WITNESS 08

12 July 2006 – Hizbullah guerrillas seize two Israeli
12 August 2006 – The UN Security Council
Dear Supporter, soldiers and kill eight in a cross-border raid. unanimously adopts Resolution 1701 calling for an
end to the conflict, the deployment of UNIFIL

13 July 2006 – Israel imposes an air and sea forces in south Lebanon and the disarmament of
MAP's work began in the Palestinian refugee camps during the years of civil war in blockade on Lebanon and bombs targets across the
Lebanon. In the period since, MAP has shifted away from the provision of international all Lebanese militias.
country, including Beirut International Airport,
medical volunteers and today supports local partners across a broad range of health related killing 44 civilians.
14 August 2006 – A ceasefire comes into effect,
issues. The ability to respond quickly and effectively in emergency situations remains central but Israel maintains its air and sea blockade of

30 July 2006 – An Israeli airstrike on a building in Lebanon until 8 September.
to MAP's mission and values. Qana kills up to 40 people.
This commitment was tested during the conflict between Israel and Hizbullah last
25 January 2007 – States pledge $7.62bn in grants
summer. Hostilities erupted with little warning and few were prepared for Israel's exhaustive and loans towards reconstruction at the Paris 3
donors' conference.
and systematic bombardment of south Lebanon. MAP responded with the distribution of
water supplies and emergency hygiene kits and gave its immediate support to the Lebanese
Red Cross.
But the real test for MAP came after the conflict, when media attention had moved on. MPs Kerry McCarthy, Andy Love, Colin Breed, Shahid Malik and Tom Levitt visiting the devastated village of Aita Chaab in November 2006. © MAP

OVERVIEW: TIMELINE
For the civilian victims of the war, there was a real risk of long-term displacement. After the
loss of homes and businesses, with debts accumulating and land that could not be harvested,
life was a daily struggle.
The destruction of property in the south was extensive and in the post conflict environment,
the focus was on restoring livelihoods as quickly as possible. MAP is now working closely on
the ground with individual communities, to address their needs and to help them set out a
future that they can sustain themselves. Following the war, MAP also directed its advocacy
efforts at raising awareness of the demands of reconstruction and the ongoing impact of the
war on already vulnerable communities. This work continues.
This issue of Witness comes at a time of considerable insecurity in Lebanon. The political
situation remains volatile, but MAP's work continues to make a real difference to people's
daily lives and we thank you for enabling us to help them.

