Lebanonwire, January 31, 2003

The Daily Star

Hala Kilani
Daily Star staff

Around 140 Palestinians and Lebanese flew to Baghdad Thursday to express their solidarity with the Iraqi people in a move inspired by the pioneering departures of European and American anti-war delegations.
“We’re going to Baghdad to give psychological support to the people there,” said Palestinian engineer Hisham Zaatari, who was waiting for his flight at Beirut International airport.
“It’s the least we can do as Arabs, after seeing that many people from Europe and the United States have already flocked there in masses.”
Zaatari said he was embarrassed to see that the number of Arabs going on this peaceful trip was too small and that popular action in the region, which is targeted and will suffer the most from an eventual attack on Iraq, is minute compared to what is happening in Western countries.
“It’s a shame that our action as Arabs, if it ever occurs, comes after that of Western anti-war activists, who will be affected less than us by an eventual attack,” Zaatari said.
His friend Nayef Sharqieh, a construction worker, said there was a large number of Palestinian refugees going on the trip because they believed that the Palestinian and Iraqi issues held much in common.
“We feel that we can’t do anything for Palestine, we can’t go there, but we can do something for Iraq, so we’re ready to do anything to try to prevent the war or to act as human shields,” Sharqieh said.
Lebanese citizen and member of the Women’s Council Moyassar al-Atrash agreed that both issues are subjected “to the same imperialistic aims.”
“Israel wasn’t there, it was created for the purpose of serving the US domination of the region, through which it will be able to steal our resources and raw materials,” Atrash said. “So basically the planned sequence is falling in place, first Israel is created, then Iraq is invaded and the Gulf oil is theirs, allowing at the same time the Jewish state to take control and dominate the Middle East.”
Khaledat Hussein of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that she was going on this trip because she believed that such demonstrations in “Arab streets” would help prevent the looming war on Iraq by adding pressure on the United Nations’ Security Council.
Asked if they were scared to go to a country threatened with attack at any moment, volunteers Ghada and Nada Sinno said they were not afraid to go to Iraq because they were used to war.
“We lived through a war here for 17 years. We’re used to it,” Ghada Sinno said.
Beirut MP Beshara Merhej, who came to the airport to bid the peace activists farewell, said that such actions will leave a political impact on Arab governments, enticing them to take a similar anti-war stance. He said it might encourage them to stop offering the United States military bases for their operations.
The program of the trip, which is expected to end on Sunday, includes visits to hospitals, sites that had been searched by UN inspectors and meetings with officials, such as Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz.
The “peaceful ambassadors” are also going to pray for peace in Iraqi holy sites, and have taken candles, incense and charcoal along with them for that purpose.
Committees and Leagues Forum head Maan Bashour said the recruitment of those who are willing to do volunteer work in Iraq will start Saturday.

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