People if you want to remember, remember well or don't remember at all!

So on the 18th of April, 10 years ago, during a fierce and very painful assault initiated by the Israelis over some tension in south Lebanon, the Israeli planes bombed a shelter (a tent) in which were hiding over 100 Lebanese human being, mainly women, children and old people. 106 people died that day (If my memory isn’t playing tricks on me). I remember that incident very well. When the attacks first took place it was all over TV, TV stations would put nothing else then that, they showed us pictures, they talked to some survivors, there were UN soldiers with there Blue Casks, they were collecting bodies and body parts, there were pictures of children all burned up, all black. There were two pictures that I’ll never forget, there were one soldier that was picking up one body and it was an infant, he picked him up tenderly and then held him in his arms as if it was still alive. The other picture was the picture of yet another child (maybe 7 or 8 years old), the soldier was picking the body off the ground and he held it with the sweater and the kid’s ankles, I felt at that moment that the picture was so degrading, the kid looked so much like a hunted pig, an animal.

I was young back then, 11 years old. I also remembering Hezbollah officials swear and promise to make the Israelis pay.



Then there was the Funeral. It was effectively the first time I ever saw any Muslim funeral. They were all buried together, not in the same hole, but in the same place. The coffins were very modest consisting on nothing but clear, probably unpolished, wooden boxes, they were covered with Lebanese Flags, the scene was chilling, and 100 coffins one next to the other, the cameras made sure to make the picture as heart breaking as possible. The parents and family members were crying over there dead. There is something so familiar about that scene, the women sat next to the remains of there beloved ones and started screaming and lamenting.

Then the Coffins were buried. And that was it. Hezbollah scored a lot of notes that day; they claimed to be the victims. In my Christian Maronite environment there 1were talks about Hezbollah’s responsibility for the attack, not that Hezbollah was the author of the raid, but rumor has it that there were Islamic resistance forces was barricaded right next to the shelter, using the shelter as a human shield, hoping the Israelis won’t strike back because they’d fear to blow up the shelter.
Back then I didn’t really know what to think about that. All I knew was that the kids should have never died. Whose fault it was I couldn’t judge no matter how hard I thought about it, the only good thought I had was that God sees everything and he’ll punish them. From those days I kept a belief that both Israelis and Palestinians were evil and mean, they deserve the shit in which they are sinking, that was a really comforting thought, I just ignored them.

I am an adult now, and I still think often about these things, and it makes me wonder. How can maniacs like Hezbollah preserve so much popularity in the south? I know for a fact that the fear factor, and the economic role of Hezbollah is part of there success. But come on people! What about all the babies that died? How can there moms and dads support there child’s murderer. When raid was over and it was time to sort the corpses, Hezbollah wasn’t there, it was the UN soldiers who submersed themselves with the ashes of the victims, it was the Blue Hats that tolerated the smell of blood and held the burnt babies, Hezbollah was in the comfort of his home yelling for revenge, preparing for more infanticides that would boost his political score.

They all blame the Israelis, but for Christ Sake people! Israelis did that raid because they care more about there own country then they care about there enemies (Naturally!!!), Hezbollah sent you all to your death because Hezbollah cares more about Hezbollah more than it cares about its followers and the country it pretends to defend.