we ask the questions closer to the truth. to demonstrate good. and showcases the. culture. this time. and. the top stories on al-jazeera the meeting to elect a new. party the african national congress is about to start off it was delayed

challenges president jacob zuma successor will lead the party in the next presidential election in two thousand and nineteen tanya page is in johannesburg. the african national congress elect of conference is underway and it's going to be unfolding here over the next five days but most of the discussion and debate will be happening behind closed doors in those buildings there just in the distance behind the fence we can see some of the delegates there about five thousand or so have come here from branches of the a.n.c. all over the country they want to just be voting for the top job president but deputy and in fact all the top one hundred eighty decisions but of course it's the presidency that is the most contested the most important to the future of the a.n.c. and there are really two main contenders the first being and course as many zuma she is a very experienced politician. she was a member of parliament and

a minister under successive governments of the a.n.c. she's a former chair person on the african union very experience she's had a bit of a catchphrase in the campaign that of radical economic transformations she's seen as being very pro force and accused of being populist by some of the main rival is the current defeated president cyril ramaphosa another a.n.c. stalwart neither of these individuals is a new name a new face they have a long history in south african politics and in the liberation struggle in the struggle for freedom so around oppose it was a trade unionist he helped formulate this country's constitution a very popular man seen as being pro-business he has a business background and a bit of a darling of the markets he's got more to find economic policies perhaps because of bad blood many zuma is the favored candidate of president zuma in fact they used to be married to have children together she is believed to be the one most likely to

protect them from any legal action there are hundreds of corruption charges hanging over him that could resurface where is his deputy so rehman pose a potentially the next president of the a.n.c. is less likely to protect the outgoing zuma from those charges funerals are being held for the four palestinians killed by israeli forces in the latest protest in gaza in the occupied west bank the railing against the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital if there are was one of those men shot in gaza he was in a wheelchair protesting when he was reportedly hit by a sniper bullets i would throw it was an activist who lost his legs during an israeli air strike in two thousand and eight hundreds of other people were also injured in the confrontations. the u.s. embassy in honduras has been surrounded by protesters angry at waiting three weeks for a definitive results in the presidential election demonstrators accuse the u.s. of interfering in last month's vote which both candidates say they won proves

congress's initiated impeachment proceedings against president pedal problem it was triggered by allegations that kaczynski failed to disclose payments his company got from brazilian construction giant order bricked kaczynski has resisted calls for him to resign and denies any wrongdoing. relatives of crew members from the missing argentine submarine are demanding the international search operation continues until a vessel is found contact with some one was lost in mid november argentina's navy ended its search two weeks ago after an explosion was detected near the subs last known location row gunday has taken over from his mother sagna as president of india's main opposition party the congress party lost popularity over the past three years since its defeat in the general election by the b j p dandies recently stirred talk of a political revival i was just about to become the only country in western europe

with a far right party in the government the winner of october's parliamentary elections the conservative people's parties reached a coalition deal with the anti immigration freedom party as the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera but first it is once upon a time in punchbowl. various crimes or strive. to get away from the war that was happening at the top. and they came to restart their life. as a margaret when i first arrived at this rally i like it i i struggled. it was very difficult. i wanted to give us the data but it. was

a part of the beginning there isn't for us the last. few decades lebanese families come to a stranger to build a better life and escape the destruction of. that many and demonized in a new land. to. get rid of this multiculturalism the first that is kind of body and soul. then after fifteen years of immigration from lebanon anglo and arab australia is divided by the first gulf war they're being confronted with a choice between doing either. because up to now the multicultural story is both. first. i already answered this question are going to start as he does or not all the stars trailer and i shouldn't be asked about this. on my odyssey weeks if

there's a tally of the about the flick about this. all. in one thousand nine hundred a tiny criminal minority become drug dealing gangsters defying the law lose games will be watched. in two thousand and one. terrorism raises fears that arab australians are an enemy within on the part of a terrorist or the rival in all of my five years later and our intention explodes into one of the most infamous race riots in a strain in history don't go to the middle east to bottom to the weak or the now that we have been in the eye for sure effect for so tedious for people converged on print out of a chance to outweigh. what happened on that sunday in court all of it is a black or for a country. i'm

a live in asia wants to own is what i am what i don't know i am a straw man i am lebanese i am muslim i'm up a majority. i'm all that i want this is a story of what it's like to be live in ames and colas try and. we are striving and this. is where we belong and this is what we have. one hundred fifty police were on homes across sydney southwest early this morning nine people arrested for a string of bomb crimes over the past year with the having and in the long thing

there was a lot of screams on the streets. there was a lot of crying with the police couldn't keep. going. on the streets it did except the ones who want to save all districts let's put it this way and at that time there was no one to stop them. in sydney's south west lebanese criminals are said to be running out of control punchbowl bankstown canterbury look came back the suburbs are described by law enforcement officials as a bit of coffee it cocaine trafficking and violence. south west sydney is the center of a strain is lebanese community. by the nine hundred ninety s.

