This film clip from Human Rights Watch explains (why Lebanese are coming in boats)
Abbott and Morrison claim that they (Lebanese) are ‘economic refugees’ and have sent Lebanese community leaders out to tell people not to come.
I remember a family in Melbourne last year who told of gunmen taking over their home by force becasue it was high on the hill and a good place to shoot from. They told of running out of their house with their neighbours during a lull in shooting. As they ran down the hill with children and babies in arms, the gunmen shot at them. The neighbours four year old daughter was blown to bits by a shot. Their own little girl saw her friend’s bloodied body in the arms on of weeping father. This is why they came to Australia braving a boat journey.
—
Pamela Curr
Refugee Rights Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
12 Batman St West Melbourne 3003
ph 03 9326 6066 / MOB 0417517075
“AUSTRALIA. Built by boatpeople.
Refugees are not coming to Australia solely because of sectarian conflict brought on by the catastrophe in Syria.
Countries in the middle east are not remote from their neighbours in the way that Australia is. They do not have a sea separating them, and some have hostile neighbours.
Who has been been behind the ongoing invasion and occupation of countries in the middle east like Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon?
Why countries like the US, Britain and Australia, of course.
Who is behind the invasion of Syria? Who is arming the forces against the Assad regime? Israel? Saudi Arabia? The Muslim brotherhood in Egypt? Who are the real culprits behind the proxies?
France and the USA’s ally, Saudi Arabia, giving $3BILLION to equip the Lebanese army has got to be fuel for more conflict and therefore more refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries with a few ending up in Australia.
Proxies
If we go back to Israeli bombing of the Lebanese people on 13th July 2006 (Israel declares war!), it wasn’t Iran that drove 30 years of Israeli occupation out of Lebanon in 2006, it was Hezbollah. It was the Lebanese community that supported their fighters. Not Iran or the Lebanese army or anyone else. The US and Australia supported Israel as they had always done, right through my lifetime (b. 1950).
Compare the $Billions of dollars in arms, ships and aircraft that the US has given Israel for the past 60 years with the money Iran has given Hezbollah since it became a political force in Lebanon (not that long ago in comparison). Whose is the bigger contribution to instability, loss of life and refugees? Israel or Iran? And by what right were these arms given? Did they consult the victims of conflict? Of course not. Was it by that same right claimed by Australia in assisting the US invade Iraq and Afghanistan? For what reason? WMDs? Pah! 9/11? Readers will remember it was a band of Saudis who brought down the twin towers in NY.
So i ask, where is the instability & crisis and loss of human life in Lebanon and Syria really coming from?
And who is going to oppose the real culprits, and how?
Ian Curr
12 Jan 2014
References
Israel declares war!
saudi-arabia-france-make-their-move-in-lebanon