"There are now, as the historian Rashid Khalidi has put it, “two peoples in Palestine, irrespective of how they came into being”, and their “mutual acceptance can only be based on complete equality of rights”. If that sounds utopian, it is largely because of the decay of political leadership in both Israel and Palestine. Whatever happens with the Trump plan, no amount of bulldozer diplomacy or external governance will alter that." Kenan Malik

Without a two-state solution or single state with equal rights, what hope is there?

Kenan Malik 

https://observer.co.uk/news/opinion-and-ideas/article/without-two-state-solution-or-single-state-with-equal-rights-what-hope-palestine 

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD QUOTES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]  

https://profilebooks.com/work/the-hundred-years-war-on-palestine/ 

One of the 'Five Best Books to understand the Israel-Palestine Conflict', as chosen by the Guardian  https://profilebooks.com/work/the-hundred-years-war-on-palestine/     & LOOK INSIDE     https://profilebooks.com/wp-content/uploads/wpallimport/files/PDFs/9781781259344_preview.pdf

The $2.7 trillion question - what is the true cost of security? | A new report by the United Nations Secretary-General explores how rebalancing military spending for a sustainable and peaceful future can furnish the security we need.

 

War, conflict, and crisis. 

For ten years, the world has been shaken by inequalities, climate chaos and rising tensions. 

Against this backdrop, military spending reached a record $2.7 trillion last year. 

This choice has a steep cost. It moves us away from diplomacy. It drains money from vital areas like ending hunger and poverty. 

A new report by the United Nations Secretary-General explores how rebalancing military spending for a sustainable and peaceful future can furnish the security we need. 

 The report shows a stark choice: continue to fund militaries or invest in sustainable development to build a future that is truly secure for everyone

. 

United Nations

"80 years ago an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. This must be a reminder to all of us of the irremediable risk of nuclear war, but also of the death and devastation that war — all wars — continue to inflict on human beings caught in conflict. Every day, right now. #Hiroshima80" Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Tricycle of a 3 year old boy named Shinichi Tetsutani, who died 1,500 meters from the hypocenter of Hiroshima atomic bombing, 1945. Shinichi's tricycle has been preserved by the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

 Filippo Grandi

@FilippoGrandi

UN High Commissioner for @Refugees

 

80 years ago an atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima. This must be a reminder to all of us of the irremediable risk of nuclear war, but also of the death and devastation that war — all wars — continue to inflict on human beings caught in conflict. Every day, right now. #Hiroshima80

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

The World Council of Churches (WCC) central committee expressed “deep lamentation and outrage” as the crisis in Palestine and Israel escalates to levels that flagrantly violate international humanitarian and human rights law as well as the most basic principles of morality. The statement calls for naming the reality of apartheid. “We recognize and denounce the system of apartheid imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people, in violation of international law and moral conscience,”

 WCC central committee: end apartheid, occupation, and impunity in Palestine and Israel

22 November 2022, Jerusalem, Palestine: Sunset over the Jerusalem old city and east Jerusalem.  Photo:   Albin Hillert/WCC

What is the World Council of Churches?

A fellowship of 352 churches from more than 120 countries, representing over 580 million Christians worldwide.

24 June 2025

Central Committee 2025

Middle East

Peace-building: Conflict transformation & Reconciliation

“We recognize a clear distinction between the Jewish people, our siblings in faith, and the acts of the Government of Israel, and we reaffirm that the WCC stands firm against any kind of racism, including antisemitism, anti-Arab racism, and islamophobia,” reads a statement released by the WCC governing body. “However, the unbearable suffering inflicted on the people of Gaza, and the escalating violence and oppression in the West Bank and in Jerusalem compel the global fellowship of churches to speak with clarity, urgency, and commitment to the principles of justice under international law and ethics.”

The WCC reaffirmed its longstanding commitment to inter-religious dialogue and cooperation, and to international law as a framework for peace, justice, and accountability. 

The statement calls for naming the reality of apartheid. “We recognize and denounce the system of apartheid imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people, in violation of international law and moral conscience,” the text reads.