this deeply religious and conservative community is being terrorized by a tiny minority of criminals from both christian and muslim family owns. a gun i thought. we suffered as a community because of what kids deal with dealing was drugs their way of drug addict is a weird making good money. and this is just killing people it was so easy for them such a mentality to kill people. they fold their weird untouchable. up . in the mid ninety ninety s. you've got the growth of crime of drug gangs was sort of stuff. which is essentially the consequence of not planning for multiculturalism. this sort of if fluorescence if you like of criminal delinquency as

a preferred lifestyle is the choice you make when access to the normal rewards a normal path ways a society is blocked. that really subscribe to the society is to blame sort of train of thought. you know my family arrived here in the sixty's and we probably could have used more of a hand than what we got that you make do and you get on and you make a success of all your efforts and your life yet egyptian born new south wales deputy police commissioner nick kaldas still recognizes the pressure of growing up arab in wider australian. i think anybody who says that there is there racism in sydney or australia as they head in the sand the reason rises and that does contribute to some extent to people being a united and it will go down the wrong path. in south west sydney the wrong

path means gang activity. the politicians all over the place to use zero tolerance . the gangsters get personal threatening offices and their families but you don't know. the informant was significantly vala. games running destroying. it involved public by shooting in the campaigns matters it was in your face forward craw. who would proud of their money and they're. proud of the easily gained whirls there with the greatest enemy to work community at that time and we needed to make a stand against them. wanted to form a partnership between the low obeid being citizens and over community and the new

south wales police against those criminal element. a lot of the lebanese young gangsters thought though a bigger than ben-hur they thought that they were unbreakable and untouchable and that's what i tried to intimidate the police this eighteen year old was shot twice in the legs in a pocket punch bowl of the week in the. it in the area in the end with the rise of the criminal gangs comes an insidious influence american gangster culture in music in movies has a powerful effect on a stray in lebanese take thought. she when you watch gangster movies and and you see all the money in the last all of those sort of you want to give the voice for. growing up in bankstown. you known as westy is like many young teenagers with a passion for gangsta rap when you become a teenager your eyes open up to a lot of feelings and. six drugs and rock n roll

and we're going. to different parts. like cars and bling and girls and guns that's the culture that i grew up in sally care grows up surrounded by a similar culture but graduates university and works in management with a very mild dominated culture as well there's no there's no denying that and i guess the prove your manhood a lot of cases where you show how much you've earned with your. jewelry and everything else. being on the streets and hanging with my friends sort of did you mean identity. starts to know who you are and they start the fee. because of you and your boys.

it's just these that you do when you're young and stupid and not really thinking. brought up in a conservative catholic family in nearby paramatman. george basher and his friends also aspire to the glamour of gangsta rap. it's cool in a scene on t.v. the other. it's cycle in and it's going you do it and am not thinking ever thinking ahead you're sitting in the moment it's always in the moment. westie comes from a conservative working class family who immigrate during the lebanese civil war. when i was young i had a very very good. riffing off a kidney from. i had or the love and affection from them. he does well at school until he and his friends discovered drugs who is further smoking marijuana first thing we started taking alcohol then i went ecstasy you

know and. you know went to. cocaine. there sat in my father's side of me that. is still you know i shall be a mason up to the future which is so true. that's we all went off track because ror doing the same feeling getting on drugs making money to support a drug habit and just like in every community in sydney anglo or not the drug culture crosses generations many who stray down the wrong path when they're young turn into worried parents back with them odd twenties when we're all. hands on and never you know i mean hands on. from car going tomorrow on the to the guns to whatever you want to didn't end up with of uncle sally cares little brother sam has some run ins with the law and he's lucky to avoid jail. but as a father with

a young family he worries about the drug record evolving in south west sydney. when you get older more mature you want to get real and you have kids you want to keep your kids as far away from stuff like that as possible you don't want to say the things that you said you don't want to do that you've done. all that a lot of. unfortunate interaction with people on drugs and other dealing or with people actually using unfortunate because american units. and with drugs comes violence. a more often or absolutely short of simply able to step in i have seen i've seen it all. by the early one nine hundred ninety s. george basher is a panel beating apprentice by day and a d.j. at night. but with the gangsters dominating the streets he's also the son of a worried mom. d.j.

