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Mister Murray, thank you so much for this wonderful report. It was really worth waiting only 2 weeks, to give you time to get the paperwork done. Meanwhile, many of us have watched the WarTime Café episode where you bluntly but eloquently tell it like it is, and reveal the dark side of the West (good title for a potential new Pink Floyd record).
Beirut is probably just a first step, and possibly will you soon be reporting live from other areas. Thank you again for your work and devotion to the cause of Justice.
Well done Craig – you are a true Braveheart – you and your friend doggedly ploughed on, even in what looked like the face of real danger to obtain accreditation, and you’ve given us a very detailed account of Lebanon and your trials to report on the Zionists’ atrocities in the country.
“I’m not afraid, I’m Scottish!” – a brilliant riposte. I’m sure – as in your reports of the fit up of the late great Alex Salmond, and your reports from the Hague – that your reports about what the Zionists are doing in Lebanon will be very interesting and eye-opening to say the least. Above all take care.
The Sweeney video can be accessed by using the website https://ssstwitter.com/ (though it is not the apparent URL that should be put in, but the real one to which it points, by right-clicking and copying and pasting), and the result can be viewed using the free software VLC.
Craig, I am glad that you and your colleague eventually got through the bureaucratic red tape nightmare to obtain your press credentials. Lebanon may be located in West Asia, but everything you said there about the attitudes of anxious militiamen and suspicious government security agents could easily be said about a Sub Saharan African country. The only difference is that nobody in Lebanon asked for bribes to get things done
Got all the way to pay BUT PayPal wants to verify my account BUT only offers an old unavailable mobile number!
Perhaps Sadly, I’m only half Scottish. But I like to think I also have a ‘braveheart’.
I’m not sure whether to admire your bravery in venturing into the thick of it, as the drones fly over, or to wonder whether this venture borders on the foolhardy. I’m sure I will not be alone in breathing a sigh of relief when your work there is done and you return to safer shores.
Please look after yourself and Niels, Craig.
Nice report. Please be careful with Google Translate – and with Google anything else, including any web browser based on Chrome.
Google is an arm of the ascendancy.
https://mondoweiss.net/2021/12/how-google-advances-the-zionist-colonization-of-palestine/
PS Re. the earlier thread, Justin Welby under attack by Zionists in August for welcoming the ICJ opinion:
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-816638
Maybe that’s the real reason they forced him to resign!!!
It probably had more to do with it than the mere abuse of children. Bastards
I believe Lineker was in a similar position, he had the temerity to speak up for Palestinians….
Very fascinating, especially you (of all people) noting that Lebanon is not as you thought. They seem to be mighty nice people even if over the top on bureaucracy.
Thanks for this great report. Looking forward to more as they are ready. While I am sure there was quite a lot of anxiety living through all that, it seems amazingly reasonable and manageable for a country in the midst of a war, and with so many Westerners being servants of their enemy.
Sadly, with Trump picking so many Zionist warmongers for his cabinet, it doesn’t look like the atmosphere in that part of the world will improve any time soon. You are in my daily prayers, as are your brave family for agreeing to your putting yourself in such danger for the common good. I hope they know we are grateful to them, as well as to you for all you do.
Craig. In summary, people who have vouched for you unbeknown to you, must have deeply impressed the Judge and his team. Allah helps the patient. And to impress these officials, at this time under this duress of war and recent catastrophic betrayals by agents of Israel, is amazing!
Muslims use the intelligence of their hearts as readily as practical information. So if you have passed this test, I would say that from now you will be treated with respect and honour in Lebanon, mostly. But as you have already discovered, I’m sure it is a very diverse community.
Great work Craig.. lets hope the Uk US don’t get at last.. The world need you a CN
Brilliant reporting! Reminds me of Orwell on the Spanish Civil War.
Marvelous, and desperately needed reporting. Congratulations and more power to your elbow.
God Speed.
Is there an easy to read list of the daily death count in Gaza since day #1 which I can share?
I know this site which is very good but too complex for people who are working and have only very little time:
https://data.techforpalestine.org/api/v2/casualties_daily.json
from:
https://data.techforpalestine.org/docs/casualties-daily/
If people see it day for day how many were killed they understand.
Would German media report on this every day things could be different.
