❊ We Should All Care About The Arrest Of Ismael Sheikh Hassan

Guess what I have been doing for the last 30 minutes? I was reading (and translating bits of) an article by Ismael Sheikh Hassan. The thing is, I had never heard of the man before. I have little interest in urban planners who take it upon themselves to follow up on the reconstruction of Palestinian camps.

But then I read today that he was arrested because of that article. An article in which he scathingly ripped the government and its security forces for scuttling the reconstruction efforts in the Nahr El Bared camp: (My translation)

Three years have passed and nothing has been rebuilt, with the exception of the beams and roofs of the first floors of 30 buildings out of 1900 planned ones. Even the reconstruction “in progress” is blocked, postponed or delayed because of a “bouquet” of regulations, procedures, complications and maddening red tape. […] Moreover, the residents of the camp are still prevented from entering it, from rebuilding their own homes or even from setting up tents on the lands where their houses used to be. They are also prohibited, because of the Military and security siege around the camp, from practicing their business and their normal daily routines.

Now, granted that the Nahr El Bared issue was a politically controversial matter in Lebanon (some thought that building fancy new homes for Palestinians will prevent them from eventually going back to Palestine). But this is not what this post is about. This is about the new dangerous trend of the Military Intelligence arresting people for what they publish. As Human Rights Watch put it:

The detention of Sheikh Hassan follows a number of detentions of journalists and bloggers by Military Intelligence. […] If Lebanese authorities don’t stop such extra-legal conduct, the country risks becoming like so many of its neighbors, where powerful intelligence agencies consider themselves above the law.

No wonder some people have been going on hunger strikes in protest against the erosions of civil liberties in Lebanon. Journalists are fighting back by demonstrating and releasing signed statements of protest. Let’s hope it’s not too late.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.