Refugees in Greece

Refugees in Greece

Refugee Day - Monday 20 June 2011

Praxis activities for the Refugees Day

We, the Praxis volunteers are preparing two events for the Refugees Day on 20th of June.

First of these is a photo exhibition that will be displayed on Sunday 19th of June at Freedom Square in Serres. Send your 20x30 photos about Refugees Day until 16^th of June to

PRAXIS

Selefkou, 8

62123, Serres

Add a title, short description of the photo and the author.

The second event is a film projection. We'll project Waltz with Bashir and Hotel Rwanda on Monday 20th of June at 21.00 at Freedom Square in Serres.

Activities in Serres

In the Stadium of Serres, on Monday 19 2 films will be projected related with the Refugee Day

1. WALTZ WITH BASHIR, 2008. ISRAEL

In June 1982, the Israeli army invaded South Lebanon after Israel’s northern towns had been bombarded for years from the Lebanese territory. The Israeli government’s original plan was to occupy a 40 km security zone in Lebanon in order to “cleanse” the missile range used by the Palestinians against Israel’s northern towns. In fact, the Israeli Minister of Defense at the time, Arik Sharon, developed a fantastical and ultra-imaginative plan: to occupy Lebanon as far as Beirut, including Beirut, and to appoint his Christian ally, Bashir Gemayel, President of Lebanon, thus eradicating the threat to the State of Israel from the north and expanding and increasing the front against Syria, a country that also borders on Lebanon and was always considered Israel’s cruelest and most tenacious enemy. Sharon and senior military leaders were actually the only ones who knew about the plan. While the Israeli government approved a 40 km range operation only, the IDF thrust full speed ahead all the way to Beirut.

In August, two months after war broke out and the IDF was still waiting on the outskirts of Beirut for the command to penetrate the city, a treaty was signed with the Palestinians according to which all Palestinian combat fighters would be evacuated from Beirut on ships to Tunisia. In return, the IDF would remove the threat of penetrating the city. While giving a speech at the Phalangist headquarters in East Beirut, Bashir Gemayel (The President) was killed by a massive explosive charge. To this day it is unknown who was responsible for the murder, but the assumption is that the assassination was orchestrated by Syrian or Palestinian factions or that they collaborated thereon.

That afternoon, Israeli troops penetrated a region in West Beirut that was mostly populated in those days by Palestinian refugees, and they surrounded the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. Towards evening, large Phalangist forces made their way to the area, driven by a profound sense of revenge after the killing of their revered leader. At nightfall, Phalangist forces entered the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps aided by the IDF’s illumination rounds. The declared objective of the Christian forces was to purge the camps of Palestinian combat fighters. However, there were virtually no Palestinian combat fighters left in the refugee camps since they had been evacuated on ships to Tunisia two weeks earlier. For two whole days the sound of gunfire and battles could be heard from the camps but it was only on the third day, September 16th, when panic-stricken women swarmed the Israeli troops outside the camps, that the picture became clear: For three days the Christian forces massacred all refugee camp occupants. Men, women, the elderly and children, were all killed with horrific cruelty. To this day the exact number of victims is unknown but they are estimated at 3000.

News of the massacre shocked the entire world and a spontaneous protest of hundreds of thousands Israelis forced the Israeli government to create an official inquiry committee to investigate the liability of Israeli political and military authorities. Minister of Defense Arik Sharon was found guilty by the committee for not having done enough to stop the horror once he became aware of the massacre. He was dismissed of his duties and prohibited from serving as Minister of Defense for another term. This did not stop him from being appointed Prime Minister of Israel twenty years later.

International Refugee Day - Call For Action

International Refugee Day (20.06.2011.) is a European-wide campaign that highlights the issues facing refugees from a non-governmental perspective.

UNHCR is the UN Refugee Agency and they work to protect refugees and solve their problems all over the world. In more than six decades, the agency has helped tens of millions of people restart their lives. Today, a staff of some 7,190 people in more than 120 countries continues to help some 36.4 million persons.

Here s some links on the refugee issue:

http://www.unhcr.org

http://fortresseurope.blogspot.com/

http://www.clandestina.org/indexa_e.html

http://www.proasyl.de/en/home/

www.ecre.org

http://omadadikigorwnenglish.blogspot.com/

http://www.gcr.gr/en