Instead now we have an antisemitism resolution which was passed last week and which will suffocate any expression of criticism of Israel be it in the arts or sciences. And almost no MPs opposed it: You had tiny BSW, and the LEFT PARTY who however abstained only.
So much about Germany which – instead of learning from past 400 days – is steering ever more into suporting the madness and installing brutality into its very own “intellectual” culture. It´s terrifying if you consider how obvious the murder is and still they choose to ignore it or believe racist lies.
Well, I need not explain matters here…
This is what the resolution says concerning freedom of speech rights, with the words of the very pro-government Constitutional blog (but even they fear for 1st Amendment Rights):
“(…)
The resolution contains numerous welcome statements and demands that make the extent of anti-Semitism in Germany clear. At the same time, it threatens to encourage repressive measures. The following two points in particular are questionable from a fundamental rights and constitutional perspective: First, the Bundestag reaffirms its resolution “to ensure that no organizations and projects are financially supported that spread anti-Semitism, question Israel’s right to exist, call for a boycott of Israel or actively support the BDS movement.” Directly related to this is the demand to develop legally secure “particularly budgetary” regulations that should ensure that no projects with anti-Semitic goals and content are funded in the field of culture and media. Second, the Bundestag reaffirms the BDS resolution from 2019. Not the subject of the article, but also questionable from a constitutional point of view, is the demand to “consistently exploit” repressive options to combat anti-Semitism in residence, asylum and citizenship law.”
(…)”
That of course in conjunction with an already established understanding of what many things anti-semitism is supposed to mean.
(Gosh this entire vocabulary is nauseating…)
But this is the situation where we are now here. So right now some cinemas are boycotting a documentary about the Westbank that had received a major award at the Berlinale last year. I haven´t seen it but I doubt it digs that deep. Otherwise it would have never been accepted to Berlinale in the first place.
Not sure what more to say.
Greetings to everyone, I guess…
Veering off-topic, but probably of interest: AG (14 Nov, 6.39) mentions the boycott of the full-length documentary film ‘No Other Land’, directed by Yuval Abraham (from Jerusalem) and Basel Adra (from a village, now destroyed, in the West Bank). The film went on general release in Germany this week and is showing daily in just two of the 30-odd cinemas (with more than 80 screens) in Munich. One of these two cinemas, the Werkstatt (Workshop) Kino, is, I think, known to Craig, who gave a talk there during his tour of Germany several years ago. Maybe the long (2-page) and detailed review of the film in last week’s Der Spiegel will arouse more interest.
Co-director Abraham has stated that, as an Israeli Jew, many of whose relatives were killed in the Nazi Holocaust, he does not feel welcome in Germany. He considers that German politicians, by robbing the term ‘antisemitism’ of any meaning, are in the long run endangering the lives of those they claim to be protecting.
“Co-director Abraham has stated that, as an Israeli Jew, many of whose relatives were killed in the Nazi Holocaust, he does not feel welcome in Germany”
Yawn. Having an identity as an “Israeli Jew” is analogous to having one as a “Third Reich German”. Those with such identities shouldn’t feel welcome in any decent place.
Surely those of us who oppose ethnic supremacism and genocide can agree on at least one thing: the need for the de-recognition of the State of Israel? This means come to a port of entry in any country and try to get in with an Israeli passport and you will be refused entry, the same as if you’d held out a blank piece of paper.
What is this f***ing nonsense that the State of Israel or the Zionist organisation is some kind of representative of the Jews murdered by a German regime of 80 years ago? All it is is Nakba-justification. The Zionists don’t represent anyone apart from the Zionists. And they certainly don’t represent any kind of humanitarian principle. The idea that they do is completely absurd. They are national socialists. Dunno why this is difficult to recognise.
Totally agree. IMO when someone who identifies as an Israeli jew (AKA Zionist) starts mentioning the holocaust ™ then it’s time to totally ignore them and their views. They are playing the sympathy card trying to justify their genocidal agenda. The holocaust ™, whatever it really was, is just a tool in the hands of these sick bastards, and the more they harp on about it, the more I begin to smell a big fat convenient lie.
