Immediate Cease Fire please!!!

Israeli soldiers load missiles onto a military vehicle, as Israeli orthodox Jews dance to show their support for the troops, along the Israeli-Lebanese border, 26 July 2006. (MaanImages/Inbal Rose)

The conflict escalated 17 days ago and its causes are complex and numerous.
Irrespective of political stands, the Lebanese civilian population is the target of continuous aggression from Israeli military forces. Help stop this unjustified collective punishment strategy that is ravaging the entirety of Lebanon's land and population and breaching all international laws.

So far Israel has fulfilled all its promises thanks to the inaction of the international community:

"...The targets of the operations are militants, not the Lebanese civilians..."
- IDF Deputy Chief of Staff
* Lebanese civilians constitute 92% of the 600 fatalities, out of whom:
* 74% are entire families, parents and their children, who have been targeted in their homes or on the roads while fleeing their hometowns,
* 53% are children,
* 35% are women


"...in order to make peace we need to strike them harder than ever..."
- Amir Peretz, Israel Defense Minister
* 100 daily Israeli air raids,
* 23 tons of bombs dropped in one day,
* 300 bombs dropped daily,
* At the rate of 3 bombs per minute,
* 4 factories of dairy farm, pharmaceutical factories, food supply depots destroyed
* 10 ambulances, and relief trucks hit on the road


"...If the soldiers are not returned, we will turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years..."
- Dan Halutz, Israel’s Chief of Staff
* 800 thousand people displaced,
* 32 roads destroyed,
* 55 bridges destroyed,
* airports bombed,
* 7 ports bombed,
* Civilian structures such as Hospitals, residential buildings, churches, mosques, factories, petrol stations bombed,
* Total estimated loss: 5 billion USD


We urge you to take action by calling for an immediate ceasefire to the
military operations through a number of ways:


1- Write to your MPs expressing your views on the British and European foreign policy. This can be easily done through
http://www.writetothem.com/

2- Voice your opinion to the national media, especially the wide audience ones such as the BBC website, Tabloids, and the Evening Standard

3- Spread this email to as many people as you can and inform as many people as possible about the crisis.

4- Raise donations to various humanitarian appeals and keep yourself updated about the situation by visiting the following blogs and websites:
July 2006 war on Lebanon
Stop Destroying Lebanon
Update from Beirut
from Israel to Lebanon pictures
letters apart
illustrations from the war
Angry Arab
http://www.tayyar.org/tayyar/pages.php?page=english