FYI
David
ELECTRONIC LEBANON WEBSITE BRINGS VOICES FROM BESEIGED BEIRUT
Electronic Lebanon, the latest project from
the award winning Electronic Intifada team,
is currently bringing voices from on the
ground in Beirut, Lebanon, and other beseiged
Lebanese cities. Electronic Lebanon
represents the latest in a 10-year continuim
of alternative news projects by members of
the EI team to bring voices from Middle
Eastern warzones to an international audience.
New York, NY (PRWEB) July 19, 2006 -- Electronic
Lebanon, the latest project from the award winning
Electronic Intifada team, is currently bringing voices
from on the ground in Beirut, Lebanon, and other
beseiged Lebanese cities.
The website -- found at http://electronicLebanon.net --
has published over one hundred articles, including
diaries, opinion, analysis, and development-related
information since Israel's war against Lebanon began on
July 12th.
"At the sound of the first bomb that hit quite close to
our home," wrote Rania Masri on July 16th, "my cousin's
youngest son, in mere seconds, went from his strong
boyish bravado-demeanor to that of a frightened little
boy. He threw his ice cream cone away, and got strong
stomach pains. At the sounds of the next bomb, he ran
and hid under a table. I wondered how the children in
the south and in the southern district of Beirut and in
Ba'albeck and in Gaza were withstanding the constant
noise and terror."
"I hear it from my neighbours and friends," wrote Maha
Damaj from Beirut on July 16th, "from phone calls
coming in from loved ones abroad. I hear it inside my
own head. We all just feel so helpless. How exactly
does one face indiscriminate attacks from the air, land
and sea? A sense of claustrophobia overcame me when all
routes out of Lebanon were being cut off, one after the
other. I wasn't even thinking of leaving, but their
moves succeeded in making me feel trapped. My solution?
Call a friend living abroad - how trapped can I be if I
can still communicate with the outside world? As trite
as that might sound, it worked. The magic of
psychology."
Electronic Lebanon represents the latest in a 10-year
continuim of alternative news projects by members of
the EI team to bring voices from Middle Eastern
warzones to an international audience.
EI's Nigel Parry headed the Birzeit University team
that published the first alternative news website from
within a warzone in history, from the Palestinian West
Bank town of Ramallah during the September 1996 Clashes:
http://nigelparry.net/news/cooleh-war-report.shtml
During Israel's "Operation Defensive Shield" in
March/April 2002, the Electronic Intifada team
presented the only reports from residents within
Ramallah when it was put under Israeli closure, even to
the press. CNN's Michael Holmes was literally the only
mainstream journalist inside the town during its
closure, making EI's contribution unique:
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article442.shtml
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