The statement calls for implementing sanctions and accountability. “We call on states, churches, and international institutions to impose consequences for violations of international law, including targeted sanctions, divestment, and arms embargoes,” the text reads. “Full support must be given to the International Criminal Court and UN mechanisms investigating potential war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

The statement also affirms Palestinian rights and freedom, justice, return, and self-determination. “We demand the end of the occupation and the lifting of the unlawful blockade on Gaza,” reads the text. 

Finally the statement calls for support for the resilience and witness of Palestinian Christian churches and communities, “upholding their right to remain on their land and to freely practice their faith.”

The statement concludes by commending the leadership of the South African government in seeking justice and accountability to international law through the International Court of Justice, and urge all states to comply with the court’s rulings. “Churches worldwide are called to witness, to speak out, and to act,” the statement concludes.  

https://www.oikoumene.org/news/wcc-central-committee-end-apartheid-occupation-and-impunity-in-palestine-and-israel

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

What Americans think the Israel-Palestine 'conflict' is VS What it really is ...

DECOLONIZE THE NARRATIVE #FREE PALESTINE

I hear reports and see TV commercials showing that Anti-Semitism and other forms of racist hate is increasing. We need to stop that trend

Dear President Biden,

The Israel/Palestine conflict is not about religion, it is about injustice and Israel's extensive violations of international law and basic human rights.  Israel consistently steals Palestinian land and money, freedom and rights, and has been for 75 years. 

Gaza is just the latest phase of the same Zionist plan of intentionally pulverizing Arab lives, farms, families, jobs, and infrastructures whenever and where ever possible. 

Israel's rampant bigotry and rage is surging with state funded religious tyranny & injustice shaping a state sponsored terror that simply should not exist in this day and age. 

The Jewish people I know here in America are good and decent people, with nice lives because they live here in America.  I want every one where ever they might be to be safe and cherished, respected, but I hear reports and see TV commercials showing that anti-Antisemitism is increasing.  We need to stop that trend, and the best way to stop that trend is to recognize that Israel has been setting a horrible example- and so are you by supporting Israel.

Racist delusions, yours and theirs, are apparent as you brag about being a Zionist and you bypass Congress to send more lethal weaponry to Jews-preferred Israel so that Israelis can target, wound and/or kill more native non-Jewish men, women, and children.

Maybe you really are too white, too surrounded by token others and too many "Toms", too manipulated by a foreign country's agents and bribes- and too obtuse to see the truth about Israel & Zionism:   Palestinian men, women, and children have been cruelly trapped and tormented by modern man-made Israel's Jews-preferred policies, apartheid walls, violence and home demolitions.

America should not be investing in Israel in any way, shape or form.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

& a version for some other of my elected officials

Dear VP Harris, Perry, Fetterman, Casey

The Israel/Palestine conflict is not about religion, it is about injustice and Israel's extensive violations of international law and basic human rights.  

Israel consistently steals Palestinian land and money, freedom and rights, and has been for 75 years. 

Gaza is just the latest phase of the same Zionist plan of intentionally pulverizing Arab lives, farms, families, jobs, and infrastructures whenever and where ever possible. 

Israel's rampant bigotry and rage is surging with state funded religious tyranny, injustice, and violence shaping a state sponsored terror that simply should not exist in this day and age. 

The Jewish people I know here in America are good and decent people, with nice lives because they live here in America.  I want every one where ever they might be to be safe and cherished, respected, but I hear reports and see TV commercials showing that anti-antisemitism and other forms of racist hate is increasing.  We need to stop that trend, and the best way to stop that trend is to recognize that Israel has been setting a horrible example, and inspiring the worst in many different people.

Palestinian men, women, and children have been cruelly trapped and tormented by modern man-made Israel's Jews-preferred policies, apartheid walls, violence and home demolitions.

America should not be investing in, or protecting Israel in any way, shape or form.  Nor should we be trusting Israel as a source for news and information, or security advice.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

Notes

Israel eases up on bombing parts of Gaza, but only as famine and disease take their hold.