And probably always have been. See Tom Segev’s “We Are Conquerors”, an autobiography of Ben Gurion (reviewed LRB -https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n20/adam-shatz/we-are-conquerors)
“As Segev makes clear, his ‘socialism’ was always in the service of his nationalism: when he invoked the ‘dictatorship of the Hebrew labourer’, he meant the dictatorship of the Histadrut and Mapai, the Palestinian Workers’ Party he founded in 1930.”
Violent, militarist, populist, imperialist, ‘totalitarian’, dictatorship; he meets the principal definitions of Ur fascism articulated by Umberto Eco.
” ‘Even all of Palestine is not our final goal.’ “
Mike T
Might correspond, a text in JACOBIN on this problem:
“Before World War II, Zionism Was a Fringe Ideology”
By Clare Lemlich
“Prior to Israel’s founding, the majority of European Jews rejected the idea of an ethnically Jewish nation. Instead they fought antisemitism by building solidarity.”
https://archive.is/eK2eu
It isn´t as broad and profound as the title would suggest (mainly Poland.)
But it confirms what Khalidi, Pappé, Finkelstein have repeated: European Jews rejected Zionism before WWII.
And even – one of Finkelstein´s main points which Jack pointed out last year and me too – the Zionist left – just as your Segev quote says – turned imperialistic too.
All.of.a.sudden.
p.s. I am not sure however, if Segev was not also just a dove himself in the “lame” 1990s “Peace Now” tradition – which failed Palestinians as we can observe every day now. Eventually whitewashingt people like Yitzhak-with-and F-16-in-your-pocket-you-can-always-make-peace-Rabin.
@Brian Red: Not a pleasant or rational comment or thread to read. Such absurd and deplorable criticism, ridiculous identity & location politics is not Red, but Brown. Nobody, not even people born in Zionist Israel like Yuval Abraham, chooses where they were born, chooses their family. They choose what they do, and Abraham made praiseworthy choices.
Plenty of Third Reich Germans were very bad people – or heroes who opposed the Reich. And every shade in between. It is comical for those sitting comfortably far away to pass such judgments on someone accepted by someone like his codirector Basel Adra.
The trailer is on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pI2IXKtlew
This film is showing in the UK now, both in London and elsewhere.
Coldish
you´ve seen it? I obviously have not. I did not intend to do any injustice to it. But knowing the ins and outs of cultural life I was, er, extrapolating on what it might be like.
“I’m not afraid, I’m Scottish” – there’s your next book title, Craig,..
Excellent report, thank you.
You may have missed the rhetorical power of alliteration here.
It’s “I’m not scared. I’m Scottish.”
Shades of Jean-Paul Belmondo when pulled over by an American cop: “are you foreign ?”, “no I’m French”.
“Ah’m no glarin’. Ah’m frae Glesca.” 🏴
I’m surprized no mention of the late Robert Fisk who whose high level contacts in Lebanon would still be there.
Fascinating reporting Craig but please beware Mossad agents are no doubt everywhere in Lebanon.
One good factor is that Trump seems to want bombing to stop over Lebanon and may pressure Netanyahu. Republicans have a golden opportunity to equate the starving children dying slow deaths under the rubble in Gaza to the Democrat leadership thus assuring they would stay in the White House for some time. However Trump has already fallen in the trap of associating with Netanyahu soon to be yesterdays man whilst also appointing Rubio and Huckabee.
They just never learn.
CM’s picture there reminded me of the late, great Robert Fisk.
Heart in throat reading.
I’m sure that it would have been considered- but there is still print media around the globe that isn’t part of the Ziofascist billionaire propaganda monopolies.
Perhaps Chinese, African or Indian?
The BRICS+ must have plenty of clout left as accredited journals.
I’d suggest the Tehran Times, but it’s probably a bit too close for comfort.
or the Scottish National which masquerades as an Indy supporting paper. But It’s foundation and ownership trail goes via NY media barons to Abu Dhabi sovereign funds.
These terrorists drones constantly overhead frightening children, sound like the worst nightmare of never ending doodlebugs.
Whoever makes and operates them are guilty of crimes against humanity.
They should not be forgotten in the coming reckoning no matter how kind it takes to track down the Zionazis and their stolen wealth.
I’ll scrap together a bit more on top of subscription again for December – this reporting is way too important to be left unfunded.