Rehana Kirthisingha
Programme Manager March 2007
Lebanon
 F F
DEVASTATION IN THE SOUTH
The people of Lebanon paid a
startlingly high price for the conflict
F E AT U R E : D E VA S TAT I O N I N T H E S O U T H
that erupted between Israel and
Hizbullah in July 2006. Almost one
million Lebanese were displaced
from their homes as they fled
Israeli air strikes and ground forces
and over 1,000 Lebanese civilians
were killed. Israel too suffered
casualties. Under threat of Hizbullah
rocket fire, up to 50 per cent of the
population of northern Israel left
their homes. Forty-three Israeli
civilians lost their lives.
In south Lebanon, Hizbullah's heartland, lives were
lost and livelihoods were destroyed. Entire villages
were razed to the ground. The devastation was
extensive, but the targets were unambiguous.
Hizbullah-controlled municipalities such as Aita
Chaab, Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbail suffered
extensive damage. The entire area south of the
Litani river was cut off from the outside world while
the war raged for over a month.
These remnants of the conflict posed a serious threat
to the displaced civilian population trying to return to
their villages. Covering more than 32.7 million square
metres of land across south Lebanon, the extent of the
contamination was greater than the concentration of
cluster munitions witnessed in the conflicts in Kosovo
and Iraq. By the end of 2006, one person was still
Aita Chaab, from where the kidnappers launched their being killed every 12 hours by unexploded munitions
raid, took its first hit on 12 July. After 20 days of aerial dropped by Israel during the conflict.
bombardment and shelling, the village was overrun by
F E AT U R E : D E VA S TAT I O N I N T H E S O U T H
Israeli troops. When they left, the village was gone. In The war with Israel lasted five weeks, but its effects
place of homes and schools were acres of rubble will be felt for years to come. The issues that led to the
littered with the possessions families couldn't carry conflict are yet to be resolved and Lebanon's political
No home was left untouched by the bombing in the village of Aita Chaab. © MAP
with them when they fled – mattresses, furniture, toys crisis still threatens the country with instability. Added
and clothes. to this, the economy has stalled and people are out of
work. In this climate, MAP's programme on the
An improbable assortment of objects escaped ground is crucial.
the carnage. A full-length mirror, unbroken and
unscratched, rose up from the ruins of the home So too is the advocacy work that MAP is undertaking.
In November 2006, three months after the conflict,
it had furnished. A fridge, its contents intact, stood
undamaged in a home that had disappeared around it. MAP joined with the Council for Arab-British
Understanding (CAABU) to lead a delegation of
Some of the fiercest fighting happened in Bint Jbail. British MPs to Lebanon. This mission informed their
Most of the town's 20,000 residents fled ahead of understanding of the deeply complex political crisis
the battle that took place there between Israeli and in Lebanon and made vividly clear the long-term
Hizbullah forces. Others stayed, too old, too ill, or too consequences of the war facing Lebanon, its people
poor to leave. Some simply refused to go. Hardly a and its economy.
building was left standing.
Months after the war, the south was still paying a
heavy price in lives and livings. During 34 days of
conflict, Israel fired an estimated 1.2 million cluster
bombs into south Lebanon. Old, and possibly released
at low altitude, these bombs experienced a staggering
Sources: BBC, Israel Defense Forces, Human Rights Watch, UNHCR, Mines
Advisory Group
30-40% failure rate.
 MAP’S PARTNERS
The School for Children with Special Needs
It took Israeli forces only three
hours to destroy Aita Chaab's Special
Needs School on 14 July. The school
was the vision of one woman whose
son's disability meant he was
M A P ’ S PA R T N E R S : S C S N
But livelihoods had also been destroyed in the
bombing and months after the conflict there was
still no support for families who needed to rebuild their
homes and restart their businesses.
MAP had begun working with the School for Children
With international support, the School for Special
Needs has been rebuilt and an extra three storeys
added. MAP is now encouraging families in Aita
Chaab and the surrounding villages to think about
what they would like their community to look like
in future and to consider what the needs of the
disabled are in particular.
MAP is engaged in a three-year programme of
sustained intervention in Aita Chaab. Physiotherapy,
speech therapy and occupational therapy services
will be developed and with the new space, the
school's activities will be expanded to include
vocational training workshops and enterprise
training. This will benefit disabled students long
after they leave the school, supporting their efforts
to secure their livelihoods and helping to ensure
safer working environments for all.

M A P ’ S PA R T N E R S : S C S N
with Special Needs in Aita Chaab before the war,
excluded from the only educational providing special education for children with learning

services available in the south.
It had taken ten years to make her
dream a reality. It was gone in the
blink of an eye.
Students from the School for Special Needs using a tent for classes after the
difficulties. Plans were in place to develop programmes
to support young people who were about to leave
formal schooling but who required continued support
in the community.

Israel's bombardment of south Lebanon left no
home intact in Aita Chaab. The public service
infrastructure was completely destroyed and no
family was untouched. Many Lebanese fled the
south during the conflict, but for those with disabled
In the wake of the conflict with Israel, there is a
growing need to expand services to provide
physiotherapy and occupational therapy services to
the victims of air strikes, mines and accidents whose
physical disabilities require specialised services.

destruction of their school. © MAP

relatives, little money and no family in the north,
leaving simply wasn't an option.
Aita Chaab received significant emergency aid in
the wake of the conflict and with international
assistance, roads and bridges connecting the town
with the capital were quickly repaired.
Today, MAP is working with the community in Aita
Chaab to participate in the reconstruction process
and to help them map out a sustainable future
for themselves. By focusing on the families of
the disabled, MAP is able to adopt an approach
that transcends sectarian divisions. It's a strategy
that works.
 A makeshift play area
on the edge of Bourj al-
Barajneh refugee camp,
in the southern suburbs
of Beirut. There are
around 5,000 children
under the age of five in
THE BIG PICTURE