and all the time. i was what i see in a window. all the time i see some cars top i look from the window. if a judge back home one or not. so in his bed car i feel comfortable i sleep my husband said to me crazy is all of the noise you see in the window i did them because i was one and he went different places you know what's happened there. you know the water is some in from the drugs some people trouble michael's. all styling it in a puff that you know is are. there. one toy mouse get a five dollars at work get a phone call a tommy are your friends falling for his wife with when ospital said do you want to be. and yes me is just bein a. civil lot. good to poornima name up and he's funny for. the sort of your friend. the lying in

hospital chief come from all of his body. i remember. very the way the croyde. turned away and then when i looked closely couldn't sleep tonight. i'm thinking of what could go on then he said that's maybe . but for westy and his teenage crew the big life lessons are still to come for then drugs and petty crime go hand in hand. to make money or to powerful doing crime. is a measure of those kids their parents. years generations they come in from lebanon and they didn't have much control over that kid's activity and so i

didn't know what that kids there were doing even though some of them were using parents' home as a distribution center for drugs and that sort of thing. but westies parents are not so naive. fear and eventually started to know that i was taking drugs in that i was making money because the woman would formed a lot of cash on issue one joy to find. she started uncovering fings big boy b. and i should start asking ridge a girl to love god have to make some excuse but she knew i was doing. wrong feelings. and for westies dad there's only one response physical violence. why farver tried to discipline me in that

form. it really doesn't work when you hit someone it just makes them rebuild. and in the mid to late one nine hundred ninety s. this is when many rebellious lebanese tains find their drug supplies. tonight be a straight punch bowl. this quiet for. amalie on clay becomes the illegal drug distribution center south west sydney. street was renowned for. being a violent and organized crime area. there was significant drug distribution taking place from runners the lower level street dealers for drugs so there would be a lot of cars going down to like the street looking for dealers to have them supply drugs to people going on the street. and it was actually the same as any fast food outlet you go they stop for five siggins you get to pick

a new leaf. it's only a handful of dealers but they terrorize the street they are directly linked to form that is and twenty five shootings. this was the career they tried and i continued on the tradition of other people who would bring involved in organized crime and some of these young men knew nothing kills but to be criminals unfortunately there was a well founded fear at that time that if people went to the police station to give them any kind of information those clean criminal element would know about it and they'll come to retaliate. it's difficult for people to stand up and give evidence as a witness against some of these kron gangs because i was on and as we saw a lot on i would shoot and kill people who i thought were going to give evidence against them. for the street gangsters handguns

a part of everyday life. drug you know drug dealing and carrying guns do i go down people protecting it's of our ideas and unfortunately a gun culture certainly has come into prominence or relieved. rounds are supplied by crooked gun dealers and it's the beginning of illegal international gun imports through the post so suddenly you've got the capacity of young people to get guns fueled by money and they see themselves as likely new drug lords there are on a short fuse they think money is easy and the place i never touch them. there were a significant place response to this. which which resulted in police undertaking

survival and. covert operations until i'd be straight on drugs themselves mike is sure that undercover operatives were down the street identifying those who are responsible for selling the drugs. but the police under political pressure to get tough on crime also struggled to keep the community onside. community policing at that time did not exist. police officers on the street did not communicate they forced subjugated and treated. young people in a very bad manners and at same time there was their idea was in the community that there is a lot of corruption within the police force and so. i think from a policing perspective engagement is what is key it's all important perhaps in some ways in the in the ninety's we were not as engaged as we could have been. as their

relationship with the police becomes increasingly fractured christian and muslim families are gripped by crime and an epidemic that steals their children. a lot of young people would bury it much earlier than was a should have because of their drug habits a lot of family way to broken at that time because of the drug habits their parent didn't know how to do it was it just did not know how to deal with it i have seen it firsthand in my capacity as a general practitioner we had in excess of eighty different families there were all . mother or father or sister or brother of a heroin addict in over a community that was staggering. as to low p. a straight sinks deeper into the criminal abyss westie moves from south west sydney

to pick up the drug trade in king's cross. when i was seven thirteen was living in the syrian macon or the money and living the hard life. but when he's high on drugs it's a robbery that finally brings westies world crashing down. on the train and there was three individuals which started to swear at me in arabic. or warn them once one of them toys one of three times their wooden lucerne for a full hour. and i end up probably more free of them which i really didn't have to do because i was already making a lot of money in the city being off my head. and. stripped of all the goods. he's arrested and convicted of robbery and serves a year in jail with two years parole.

and back on to. the violent drug trade forced as a teenager to pay the ultimate price. schoolboy it but larry was bashed dabbed and shot had in the end it was a single knife wound to the heart which killed him. and a people already reeling are about to be demonized. a fourteen year old korean schoolboy is stabbed when he walks into the wrong front yard by mistake. it would friends had just pulled up at their classmates. a young boy going to a birthday party it just happened that there's the party interloper street he went house so i didn't like the way he looked so i stabbed him. and it wasn't good for the community but it sort of fit in with the pattern of life

around punchbowl of the town shooting being whatever you want to call it was was unfortunately for requirement at the time it was parents are receiving counseling he was an only child. friends have told police they didn't know their attackers and there was no reason for the killing would be good to know not only about one have to find. this or have found. i think in some ways the murder of edward lee in history focused a lot of media and public attention on the street and on the on south west sydney there were other murders and women in there were other people who were killed in in very tragic circumstances but they didn't sort of grab the pup. imagination and the media attention the way the lehman the deed and what happens next is going to mean a disaster for the lebanese community and all those associated was.