Since Craig has done some wonderful reporting from courtrooms all over Europe could he not do a report on Netanyahu’s upcoming court case scheduled for 2nd December, although I would advise against it? He is accused and charged with fraud, bribery, and breach of trust in three separate cases filed in 2019. He faces a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years.
The Jerusalem District Court rejected on 13 November a request made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay his testimony in his corruption trial by 10 weeks.
The court said the premier has already had five months to prepare for his testimony, which is scheduled for 2 December.
“We were not convinced that a substantial change in circumstances has occurred which would justify a change to the date we set in our [original] decision.” As a result, Netanyahu will be forced to take the stand.
https://thecradle.co/articles/top-israeli-court-rejects-netanyahus-request-to-delay-criminal-trial
I’ll bet Netanyahu’s lawyers could find loopholes in the ten commandments, but very interesting, also other members of his inner circle are in the frame for various security related offences. see above comment link.
Personally, if I were one of the prosecutors I would say to Netanyahu what the sheriff said to Marlon Brando in the film ‘one eyed jacks’ “Don’t worry kid, we’ll give you a fair trial, then we’ll hang you”
… or take the line so often used in the first world war… “You will be given a fair trial and shot at dawn.”
What’s the weather and the food like?
Whenever I read anything like this the same question occurs to me. Why don’t American Christians give a fig for Near Eastern Christians?
They couldn’t care less even about their fellow Christianist Americans if they’re the wrong colour
“Why don’t American Christians give a fig for Near Eastern Christians?”
They never did (if we substitute Latin Christians for Americans). Eastern Christianity suffered a setback from the Crusades that they never recovered from. Before they were probably more numerous than the Muslims; afterwards they were in a severe minority, though not as few as now.
I’ve also never understood why ‘american christians’, ie. americans who worship the Christ child, love the Israeli Jews, ie. the one’s who apparently sold out Christ to the Romans. Given that the fanatical Jews believe that all the Goyim are going to be eternally damned, it seems strange. There again, trying to make sense of the average american is a Sisyphean task, they speak ‘english’ but might as well be from Mars.
Christanists think (if their deluded mumbo-jumbo can be called ‘thinking’) that Biblical prophesies have to be fullfilled. That includes establishing a homeland for Jews in the middle east – which is why they’re so happy about it.
There also needs to be a great war there – which is why Christianists get so giddy with excitement whenever wars break out. They actually believe that when the pile of bodies is sufficiently high, the baby Jesus will be satisfied, and – smiling – come slithering down the pile of bodies, bring about the Rapture, and kill all Jews who don’t convert on the spot.
I kid you not – they actually believe in and enthusiastically want this, and do everything to try to further this goal.
I was taught no such things during 12 years in Catholic schools.
Probably because they’re protestant, that is, chris with the good bits left out.
Mr. Murray,
Keep up the great work.
My hair stands on end just reading this article but it is difficult to blame the Lebanese authorities for taking such a suspicious approach given its history.
Lara Marlowe gives a similar hair raising account of her introduction to Beirut in + Chapter 2 “Beirut Mon Amour” of her Love in a Time of War. My Years with Robert Fisk (Apollo Books 2020). This was in 1987 when there was an uneasy lull in its civil war. Re-reading it, although the actors and parts of the script have changed – Syria was in the role of “peacekeeper” and hostage taking was rife – the underlying cause – Israel – has not.
Marlowe writes “Robert (Fisk) could show understanding towards virtually every other group in Lebanon, but he never forgave the Phalange and their successors in the Lebanese Forces for their alliance with Israel, and for repeated massacres of Palestinians. Not all Maronites support fascist ideology, far from it. But Robert questioned how Israel could sponsor a movement whose origins were inspired by anti-Semitic European fascism”.
As an American, Marlowe should never have been there as President Reagan had imposed a travel ban following the earlier blowing up of the American Embassy by “a hitherto unknown group calling itself Islamic Jihad – as part of the Iranian revolution’s campaign against the imperialist presence”.
Marlowe introduces the chapter with a three-verse song/poem “To Beirut”.
“My heartfelt greetings to Beirut
I send kisses to the sea and houses
And to the rock that is like the face of an ancient mariner
From the soul of her people she makes wine
From their sweat she makes bread and jasmine
How did she come to taste of smoke and fire?
