At the height of the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, a call came from civil society groups in that country asking the international community to send peace delegations to bear witness to the ongoing destruction of a nation and demonstrate solidarity with the Lebanese people in their hour of need.
Having worked with many of these groups to hold an international peace conference in Beirut in 2004, Focus on the Global South took the initiative in putting together such a delegation. It took about ten days to assemble the delegation. By the end of the first week of August, a 12-person Civil Society-Parliamentary Peace Mission was ready to go. Members of the mission came from a diverse spectrum, both in terms of background and geographically. The mission included two farmers, one labor leader, two members of parliament, one journalist, two university professors, and three civil society activists. They came from India, the Philippines, Norway, France, Brazil, and Spain. Everyone was self-funded.
Their tasks were straightforward:
- to witness and document the war crimes and abuses being perpetrated on the Lebanese people ;
- to show solidarity with the Lebanese ;
- to discuss and work out ways in which the international community could assist in countering the Israeli aggression and reconstruction ;
- to investigate the plight of migrant workers caught up in the war.
- To download and read the report Lebanon : aggression and resistance