I hear reports and see TV commercials showing that anti-Antisemitism and other forms of racist hate is increasing. We need to stop that trend

Together, we have the power to shift the narrative on Palestine and build a future of collective liberation- Visualizing Palestine NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

Homeless in my homeland by Hanin A. Elholy

Almost all the universities in Gaza destroyed or damaged. A huge amount of students and academic staff killed.

Israel Pushing for More Forced Displacement ("Voluntary Migration") for the Indigenous Non-Jewish First and Forever People of Historic Palestine

Meanwhile Intel Corp. is making a $25 billion investment in Israel & GenocideJoe Biden bypasses Congress to send racist Israel more weaponry to ensure continuing violence.

Hanan Ashrawi "We are the only people asked to guarantee the security of our occupier... while Israel is the only country that calls for defense from its victims..."

Our Dinner Today: A True Story of Historic Palestine, Gardening, Good Food, & Family by Mike Hanini Odetalla

Mosab Abu Toha · Heartbreaking to learn that Ammar Ghraiba, a young motion graphic designer and an aspiring filmmaker, got killed today. Our journalists, poets, and filmmakers are killed. But the story, the poem, and the film continue.

Like Palestinians in the rest of east Jerusalem, most Armenians do not hold Israeli citizenship but only residency...

Christmas is Palestine WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

Fallen United Nations Aid Workers- Courtesy of UN Agency for Palestine Refugees via This Week in Palestine

Ahmad Khairy another Palestinian journalist killed by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza

The Jewish settlers 'living the American dream' in the West Bank

Powerful Bansky

Israeli snipers planted a bag of flour and snipe at whoever goes near. There are several martyrs in this area, please tell your families not to approach. It's a trap! ~ Message from Gaza

UN asks Israel to end 'unlawful killings' in West Bank & Read more: ‘I was very terrified’: The ordeal of two children detained by Israeli forces in Gaza

28 Dec 2023 Israeli bombing kills two more journalists in northern Gaza & Israeli forces raided six exchange companies in the West Bank, seizing the money then blowing up the safes.

My letter to my elected officials: Hamas violence, Israeli violence, American violence, domestic violence- ALL are ALL WRONG & totally counter-productive.

Don't let our tax dollars pollute the Holy Land with more bullets & bombs... & racist hate

Invest Time & Money in American Ideals - NOT ISRAEL ... letter to my elected officials

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin?

The UN Mediator for Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, believed that the Palestinians displaced had a right to return to their homes and wrote several UN reports to that effect.

"It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and, indeed, at least offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries."

Bernadotte was assassinated on Friday 17 September 1948 by members of the group Lehi, a Zionist terrorist organization, commonly known in the West as the Stern Gang

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world

An American Muslim student’s perspective on the Palestinian-Israeli crisis in the Stanford Daily December 8 2023

 "Terrorism is terrorism, whether it’s committed by a state or a stateless people. Terrorism is terrorism whether the U.S. government acknowledges it or not.

Israel is most deserving of the “terrorist” title in this conflict, especially given their lack of mitigating circumstances: they are not being occupied or blockaded, they have international support and they have advanced military technology capable of precise targeting. Why, then, are Muslim students asked to condemn Hamas, while advocates for Israel are not asked to condemn the IDF?

What is Israel’s excuse for leveling residential buildings? Or targeting refugee camps and schools with airstrikes? Or cutting off electricity, food, medicine and fuel to all of Gaza as collective punishment? Or dropping white phosphorus on civilians? Or ordering over a million Gazans to evacuate before bombing an evacuation route? Or murdering over 170 civilians in the West Bank, which is not governed by Hamas, while the world is distracted by grave risk of genocide in Gaza?" Hamza El Boudali

 

From the Community | A Muslim student’s perspective on the Palestinian-Israeli crisis

(Photo: UJWAL SRIVASTAVA/The Stanford Daily)

Opinion by From the Community

Hamza El Boudali ’22 is a master’s student in computer science.

 

Dec. 8, 2023, 5:29 a.m.

