I was in New York at CWS headquarters two weeks ago, and one of my colleagues in the communications department floated the idea of a Middle East diary.  It would provide a space to talk about the partners we work with and people we connect with in the course of our work. 

It would also provide a space to highlight developments of particular concern.  The idea had much to recommend it, and so I agreed to do it.  I suggested that we could launch the diary with a piece about my recent trip to Amman, Jordan, and the situation of Iraqi refugees living there.  But then last week happened--a uniquely bad week of news from a region accustomed to bad news.  I felt I would be remiss to launch this diary without noting some of those events from last week and the concern it raises at CWS for the potential impact on the people that live in Iraq, Lebanon, and the occupied Palestinian Territories. 

Iraq –

On Wednesday two minarets of the Askariya Mosque in Samara, an important Shiite shrine, were brought down by bombing.  The dome of this shrine was bombed in February of last year, unleashing a wave of sectarian killings that continues to the present.  This increased sectarian violence led to the dramatic increase in the number of Iraqis being displaced from their homes, now over 4 million and growing.  In the days following this latest attack there have been reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques, and Baghdad residents fled their homes fearing a repeat of last February’s surge in violence when the shrine’s dome was bombed. 

Lebanon –

The stand-off between the Lebanese military and Fatah Al-Islam militants continued last week at Nahr Al-Bared Palestinian camp near Tripoli with intermittent fighting and civilians continuing to flee the violence.  The 4-week-old conflict is the worst internal Lebanese violence since the civil war ended in 1990.   On Wednesday, there was a dramatic reminder of the ongoing political impasse, with the assassination of Member of Parliament Walid Eido, the 7th anti-Syrian figure in Lebanon assassinated in the past 2½ years.  A friend from Beirut wrote me on Saturday:  “Things are pretty critical back here. No one understands what is going on.  The general atmosphere is very charged.  People are scared and the country is very still. At night a lot of the pubs and restaurants close down. Gemmayze Street (a popular Beirut street) is haunted.”

Gaza –

And Gaza saw dramatic violence and dramatic change.  Since June 9 over 100 Palestinians have been killed and over 500 injured, as Hamas routed Fatah and took over the Gaza strip.  In response President Mahmoud Abbas dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency.  This latest development further raises concerns about the already serious security and humanitarian conditions in Gaza and the West Bank.  I will leave the last word to this Gaza resident:

The darkness has fallen and invaded all of the Gaza Strip. We tried to protest against the war today, but gunmen shot at us when we tried to cross the street. This was a peaceful demonstration to try to get these gunmen to stop killing our future, to stop killing our hope. The darkness has fallen. There are no other words. Gaza is not a place for human beings anymore.