BIN LADEN CITED 1996 ISRAELI ATTACK ON QANA IN HIS FIRST FATWA

Scouring blogger for news on the recent mass murder at Qana I have been directed to the first fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden against the USA. This was issued 23rd August 1996 in the London-based Al Quds Al Arabi and was entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places."

From http://www.pbs.org/newshour/terrorism/international/fatwa_1996.html

Allah's blessing and salutations on His slave and messenger who said: " The people are close to an all encompassing punishment from Allah if they see the oppressor and fail to restrain him." It should not be hidden from you that the people of Islam had suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed on them by the ZionistCrusaders alliance and their collaborators to the extent that the Muslims blood became the cheapest and their wealth as loot in the hands of the enemies. Their blood was spilled in Palestine and Iraq. The horrifying pictures of the massacre of Qana, in Lebanon are still fresh in our memory. Massacres in Tajakestan, Burma, Cashmere, Assam, Philippine, Fatani, Ogadin, Somalia, Erithria, Chechnia and in BosniaHerzegovina took place, massacres that send shivers in the body and shake the conscience. All of this and the world watch and hear, and not only didn't respond to these atrocities, but also with a clear conspiracy between the USA and its' allies and under the cover of the iniquitous United Nations, the dispossessed people were even prevented from obtaining arms to defend themselves.

In early 1996 Israel had bombed the region around Qana in Operation Grapes of Wrath, resulting in Lebanese civilians seeking refuge in a UN camp. But as we have seen Israel has no respect for the UN and Israel destroyed the UN camp, killing 102 men, women and children. Robert Fisk wrote in The Independent,

It was a massacre. Not since Sabra and Chatila had I seen the innocent slaughtered like this. The Lebanese refugee women and children and men lay in heaps, their hands or arms or legs missing, beheaded or disemboweled. There were well over a hundred of them. A baby lay without a head. The Israeli shells had scythed through them as they lay in the United Nations shelter, believing that they were safe under the world's protection. Like the Muslims of Srebrenica, the Muslims of Qana were wrong.

Similar descriptions are now being used today.

One has to ask; Is Israel trying to provoke al-Qaeda?