they hear from the ship's captain and his crew.
The key to affecting this reality today is in the hands of the Palestinian people: to march up to the captain's quarters and to confront him face to face -not through violence and a civil war, but democratically through dialogue and organized political work."Hisham Sharabi
"Prologue: Democracy, Elections and National Salvation" in Whither Palestine? The Future of Democracy in Palestine, A Special Report by the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine, Washington DC, August 1994."Since the Oslo agreements were signed in 1993, Palestinians have lost more land to Israeli expropriations and are vastly poorer. They cannot move around, and because Yasser Arafat's tyrannical regime they live without any democratic freedoms at all. Moreover, nothing in the "peace process" envisages any Palestinian sovereignty or repatriation of the 55 percent of the population who exist as refugees.
The "autonomy" granted residents of the West Bank and Gaza by Israel relieves Israel of the bother of dealing with their municipal affairs. The Israeli Army is still in command, the settlements and armed settlers increase in number, annexed Jerusalem amounts to 25 percent of the West Bank, so much so that Palestinian autonomy -confined to the bantustans of the seven largest towns whose entrances and exists are controlled by Israel and whose total area is about four percent of the West Bank- is an indirect way of continuing the occupation.
Such facts do not normally appear in the United States news media, which have decided to celebrate "peace" no matter what the truth is, and to exclude dissenting voices who believe in a real peace between two equal peoples".Edward W. Said
New York Times, 21/1/97.