 

 Over the past nine weeks, students showing solidarity with Palestine have been incessantly accused of supporting terrorism — I have received comments, emails and social media messages claiming that I support beheading babies.... READ MORE 

 

https://stanforddaily.com/2023/12/08/from-the-community-a-muslim-students-perspective-on-the-palestinian-israeli-crisis/

 

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES or quotes IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

Statement from APWU [American Postal Workers Union] General Officers on the Conflict in Israel and Palestine

November 8, 2023

The American Postal Workers Union is shocked and saddened by the tragic and ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine. As working people, we stand with the oppressed and the innocent, thousands of whom have lost their lives in the last month.

As a union that stands for equality, social justice, human and labor rights, and international solidarity, we unite with unions and people of goodwill around the world in calls for justice and peace.

We unreservedly condemn the Hamas violence of October 7, which killed over 1,000 Israeli civilians and saw the kidnapping of more than 200 people.

However, Israel’s response has made the prospects for peace more remote. Over 10,000 innocent civilians, including 4000 children, have been killed by the relentless and indiscriminate bombing campaign on Gaza. Israel has shut off the flow of food, water, fuel and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip, a war crime. A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding every day in Gaza. Thousands more innocent civilians stand to die wholly preventable deaths.

We call on our government, which is the primary foreign benefactor of the Israeli government, to use all its power to protect innocent lives and to help bring about peace in the region, and not use our tax dollars for more war.

We join the calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, and urgently needed massive humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. The cries of humanity demand nothing less.

APWU General Officers: President, Mark Dimondstein; Executive Vice President, Debby Szeredy; Secretary-Treasurer, Elizabeth 'Liz' Powell.

 Statement from APWU General Officers on the Conflict in Israel and Palestine

https://apwu.org/news/international/statement-apwu-general-officers-conflict-israel-and-palestine

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Mr Biden, I have lost 36 members of my extended family in Gaza in just one day. I want you to know their names.

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

 Opinions|Israel-Palestine conflict

A letter to President Biden from a grieving Palestinian

Mr Biden, I have lost 36 members of my extended family in Gaza in just one day. I want you to know their names.

• 
  Ghada Ageel

  Professor of political science

  Dear President Biden,

  On Thursday morning, October 26, I woke up to the news of yet another massacre in Gaza.

  This time, Israel killed members of my own extended family. The crime scene was Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip – note, not in the north, but the south, where people were supposed to be safe, according to the Israeli army. An entire residential quarter of the camp where I was born and raised was ruthlessly bombarded and reduced to rubble by apartheid Israel.... READ MORE
  

   https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/11/4/a-letter-to-president-biden-from-a-grieving-palestinian

   

Press Freedom

 

Threats against journalists are threats against fundamental freedoms. 

Now, more than ever, we need facts. 

Defending journalism is standing up for democracy. 

United Nations

@UN

 

The UN works for everyone, everywhere, by:  

 

responding to conflict  

 

protecting refugees  

 

feeding the hungry  

 

addressing the climate emergency  

 

empowering women  

 

helping in humanitarian crises 

 

& much more.

 

 https://un.org/en/our-work

un.org

Born October 24, 1945

Before You Can- a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye in Everything Comes Next

 

Naomi Shihab Nye

 

 Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet and songwriter born in 1952 to a Palestinian father, Aziz Shihab, who worked as a journalist, editor and writer, and American mother, Miriam Allwardt Shihab, an artist who worked as a Montessori school teacher.^[4] Her father grew up in Palestine. He and his family became refugees in 1948, when the state of Israel was created. She has said her father "seemed a little shell-shocked when I was a child."^[5]   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naomi_Shihab_Nye

Diana Buttu: The Palestinian Dispossession at the Heart of the Gaza Conflict

 "Israeli courts are not operating in a vacuum but rather are an integral part of Israel’s land-grabbing enterprise. But even as the courts — particularly its Supreme Court — are implicated in this project, they are treated overseas with reverence as impartial adjudicators of law, even though the laws they enforce are at odds with international norms. Israeli Supreme Court judges are frequently invited to speak at law schools around the world to describe the “difficulties” they face when adjudicating cases.

They will rubber stamp more evictions, all the while using the tool of law to provide a veneer of integrity.

