Tempers
Rise Over Reconstruction
By Dahr Jamail
23 April, 2007
Inter
Press Service
BINT JBAIL, Apr 23
(IPS) - Eight months after Israeli attacks left devastation
across many villages in southern Lebanon, reconstruction comes with
mounting anger towards both Israel and the central Lebanese government.
The war which raged between
Israel and Hezbollah Jul. 12 to Aug. 14 last year destroyed many villages
in the south, and left others badly damaged.
Starting from within hours
of the ceasefire, about a million people who had fled southern Lebanon
began to return, many to wrecked homes. One of the towns almost completely
destroyed was Bint Jbail, less than 5km from the Lebanese-Israeli border.
"Israeli warplanes would
bomb us, then their tanks up above the hill outside our city would shell
people when they fled their homes," mayor Ali Beydoun told IPS
at his partially destroyed house. "I have come back to work on
rebuilding our home, while my family is staying in Dahiyeh in Beirut."
Dahiyeh is the southern suburb of Beirut which was also bombed heavily
by Israeli warplanes.
Beydoun is just as angry
with the current Lebanese government as with the Israeli military.
"We support the opposition
to the government because we want our rights and we want justice and
support in rebuilding from the war," he said. "At least the
head of the government should come see what happened to his own country."
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad
Siniora never visited southern Lebanon to see what happened during the
war. "Instead he went on holiday to Jordan. Is it possible for
a prime minister not to know or care about his own country?"
Rather than funding from
the Lebanese government, Bint Jbail is being rebuilt primarily with
money from Qatar, and with some help from Hezbollah, which was first
on the scene with funding and relief supplies for the residents.
Others are angry with the
local government.
"The local municipality
isn't letting us rebuild our homes the way they were," Bilal Hussein
Jama'a told IPS. "They want to build a bigger road and more modern
housing units, but this could affect my house as I had before."
Jama'a, who had stayed in
the conflict-ridden city for the first 17 days of the war, is also up
against both the Israeli military and the Lebanese government.
"They can bomb us one
day and we'll rebuild the next because we are not afraid of them,"
he said. "But the rebuilding is on our own, with the help of Qatar
and Hezbollah and Iran, but not from our own impotent government."
Jama'a said he supported
"100 percent" the continuing sit-in near the parliament in
Beirut led by several opposition parties.
Residents are angry that
there is no support from the government, but that the government steps
in to regulate construction paid for by others.
Hussein Ayoub, now rebuilding
his house in the border village Maroun er Ras, said a rich Kuwaiti was
financing reconstruction of several houses in his village.
"The man wanted to pay
directly, but Siniora forced him to pay through the Lebanese government,"
he said. "We're not getting our rights and the government is responsible,
so we must protest to demand our rights now."
He added, "I'm disgusted
with state interference with how I want to rebuild my home. They send
people to come check how I'm building it, but with no assistance whatsoever."
Amnesty International stated
after the war ended that many of the attacks on Lebanon's civilian infrastructure
were collective punishment, and not the "collateral damage"
that Israel claimed.
United Nations Development
Programme spokesman Jean Fabre had estimated in August 2006 that economic
losses to Lebanon from the month-long war amounted to "at least
15 billion dollars."
According to the Lebanese
government, more than 1,100 civilians were killed during the war. Also,
43 Israeli civilians died from rockets fired by Hezbollah.
The fighting is over but
tension continues to hang over the region. A Lebanese soldier at a border
post who asked not to be named told IPS that Israeli warplanes have
been flying into Lebanese airspace nearly every week in violation of
the UN-brokered ceasefire agreement.
"We see the drones (unmanned
espionage aircraft) nearly every single day," the Lebanese soldier
added. This IPS correspondent too observed an Israeli warplane overhead
in southern Lebanon, and at least one military drone.
Digg
it! And spread the word!
Here is a unique to chance to help this article to be read by thousands
of people more. You just Digg it, and it will appear in the home page
of Digg.com and thousands more will read it. Digg is nothing but an
vote, the article with most votes will go to the top of the page. So,
as you read just give a digg and help thousands more to read this article.
Click
here to comment
on this article