Report Number Four from Lebanon: The Mountain of Radam and Jihad al-Bina' By Samia A. Halaby

Report Number Four from Lebanon: The Mountain of Radam and Jihad al-Bina'

By Samia A. Halaby

Al-Jazeerah, September 23, 2006

Report written on September 18, 2006

On September 15, 2006, as we were returning from our trip to the south we saw the insignia of an organization of Hisbullah called Jihad al-Bina’. Western press for obvious reasons of greed and conquest deliberately misinterprets jihad, the name ascribed to Muslim service to the community. It is much like the insistence on saying that Allah is the god of the Arabs, refusing to translate this particular word as God, the same god along with the same accompanying religious discourse that forms the chore of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Jihad as service to the community can be military or social. Jihad al-Bina’ is the service of building for the community, and its practice right now here in Lebanon in the southern districts of the country and of Beirut is amazing. The energy and enthusiasm with which work is going on to rebuild the damage created by Israeli-delivered US-made weapons is amazing. The effort is historic – rapid, vigorous, optimistic. The jihad of evacuation of disaster areas is equally amazing. Dahye and its surroundings were evacuated in approximately 36 hours. Now, after the war, the people have received enough money to rent a home for a year and buy new furniture.

Jihad al Bina’ also is clearing the rubble and moving it at an amazingly rapid pace to form a mountain of rubble, Jabal al Radam. Trucks loaded with rubble arrive at the rate of one each minute – 1350 per day as the taxi driver tells. As we climbed the mountain, we saw embedded in the rubble the torn bits of family life. Shoes, clothes, curtains, shards of furniture, bits of rugs, closet doors, children’s books, school books, shards of kitchen utensils, all torn to shreds, all smashed, all dusty, all mixed in an ugly salad of dust, shattered cement, broken glass, and bent steel. But the dust formed the largest percentage of the mix. I try to imagine the power that made dust out of life.

Meanwhile, to cover the horrors of the crime in Lebanon, the western press has been redefining the dictionary. Terrorism is the defense of one’s own community and the preservation of its life and culture. Democracy is the racism, apartheid, and murderousness of Zionism, the destruction of nations, the assassination of leaders, and the theft of resources. Self Defense is the hostile killing of civilians on neighboring lands, and the bombardment and destruction of that neighbor’s land. Freedom is the kidnapping of others, and their torture and imprisonment. Piety is Jewish and Christian blindness to Islam. Fascism is the moral practices of Muslims in the Arab world.

Many are confused here and everywhere. Hizbullah keeps its head and its commitment, thus its influence with those who have no influence grows.

Samia A Halabi is one of the most influential Palestinian artists of our times after Ismail Shamoutt. She is now in south Lebanon, touring around so she can write reports about what she sees. Samia Halaby also used to teach at Yale university ,and she wrote a book on the Modern and Contemporary Palestinian arts, and the influence of the Mexican art movement of the early twenties on the political art of Palestine .She also put together the Show of made in Palestine with the help of the Station Museum (This bio was written by Naim Farhat).

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

Apartheid Wall


The Israeli Land-Grab Apartheid Wall built inside the Palestinian territories, here separating Abu Dis from occupied East Jerusalem. (IPC, 7/4/04).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).

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