Vor wenigen Monaten haben wir in diesem Blog einen Bericht zu dem Massaker von Qana 1996 publiziert . Aufgrund der gestrigen Ereignisse veröffentlichen wir eine weitere Email von Dr. Riad Kassis:
Qana is about 10 miles east of the southern Lebanese coastal city of Tyre. According to traditions it is the village where Jesus Christ performed his first miracle by turning water into wine (John 2: 1-???). The presence and work of Jesus gave the wedding a new turn and flavor. He brought in joy, happiness and gladness to all present. This is what Jesus did when he was in Qana! The story in Qana is different in 1996 and today!
In 1996, a Fijian UNIFIL compound in the village was shelled by Israeli artillery. Around 800 Lebanese civilians had taken refuge there to escape the fighting, of whom 106 were killed and around 116 others injured. Four UNIFIL soldiers were also seriously injured. This was the First Massacre of Qana!
In 1996, Roberst Fisk wrote in the Independent: “The Lebanese refugee women and children and men lay in heaps, their hands or arms or legs missing, beheaded or disembowelled. There were well over a hundred of them. A baby lay without a head. The Israeli shells had scythed through them as they lay in the United Nations shelter, believing that they were safe under the world's protection.” The words of Fisk could be repeated today as well.
Last night, was a noisy and fearful night as Israeli jet fighters were hovering the skies of Lebanon. While I was trying to sleep in the middle of the night I was thinking of what the morning will bring to Lebanon. I woke up to the news that an Israeli air strike hit a four-story residential building used as a shelter by Lebanese refugees in the southern Lebanese town of Qana Sunday morning, killing and wounding more than 65 people, 30 of them are infants and young children. This is the Second Massacre of Qana!
In 1996, Israel Army Deputy Chief of Staff, Matan Vilnai stated that the shells hit the base not because they were off target, but because Israeli gunners used outdated maps of the area. He also stated that the gunners miscalculated the firing range of the shells. Today Israeli army officials state again that the targeted building was used as a human shield.
Enough of this nonsense! I am sick not only because of such excuses, but because many in the West believe these claims as well! There is and will never be an acceptable excuse for the killing of civilians most of them children and women. The excuse that the US is waiting for a “sustainable solution”, without calling for an immediate cease fire, is nonsense too. It is only a green light for Israel to continue it atrocities on Lebanon.
My great disappointment is with the international community, with fundamentalist evangelical community, with some Arab regimes! I have written on this elsewhere . Now as I watch the bodies of little children I am really outraged and furious! How many “Qanas massacres” are we waiting for to happen before a cease fire takes place?
As an Arab evangelical I call, at least, all Christians and particularly evangelicals who enjoy seeing the turning of water into blood in the name of end time prophecy to think seriously that their call is rather to turn water into wine of gladness, peace, and life. Are we looking for the presence of Christ in Lebanon and Israel or for the presence of US smart bombs? Are we peacemakers or angels of death?
The Revd Riad Kassis, PhD