the camp with no access

to recreational facilities
or playgrounds. © MAP
 F F
CHAOS IN BEIRUT
Israel's air force struck the runways
of Beirut international airport early
on the morning of 13 July. Just down
the road the Palestinian camp of
Bourj al-Barajneh, home to some
F E AT U R E : C H AO S I N B E I R U T
25,000 registered refugees, escaped
untouched. Over the following weeks,
the Shia dominated suburbs of south
Beirut, regarded by Israel as Hizbullah
strongholds, were repeatedly
targeted for attack.
The Israeli military used extensive leafleting and
mobile phone technology to warn the residents
of south Beirut to evacuate. Many thousands left,
but others stayed, some unwilling, others unable to
leave. For those who stayed, the danger was very
real indeed. The largely residential neighbourhood
of Haret Hreik, in the Dahieh district of south
Beirut, was razed to the ground. When residents
began to return after the war, few could even
recognise which pile of rubble had been
their home.
During this time, for over a month, no food entered
the camp and death and disease were rife. They were
the hardest of times.
Amal forces eventually withdrew and the siege of
Bourj al-Barajneh was lifted, but access in and out
of the camp remained tightly controlled. By the mid
Um Muhammad had lived in her small flat in Haret 1990's things had started to improve, restrictions
Hreik for more than 25 years. She suffered from on movement were eased, and Palestinians in Bourj
severe diabetes and hypertension and had lost her
husband to heart disease six years earlier. In her late
started to rebuild their livelihoods and began
integrating with the communities around them.
seventies, she had neither the will nor the strength to
A young girl outside the entrance to her home in Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp. © MAP
Today, many families have moved out of the camp
flee. She died in her flat, along with her daughter, her
F E AT U R E : C H AO S I N B E I R U T
and scores of of its residents have intermarried with
son-in-law and her two grandchildren. Her family had their Lebanese Shia neighbours.
stayed with her that night in the hope that they could
persuade her to leave the following day. When the war broke out in July 2006 and Beirut's
southern suburbs were targeted, Palestinian families
Beirut's southern suburbs were pounded by Israeli who were themselves already living in dreadfully
air strikes throughout the five week long conflict, overcrowded accommodation, opened their homes to
but Lebanon's Palestinian refugees were not their Lebanese neighbours. Local Palestinian NGOs,
targeted. The relative safety of the refugee camps including the General Union of Palestinian Women
led to a strange irony. Lebanon's Palestinian (GUPW), the Women's Humanitarian Organisation
refugee population gave shelter to hundreds of (WHO) and the Najdeh Association, mobilised in
Lebanese fleeing their homes and Bourj al-Barajneh support of the displaced Lebanese. Local Palestinian
became a temporary refuge for many displaced groups distributed food, set up activities for children
Lebanese families. and emergency water distribution points, took in
Bourj al-Barajneh has had a troubled history. patients and gave out medicines for the 34 days of
In 1982, throughout the Israeli invasion of Beirut unremitting attacks.
and the massacre of Sabra and Shatila by the
Throughout this time, MAP worked in close
Lebanese Christian Phalange, Bourj was not attacked. coordination with its Palestinian partners to help
It suffered enormously during the camp wars of the
feed, clothe and shelter the displaced Lebanese
late 1980s between the Palestinians and the Lebanese who had taken refuge in the camps. The paradox
Shia Amal militia. was lost on no one.
 MAP’S PARTNERS
Women's Humanitarian Organisation
Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp is a
grim place. Its narrow passageways
are covered by tangles of wire
bunched dangerously low overhead
and the rough concrete floor is
M A P ’ S PA R T N E R S : W H O
covered with litter and debris.
Poverty, hopelessness and endless
deprivation pervade the camp and
the atmosphere is suffocating.
In this environment, the Women's Humanitarian
Organisation (WHO) is working closely with
women inside the camp to address their needs. The
emphasis is on providing support to carers and to
those with young children.
WHO was established by Olfat Mahmoud, a
resident of Bourj al-Barajneh whose grandparents
fled Acre in northern Palestine in 1948. At the age
of 19, Olfat began training as a nurse with the
Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS). The civil
war in Lebanon was raging and there was a
desperate need for medical professionals.
In 1984, Olfat seized the opportunity to study
community medicine in Australia and soon developed
an interest in the social and psychological health of
Palestinians refugees in Lebanon. She undertook a
degree in Psychology and set up WHO in 1993.
The organisation's first project was the establishment
of after school clubs and nurseries for working
mothers. The easing of restrictions on the movement
of Palestinians meant a growing number of the camp's
residents were looking outside Bourj al-Barajneh for
employment. The grinding poverty also meant that
women as well as men were looking for work. For