To Beirut She brings glory from the ashes
And from the blood of the child she cradled in her arms
My city has snuffed out her lantern
Enclosed herself in darkness
You are mine, you are mine
Embrace me, you are mine
You are my flag, my wave-tossed journey, the stone I carry to tomorrow
The wounds of our people have blossomed
Their mothers’ tears too
You Beirut, you are mine Enfold me”
— Joseph Harb
From 1948 and the creation of the state of Israel the whole story of Lebanon is a tragedy in several acts.
Brilliant report Craig; you’re quite a man; but then again: of course, you’re Scottish. Sending some dosh with PayPal. Orrabest and keep safe, as well as your friend and colleague, Niels.
Very interesting read Craig, thank you, reading the text it feels like I am there myself.
It would be interesting to hear something about the sectarian aspect and how much that influence support/rejection of Hezbollah and even the Palestinian cause. That comment you got from that officer ( “why do you want to support the Palestinians? If you want to support the Palestinians, why don’t you go to Gaza and join them?”) confirm my fear that Lebanon is quite divided/weak. While western media is busy talking about Iranian influence, a way bigger influence, I reckon, comes from Saudi Arabia.
–
I noticed that HRW today accused Israel of committing “crimes against humanity” but when I read the report it dealt solely with the so called “displacements” (why not call it ethnic cleansing?) and not the systematic, senseless, cruel, inhumane bombing of Gaza.
Israel’s Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza
Forced Displacement of Palestinians Leaves Much of Area Uninhabitable
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/14/israels-crimes-against-humanity-gaza
Nonetheless, I am sure human rights organizations will put out the same type of reports on Israel’s destruction of Lebanon. The wholesome destruction of Shia-areas – like that of Dahiya, could constitute acts of genocide by the intent to eradicate a certain religious group.
Once again, Craig, the detail you provide, as in your court reports and other missives, paint an engrossing picture of what it is actually like in Beirut, the likes of which i have not seen in any other media. It puts me in mind of the late, great Robert Fisk. I do worry about you, but i also believe your commitment to truth and justice marks you out as possessor of a rare conscience and determination to do something rather than wring your hands in despair as most of us do, with increasing futility and helplessness.
So i will gladly donate to assist you, and look forward to more fine reporting which will fill in all the blanks which riddle the mainstream reporting – increasingly designed i think to distance us all from it and thus prevent any sense of humanity or empathy with the ordinary people of Lebanon. The downgrading of the constant death toll in Gaza is symptomatic of this heartlessness and covert support for the genocide, illustrated vividly by the concocted nonsense about the poor little football fans who came to Holland for trouble and got roughed up for their disgusting behaviour. The blatant and eager manipulation of the public, in favour of a butchering and criminal government in israel is staggering, even if it has been customary, reaching new levels of quite sickening lying propaganda. It is stunning in its open mendacity.
Therefore what you are proposing to do is an extremely valuable service, even if it sounds extremely hazardous, since we all know how little Israel cares about human life, especially journalists, medics, children and anybody not them. So look after yourself better than your initial experiences, and I hope you get a very good fixer/translator, who could well save your life. And please don’t be foolhardy, you can do a lot of good without going into danger zones. Simply reporting life on the streets and in the homes of Beirut is a powerful antidote to the bland ignorance of mainstream reporting, which is simply a regurgitation of Israeli and right wing talking points. So stay safe, be vigilant and please come home alive.
A vivid read, but you have already predicted how it plays out: Dahiya and other Hezbollah strongholds flattened after a year of bombing. What is the point of offering yourself up to psychotic Israeli drone operators? Not one has been prosecuted or even condemned for daily targeting of toddlers. Think about their mentality.
Many thanks for this and all of your efforts. Very small donation just sent.
Just two weeks? Why couldn’t you have made it two years?
Thank you, Ambassador* Murray. I deeply appreciate your reporting on the situation in Lebanon, and the risks you are taking there. Stay alive!
* “Ambassador” used here as an Honorific Title, assigned for life, based on past – and continued – tireless efforts to set things right by shining light into dark places. As a Citizen of Earth, I believe Craig Murray deserves this title, though, sadly, we have no Planetary Government capable of making it official.
Just take care. Endorse previous comments, but would prefer to read your considered views much further down the road. Inshallah.