23,
August 2006 Middle
East disaster (Lebanon)
A
major environmental disaster, largely ignored by the corporate media, is the
Israeli attack on a Lebanese power station’s five large fuel tanks which leaked
15,000 tons of oil into the Mediterranean. The spill has gone untreated for the
past four weeks because of the ongoing Israeli air strikes and naval blockade.
Satellite photographs show the oil spill has already reached the Syrian
coastline and could end up affecting Cyprus, Turkey and Greece. One United
Nations official described the oil spill as an “environmental massacre.”
Friends of the Earth have described the oil spill as the greatest environmental
disaster ever to strike the Eastern Mediterranean. The damage grows exponentially with each day
delay in cleanup operations. Local fisheries and tourism will be adversely
impacted for many years.
Marine
experts from Inforac, issued an urgent warning that the Israeli attack on the
Jiyyeh Power plant in mid-July could pose a serious cancer risk to people
living in the area. Spokeswoman Simonetta Lombardo
said the spill of fuel oil was a ‘high-risk toxic cocktail made up of
substances which cause cancer and damage to the endocrine system.’
The huge burning fire which has raged for 12 days has emitted
clouds of toxic fumes and carbon deposits all the way to Beirut.
I would urge concerned readers to contact your representatives in
Washington and urge our government’s active participation in cleanup
operations. Israel and our government are morally bound to pay reparations to
Lebanon for this environmental disaster.
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