But as the families of Sheikh Jarrah, like the families of Silwan and other Palestinian neighborhoods where Israeli settlers are targeting Palestinians for expulsion, know, the Israeli courts will not rule in their favor. They will rubber stamp more evictions, all the while using the tool of law to provide a veneer of integrity. In so doing, in advancing Israel’s creeping colonization of Palestinian territory, they are also foreclosing any opportunity of a peaceful resolution.

It isn’t just in the realm of settler takeovers that Palestinians have witnessed the unjust application of Israeli law. The courts have sanctioned scores of discriminatory laws to preserve Israel’s status as a “Jewish state.” They have sanctioned the construction of Israeli bypass roads and settlements in the occupied West Bank and have only begrudgingly stopped the small number of outposts built on private Palestinian land. They have approved the use of home demolitions as a form of punishment, authorized assassinations (euphemized as “targeted killings”), approved mass deportations, and licensed the cutting off of fuel and electricity to the besieged Gaza Strip.

The court enables and provides legal cover to an unequal system, which, according to both B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch, meets the definition of apartheid..." READ MORE- AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE ORIGINAL LINK TO READ THE ARTICLE IN FULL

A view of Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem/Getty images

/AR

Middle East

May 14 2021

The Palestinian Dispossession at the Heart of the Gaza Conflict

The violence in Gaza rightly captures headlines, but it conceals the silent and relentless dispossession at the heart of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians

Diana Buttu Diana Buttu is a Palestinian human rights lawyer who formerly served as a legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team

"We reject the “two-sides” narrative that ignores the differences between one of the most heavily militarized states in the world and a Palestinian population resisting their oppressors."

The Middle East Section Of The American  Anthropological Association

MES Statement on Palestine

We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against ongoing settler colonialism and condemn Zionist violence against them, including forced evictions and retaliatory violence by Israeli state forces against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and within the state of Israel. We condemn the recent forced evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem–part of a now decades long campaign of ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem–and Israeli violence perpetrated against families trying to defend their homes.

In October 2014, nearly 1200 anthropologists signed “Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions” to support the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. On November 20, 2015, a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions was endorsed by a vote of 1040-136 at the American Anthropological Association business meeting. It was subsequently forwarded to the full membership for an electronic ballot and narrowly missed adoption by a razor-thin margin of 39 votes (2,423 for and 2,384 against).

Seven years later, on April 27, 2021, Human Rights Watch issued a landmark report, characterizing the Israeli state’s systemic discrimination and violence as inflicting “deprivations… so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” A similar conclusion was reached by the Israeli Human Rights organization B’tselem in January 2021. Palestinian activists have long made this argument. It reflects how foregone the reality of the Israeli Apartheid system is that mainstream international human rights organizations now find themselves forced to acknowledge the reality of the situation on the ground, despite tremendous political pressure from the state of Israel and its supporters.

We reject the “two-sides” narrative that ignores the differences between one of the most heavily militarized states in the world and a Palestinian population resisting their oppressors. This is a state which continues to displace, dispossess, and murder those living under its illegal occupation, based in on-going settler colonialism, and a system of ethnic, religious, and racial apartheid. Palestinian resistance to this violent system of occupation and apartheid is a legal right.

As members of a U.S. professional organization that continues to grapple with systemic racism and inequality in our field and our practices, we condemn settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and racial capitalism that connect the United States and Israel. We stand with those working to dismantle these systems of oppression, and we amplify their calls for justice, equality, and human dignity.