those with elderly relatives or young children, WHO
offered a lifeline.
WHO is firmly rooted in the needs of the community
and is committed to responding to them. Today, MAP
is supporting WHO to expand its community nursing
programme in Bourj al-Barajneh.
The project supports the training of volunteer health
visitors to work and engage with young parents in the
camp. The realities of life inside Bourj mean that these
men and women are often isolated and depressed.
They survive on very low incomes and face a future
without secure employment.
The community nursing programme concentrates
on health and parenting skills. It links literacy,
numeracy and communication skills to child
development, encouraging parents to share
concerns they might have within the family where
M A P ’ S PA R T N E R S : W H O
there is evidence of a high degree of violence.
The programme also draws on the experiences of
'community mothers' initiatives, especially among
the Roma communities in Europe. These rely on
Bourj al-Barajneh camp is a dense maze of winding passages. © MAP
peer group support and offer a confidential service
of social care. With MAP, WHO is using innovative
methods developed in some of these programmes
such as the use of cartoons to raise family issues.
MAP has also provided trainers and training
materials for the programme and is constantly
developing these materials in partnership with the
community workers themselves. Through MAP, it
has also been possible to link the programme to
primary health care clinics, so that families can
access medical help, and to after school activities
for children who have very little access to play.
 TOM LEVITT
SPEAKING OUT
My parliamentary colleagues and I were
“
profoundly moved and distressed by what
we saw in Beirut and the south of Lebanon in
November. The MAP-led fact-finding mission, which
included informative meetings with, among others,
the Lebanese Prime Minister and President, also gave
us the opportunity to see for ourselves the suffering
SPEAKING OUT: TOM LEVITT
the war had caused to ordinary civilians.
The actions by Hizbullah that led to the outbreak of
the conflict were entirely unnecessary and wrong.
However, the way in which the Israelis responded,
the desolation and damage that we saw, was wholly
disproportionate. Schools were demolished and, over
34 days of conflict, 54,000 homes were damaged or
destroyed by Israeli attacks. Around Beirut the
bombing was more clinical. In the southern suburbs,
blocks of flats were removed with such precision they
left scars like missing teeth in the fabric of the city.
As a consequence, Israel must be held partially
responsible for the political rise of Hizbullah in
Lebanon in the last six months and the instability
the country now faces.
Between the capital and the south of the country
travel was still problematic. Every bridge on the main
road linking Beirut and the south had been damaged
and much of the journey had to be made on side
roads and dirt tracks that had escaped Israeli shelling.
Tom Levitt is MP for High Peak and PPS to
International Development Secretary Hilary Benn.
Tom was one of five MPs who participated in a
personal capacity in a MAP-led delegation to
Lebanon in November 2006.
*
We were advised not to wander far from the car
because, although the war was over, the danger  During 34 days of war, Israel dropped 1.2 million
remained. Over a million cluster bombs were cluster bombs on south Lebanon. 90% of these were
dropped on Lebanon during the conflict and many
of them were still unexploded. We saw several live dropped in the last 72 hours of the conflict.
bomblets lying in olive groves, making it impossible
for the harvest to be taken in and for people to
 An estimated 15,000 homes, 630km of roads and 900
re-establish their businesses and livelihoods.
Three months after the war's end we were told by factories, markets, farms and other commercial
buildings were damaged or destroyed in Lebanon
T H E D E TA I L S
British de-mining experts on the ground that two
people were still dying every day because of
unexploded bombs. The munitions used by Israel during the war.
during the war had a 40% failure rate, making it
inevitable that they will remain a danger to civilians
– usually farmers and children – for a long time  Israel estimates the total cost of the war, including
to come.
military spending and lost GDP, at $4.8bn.
Perhaps the most moving moment of the trip, for me,
was an unscheduled stop at the site in Qana where a
block of flats was destroyed in an Israeli air attack,  In Lebanon, the total cost of rebuilding and of repairs
killing at least 27 people, most of them children. to buildings and infrastructure at $4bn.
There we met an elderly man, Abdul, who had lost
his brother, his son, his daughter-in-law, and three
grandsons in the destruction of those flats. Gazing Sources: Mines Advisory Group, BBC, Guardian, Government of Lebanon, Israeli Ministry of Finance.
out over the graves, I did not think that a satisfactory
explanation for such wanton and wholly
disproportionate destruction could ever be
given. All around us the impact of the war
continued to be felt.
”
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Cover: A Lebanese woman sits amid the rubble

of a building in a southern suburb of Beirut.
© Reuters/Eric Gaillard

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