This International Dateline episode includes four segments: Hezbollah Backgrounder, Dr. Buthaina Shaaban, Mayor Yona Yahav, and Mean Streets Sao Paulo.
Hezbollah Backgrounder
When Israel first invaded Lebanon in 1978, and then again in 1982, their objective was to remove the old PLO from its northern border. They got rid of the PLO but their incursion into Lebanon gave rise to a new and equally defiant foe, now known as Hezbollah. Hezbollah, on the one hand, has gone on to become a popular nationalist political party in Lebanon. But, on the other, it has extremely close ties with Iran and Syria, sworn enemies of Israel. Dateline asks the questions - just what is it that the Israel Defense Forces are finding so hard to defeat in southern Lebanon?
Dr. Buthaina Shaaban
For decades, Syria has exerted considerable pressure on Lebanese politics, but was effectively thrown out of the country by the UN following the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri early last year. So what is the connection between Damascus and Hezbollah? And do Syrians now regard themselves as a likely target in this widening war?
Dateline's George Negus spoke from Damascus to Buthaina Shaaban, Syria's Minister of Expatriates. She is a cabinet minister in the Assad Government and spokesperson for the President himself.
Mayor Yona Yahav
Northern Israeli towns and villages have been the target of sustained Hezbollah rocket attacks. One of the earliest to be hit was the port city of Haifa, Israel's third largest city after Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem.
George Negus spoke with the Mayor of Haifa, Yona Yahav, who explains his dramatic and recent change in attitude towards Lebanon, calling for the smashing of Lebanon's entire infrastructure. A fairly significant litmus test as Haifa is praised as a multicultural city where Arabs and Jews have been living peacefully alongside one another.
Mean Streets Sao Paulo
Away from the Middle East... In May of this year, the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo descended into a nightmare. Criminal gangs based in the city jails put out a call for members to wage open warfare with the city's law enforcement officials. Within 48 hours over 40 policemen and prison warders had been murdered and police cars and buses torched.
To make matters worse the response of the police was even more draconian. They admit to shooting dead 126 people they claim were connected to the gang, but at least 300 others are known to have been killed, some of them by balaclava masked 'death squads' that everyone assumes are directly connected to the police force. There is now an even greater lack of trust between the police and the poor in the city's favelas or slums. So much so that for most of the people in jail or the favelas it's the gangs and not the police that are looked to for protection. Disturbingly, Dateline's Olivia Rousset reports that there appears to be no resolution, let alone any justice, in sight.
About International Dateline
SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists, gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.