Israel’s policies of closure, land confiscation, house demolitions and dispossession of Palestinians, unlawful arrest, injury and killing of Palestinian civilians have continued unabetted since AAA last took up this issue. We call on our colleagues in their classrooms, universities, and beyond to:

1. Reject the “two-sides” narrative that erases power hierarchies.
2. Recognize the framework of apartheid as applicable to describe Israel’s systematic repression of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and within Israel’s 1948 boundaries.
3. Recognize that Israel’s violent repression often constitutes crimes against humanity.
4. Reject the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism which has been used by Israel’s supporters to suppress legitimate criticism of Israel.[1]

Sincerely,

MES Executive Board

[1] An alternative is presented by the Independent Jewish Voice of Canada that defines antisemitism AND does not suppress criticism of Israel: https://www.ijvcanada.org/jerusalem-declaration/

http://mes.americananthro.org/mes-statement-on-palestine/?fbclid=IwAR1KTuHk30qWSs877FEGknPw9Ob3Tn5IlWQnbiAIfdIJX32pCJwoyG-EWkc

 

 MES

The membership of the MES and anthropology as a whole are uniquely poised to contribute to establishing and promoting public understanding and policy frameworks that accommodate the historical experience and sociocultural diversity of the peoples of the Middle East.

The Middle East Section (MES) of the American Anthropological Association convenes anthropologists with an interest in the peoples, cultures and histories of the Middle East. Our membership is noteworthy for its disciplinary diversity: socio-cultural anthropologists, linguistic anthropologists, physical anthropologists and archaeologists, as well as practicing anthropologists from these subdisciplines, all participate actively in the section, and our membership thrives on the participation of members from the United States, the Middle East, and from other parts of the world. http://mes.americananthro.org/about/

A century on, the debate over the killings continues.

Patrick Chappatte for The New York Times

Syrian refugees, sectarian tensions endanger Lebanon

Syrian refugee children collect plastics as they stand along a street in south of Sidon, southern Lebanon June 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

 [AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]  

http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-refugees-sectarian-tensions-endanger-lebanon-u-n-150552237.html

By Stephanie Nebehay

Related Stories

• Militants in Lebanon seek to emulate Islamic State Reuters
• Syria refugees soon a third of Lebanon population, says UN AFP
• Suicide bombers bring Iraq conflict ever closer to Lebanon Christian Science Monitor
• Lebanese MPs fail to elect president for eighth time Reuters
• Hezbollah fighters killed in clash on Syria-Lebanon border Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Lebanon is at risk of crumbling as a state under the burden of 1.1 million Syrian refugees and foreign donors must make good on pledges of support to help it survive the crisis, the top U.N. official in the small coastal country warned on Monday.

Political and religious leaders in Lebanon, both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim, so far have kept a lid on growing tensions but donor nations have not honored aid commitments, said Ross Mountain, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator. 

"This is no longer just a humanitarian emergency," said Mountain. "It is what the former president (Michel Suleiman) described as an existential crisis for Lebanon. It's about the security of the country, the stability of the country and I would suggest what happens in Lebanon will affect the region."

Over 1.12 million refugees from Syria's civil war next door have registered in Lebanon, accounting for one-quarter of its population and exacerbating a severe water shortage, Mountain said. The influx is expected to reach 1.5 million by year-end.

"We fear (tensions) will expand even further and not only result in Syrian-Lebanese interactions but also unfortunately raise the specter of Lebanese-Lebanese inter-sectarian problems," Mountain told a news briefing in Geneva.

Syria's Sunni-Shi'ite sectarian divisions are largely mirrored in Lebanon, where civil war raged from 1975 to 1990. 

Lebanese authorities have acknowledged the crisis, with the social affairs minister saying last week that the country faced political and economic collapse as the number of refugees threaten to exceed a third of the population. 

"NOT AN EARLY WARNING"

The Middle East, reeling from crises in Syria, Iraq and now Gaza, does not need Lebanon to be mired in another civil war, he said. "If in our business it's important to talk about early warning, it's not early but I'm warning." 

Yet donors have only contributed $500 million towards a $1.6 billion appeal for aid progams in Lebanon this year, he said.

"It certainly hinges on money but doesn't only hinge on money. While there have been a number of security incidents linked to extremists, some bombings a couple of months ago and the rise of ISIS, the good news at the moment is that the Lebanese security forces have been effective in limiting that."

ISIS - Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - is an Islamist militant force in control of wide tracts of eastern Syria and adjacent northern Iraq. It recently shortened its name to Islamic State and, seeking to rewrite the Middle East map, has declared a mediaeval-style caliphate in the region it holds.

Islamic State's success has emboldened like-minded militants...READ MORE