Israel
Targeted Farms And Homes
By Simon Assaf
31 August, 2006
Socialist
Worker
An
early survey of the destruction in Lebanon shows that Israel deliberately
attempted to destroy the Lebanese economy during the month-long war
- targeting farms, hospitals and generators.
The Samidoun solidarity network,
which was set up during the war to care for refugees, has been detailing
the extent of the destruction in the south.
They discovered that the
Israeli assault was directed mainly at local communities. This was confirmed
in an extensive tour of the south carried out by journalists.
The network found that 25
hospitals and clinics were destroyed or badly damaged across the south,
as were hundreds of small workshops, shops, water pumping stations and
generators.
Destruction
The pattern of destruction
is inconsistent with Israeli claims that they were targeting Hizbollah
missile sites and infrastructure in the war.
In a tour of villages along
the Israeli border we found many telltale signs of Hizbollah’s
rocket launch sites. In all but one case the sites were hundreds of
metres from homes, usually in fields at the bottom of valleys.
Yet in no instance did we
find evidence of any airstrikes on the launch sites. Instead the homes,
shops and businesses in the surrounding villages were demolished.
For the Israelis to target
civilian areas confirms what many locals told us - that the Israelis
wanted to destroy their homes and ruin the local economy as punishment
for supporting the resistance.
This policy was used to devastating
effect in the northern agricultural region of the Hermel. Warplanes
destroyed the agricultural college, which contained important farming
records. They also bombed key irrigation canals, fish farms, dairies,
farm equipment and storage buildings.
The southern village of Srifa
is typical of the range and scale of destruction. Before the war over
4,500 people lived in the village. Now with 75 percent of the village
in ruins, only 1,500 refugees have been able to return to their homes.
In Aita al-Shaab, the scene
of a ferocious Israeli ground offensive, only one in ten homes is habitable.
The local clinic was levelled, as were the shops including the pharmacy.
The annual tobacco crop is ruined - costing £3 million in lost
earnings.
In nearby Shehabieh, refugees
returned to discover that 250 cows, donkeys and sheep were killed in
the bombardment. The animals’ corpses lie rotting in the fields,
but fears over cluster bombs and other unexploded shells have hampered
efforts to clear them away.
The targeting of the Jiyeh
power station south of Beirut also illustrated the pattern of destruction.
The oil storage containers behind the power station were hit by missiles
spilling tens of thousands of tonnes of oil into the sea.
Before puncturing the containers
Israeli gunners destroyed the containment wall - making sure that the
oil reached the sea.
Pollution
This spill has ruined the
fishing industry. Environmental pressure group Greenline estimates that
30,000 families will lose their income because of the pollution (see
below).
The group said that they
have been unable to conduct an aerial or sea survey of the spill because
of the continuing siege. Now they warn that the currents will change,
dragging the oil back to the south. Over 75 percent of the coast has
been affected by the pollution.
The most cynical act, however,
remains the bombing of medical facilities. In Bint Jbail we were shown
a 500lb bomb that failed to explode. The bomb, which landed 20 metres
from the hospital wards, would have levelled the hospital.
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