The accounts of the massacre at Qana referred to an extended family named Shalhoub as being in the three story building bombed by the Israelis. (See following quote)
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The attack took place around 1:00 a.m. today, when Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the village of Qana. Among the homes struck was a three-story building in which 63 members of two extended families, the Shalhoub and Hashim families, had sought shelter. The civilians had taken refuge there because it was one of the larger buildings in the area and had a reinforced basement, according to the deputy mayor of the town, Dr. Issam Matuni.
According to the Lebanese civil defense and the Lebanese Red Cross, at least 54 civilians, including 27 children, were crushed to death when the building collapsed. Rescue teams were unable to reach the village until 9:00 a.m. because of ongoing heavy IDF bombardment in the area. None of the bodies recovered so far have been militants, and rescue workers say they have found no weapons in the building that was struck.
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2006/07/30/lebano13881.... Human Rights News
(End of quote)
Shalhoub is an unusual name, and the name of one of my favorite actors, Tony Shalhoub, of the Monk and Wings series, plus a lot of delightful films (The Big Night, Galaxy Quest). So I did a bit of googling and found out that indeed, he is of Lebanese descent. I don't know whether the murdered Lebanese were close or distant relatives of his, but am sure he is very distressed by the plight of all Lebanese. I came across an interview in which he had a few interesting observations - the most insightful of which concerned the aggressive perjorative stereotype of Arabs and the ideologues who prey on promoting that stereotype. I hope that he will speak out about the current situation
www.filmfreakcentral.net/notes/tshalhoubinterview.htm
(snippets)
"I heard a rumour that you wanted to make a film on the life of Lebanese poet/philosopher Kalil Gibran. Yes, that's still in the development stages, but it's definitely something that I'm researching. It'd be something I'd love to pursue, it's something really close to my heart. It's an interesting synchronicity, I think, in our current environment, where artful protest is becoming current again, to revive interest in Gibran.
The Siege is suddenly current again, too. That's true. Part of the reason I wanted to do the project in the first place was to provide an Arab-American, particularly a Muslim-American, who was positive. I wanted to portray him in a positive light to balance the villains of the piece--more, to provide a well-rounded presence so that it wouldn't be as easy for certain elements to latch onto the guy as unrealistically good or, on the other side, unrealistically evil. It's a difficult line to walk sometimes when so many of our movies demand that polarity. All I wanted with that film was to represent the possibility that there might be "normal" people who are Muslim or Arab with the same fears, responsibilities, hopes.
There are a few films recently that are so anti-Arab, things like Hidalgo and Spartan, yet the hue and cry seemed to have been reserved and spent on The Siege. Has the climate changed that much?
(laughs ruefully) I couldn't begin to answer that question. It seems almost like this random, free-floating political correctness that latches on here and again, finds strength, loses steam. With what's happened in the world the last three years, it's easier to see why it's become popular again to diminish and revile Arabs and Muslims in American popular culture. I would almost think that it behoves certain people in powerful positions to champion that aggressively pejorative stereotype. But it's that instinct to recoil--to revert to this sort of tribalism and casual racism, and the ideologues that prey on that instinct, that we have to fight hardest against. People need not to be so accepting of it. It's something that I really struggled, and have struggled with. I wish I had an answer.
Do you lament not having the opportunity to play more Arab characters?
I do. It's something that I've been thinking a lot about now that I find myself in a position to actually exert a little bit of name-recognition. A very little bit. (laughs) But I've been in contact with a lot of younger Arab-American writers and directors, trying to get projects together, get a couple of projects in the pipelines. Things that are more human stories, less political, more of a glimpse into the day-to-day of our lives, you know. It feels like a great untapped minority subject and it feels important to me not to make them political--they're political enough just for the fact of them.
