{"id":1606,"date":"2006-09-12T19:35:52","date_gmt":"2006-09-12T23:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/wordpress\/?p=1606"},"modified":"2006-09-12T19:35:52","modified_gmt":"2006-09-12T23:35:52","slug":"blairs-beirut-press-conference-disrupted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/?p=1606","title":{"rendered":"Blair?s Beirut press conference disrupted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socialist Worker<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

One protester from the Samidoun<\/a> network of activists managed to get into Blair?s press conference in Beirut and disrupt it in front of the world?s media.<\/p>\n

She unveiled a banner and called out, ?This is an insult to the families of thousands of Lebanese who have died – shame on you, Mr Blair?, before being bundled away by security.<\/p>\n

Photojournalist Guy Smallman, who has just returned from covering Lebanon for Socialist Worker, recalls his reaction on seeing the footage of the protest.<\/p>\n

?It?s not often that I laugh out loud at the news,? he said. ?Today, however, the sight of Caiomhe Butterly disrupting Blair?s Beirut press conference certainly did it for me.<\/p>\n

?I?ve know Caiomhe for some time and worked alongside her when I first arrived in Beirut at the beginning of August. She is one of the most skilled and dedicated peace activists in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

?In 2002 she was shot through the leg by an Israeli sniper while acting as a human shield in occupied Palestine. In 2003 she travelled to Baghdad to report on the reality of occupation.<\/p>\n

?When I saw her last in Lebanon she was helping to set up a grassroots relief project in the devastated border village of Aita al-Shabb.<\/p>\n

?Speaking near perfect Arabic with an in-depth knowledge of the region and its problems, she always combines her political work with a warmth and compassion that is rare these days.<\/p>\n

?As for Blair? He brushed off the disruption with his usual po-faced arrogance, saying that he is well used to demonstrations. He should be – he has now been the second most hated man on the planet for over three years.?<\/p>\n

The following should be read alongside this article:
\n? Tony Blair in Beirut: fury at war criminal?s state visit<\/a><\/p>\n

? Copyright Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original and leave this notice in place<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you found this article useful please help us maintain SW by supporting our ? appeal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(To learn more about Caiomhe Butterly, see Katie Barlow’s brilliant film, Visit Palestine<\/strong><\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Socialist Worker One protester from the Samidoun network of activists managed to get into Blair?s press conference in Beirut and disrupt it in front of the world?s media. She unveiled a banner and called out, ?This is an insult to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdXTf-pU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/karmalised.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}