**************************************************
(End of quotes)
Finally I recalled another wonderful Lebanese entertainer - Danny Thomas, born to immigrant Lebanese parents. (And father of Marlo Thomas) The founder of St. Jude's Hospital for children with cancer, he dreamed of seeing a branch of St. Jude's opened in the land of his ancestors, a country he loved and visited very often. That dream came true in 2002, when The Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon was opened in Beirut. I have been unable to find out whether this hospital is among those bombed by the Israelis.
Lebanon: Unique Cancer Center in Beirut
Lebanese children with newly diagnosed cancer no longer have to travel to the USA for treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN. The Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL) has been established in Beirut. The center was dedicated on April 12, 2002. The Prime Minister of Lebanon, Mr. Rafic Harriri; Her Royal Highness Princess Ghida Tatal (Chairperson of Al-Amal Foundation in Amman, Jordan); and several members of the Lebanese cabinet and Parliament joined a delegation from ALSAC/St. Jude for the dedication ceremony. More than 300 people, including parents and families of Lebanese children treated at St. Jude, witnessed this remarkable event.
The mission of the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon is to save young lives by providing the best diagnostic and therapeutic procedures available and by offering the highest quality care.
Left: Opera singer Jose Carreras visited the Center on July 7, 2002.
“The Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon is a fulfillment of Danny Thomas’ dream to bring St. Jude’s advances in the field of pediatric cancer to Lebanon,” says Dr. Bassem Razzouk, Director of Middle East Programs for International Outreach at St. Jude. “This unique center is positioned to be a comprehensive pediatric cancer center for Lebanon and for the entire Middle East, in the future.”
The center consists of both inpatient and outpatient facilities located on the campus of the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC). Dr. Razzouk described the outpatient clinic as a well equipped facility that includes examination and recovery rooms, treatment area, satellite pharmacy and laboratory, videoconference room, and a children’s play area with computer outlets. “This is a 10,000-square-foot area decorated to catch the eye of a child,” he said.
Among the new programs already in place is the Limb Salvage Program for children with bone tumors. This unique procedure has been performed for the first time in Lebanon by Dr. Rachid Haidar, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at AUB who was trained at St. Jude, under the supervision of Dr. Bhaskar Rao, Director of the Surgical Program for International Outreach at St. Jude and Professor of Surgery at the University of Tennessee, Memphis.
Dr. Razzouk also expressed confidence that the new International Outreach Web site, Cure4Kids, an integrated learning site that offers access to full-text medical journals, a digital library, a virtual classroom, and real-time telemedicine videoconferences, will provide the Lebanese medical community with reliable access to up-to-date treatment methods and research.
“We expect full medical collaboration between St. Jude and The Children’s Cancer Center Of Lebanon,” says the Center’s Medical Director, Dr. Miguel Abboud, who has many years of professional experience in the treatment of pediatric cancer in the USA. “All treatment provided at the Center will follow guidelines for diagnosis and treatment regimens established by St. Jude. We will also use the St. Jude concept to treat pediatric cancer on an outpatient basis and will hospitalize children only in critical cases,” he added.
Dr. Abboud pointed out that leukemia is the most common pediatric cancer in Lebanon. Four of every 100,000 Lebanese children have a diagnosis of cancer each year, and 55 percent of these cases are leukemia. The Center will provide diagnosis and treatment of all pediatric cancers and, like St. Jude, will feature the After Completion of Therapy Clinic Program. This means that all patients of the Center will be examined once a year during the five to ten years after they complete their therapy and will be screened for any residual disease or treatment effects. The Center will also form support groups for the families of the patients, in collaboration with pediatricians and other community-based organizations in Lebanon.
“We are dedicated to treating our children without any discrimination, and regardless of their ability to pay,” says Dr. Abboud. “Public contributions are a significant source of funds for our Center, and we are grateful for the amazing financial support from the community. Only such combined efforts can realize Danny Thomas’ dream to build a humanitarian shrine. Now, this shrine in Beirut will bring the miracle of cure to children of Lebanon and the entire region.”
www.stjude.org/international-outreach/0,2564,455_3208_5335,00.html
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