once welcomed now fear. and dividing a nation. al-jazeera explores germany's long term economic strategy of pursuing immigrants from the arab world i feel more judgment on syria. are much money does the richer get those people put up think that it can do it one german and i'm not the new germans at this time on al-jazeera. the big breaking news story can be chaotic and frantic behind the scenes. people shouting instructions and if you're trying to provide the best most accurate up to date information as quickly as you can. it's when we come off air on things thinking realized and witnessed history in the making.

our war on terror begins with out but it does not in there no terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat than the regime of saddam hussein and this is a regime that has something to hide they have aired a significant propaganda before and guess what not one w m d shite was found in iraq since the one nine hundred ninety one iraq a deadly deception at this time on al jazeera. back. and i'm jane gotten into other top stories the meeting to elect a new leader for south africa's ruling party the african national congress is due

to begin after it was delayed due to legal challenges we are looking at live pictures coming from the conference there in johannesburg president jacob zuma success will lead the party in the next presidential election in two thousand and nine two hundred twenty page is in johannesburg. there was an emergency meeting called of the national executive committee of the african national congress that includes about one hundred or so members and they were meeting to discuss the outcomes of civil court rulings delivered on friday and what they have confirmed from those court rulings as that they will be about one hundred thirty hundred forty or so delegates here of just over five thousand who will not be allowed to vote because at the branch level at the grassroots the meeting level these are the meetings that happen in town halls and churches and schools they didn't follow the correct processes according to the courts and so they will not be able to vote here funerals are being held for the four palestinians killed by israeli forces in the

latest protests in gaza and the occupied west bank one of the men shot by a sniper in the confrontations was activist about him that ayad he lost his legs cheering and israeli airstrike in two thousand and eight. piers embassy in honduras has been surrounded by protesters angry and waiting three weeks for a definitive results in the presidential election demonstrators accuse the u.s. of interfering in last month's vote which both candidates say they won proves congress has initiated impeachment proceedings against president pedro public kitchen ski was triggered by allegations that kaczynski failed to disclose payments his company got from the brazilian ups construction giant out of breath kaczynski has resisted calls for him to resign and denies any wrongdoing well gandhi has taken over from his mother sonia as president of india's main opposition party the congress party lost popularity over the past three years since defeat in the

general election by the b j p oster is about to become the only country in western europe with a far right party in the government the winner of october's parliamentary elections the conservative people's party has reached a coalition deal with the anti immigration freedom party those are the headlines this go back to once upon a time in punchbowl. under the orders of the police commissioner peter ryan two hundred offices right straight with. but it was only zoos. people who shot killed don't was a drug the word against the move. in the coming days in right across south west sydney the police crackdown on known criminals and their associates.

eventually twenty four men arrested. for people living in punch bowl we knew that was up in a couple years before before that so it wasn't anything new to us but here you could possibly be the odd lomotil would have woken up the boys and i'm glad that it did because it certainly changed things a few years after that so there was a lot of a lot of clean up ideas in punchbowl straight after that. i think incidents like the murder of edward lee focused very intensely very quickly on having enough of a dialogue and out of credibility understanding with that public so that they have faith and can come forward and give you information and talk to you not i mean the edward leamer but in the series of incidents at west sydney around that time. five

young police standish still alive after their station was sprayed with gunfire but the gangsters don't go down without a fight twelve days later they open fire on locanda police station with semiautomatic guns by police officers as vulnerable as targets in a shooting gallery. the drive by shooting of look into a police station was a confronting event probably i'm president of some of the resonated with me is that it was a direct and very blunt challenge to authority to police and to government generally and to society i. it's sort of a cowardly y. really of attacking someone and trying to intimidate them and threaten them without having to confront them so they the shooting of look into a police station fitted into that category. a

state election looms. and both sides of politics compete to bang the law and order drum. the small minority of gangs into focus that an entire community and culture feel the hate more in order to provide all through a strong well resourced probably equipped police force these gangs will be wiped. rather than framing this as here is a community under threat from its own deviant rump is presented to the community and the water world as this is something that is particular peculiar to this community it's their problem not als. and from then on the basis for the future debate is sit in a very nasty and toxic way. people wanted to see politicians get tough on crime and they knew that the sentiment was

out there that people wanted to appropriate those crimes to a particular culture. they tapped into a very real fear there wasn't just about the ponies the term islamophobia started to be used or often you know the fear of muslims. i'm proud of my slam. because islam taught me like you know dignity taught me how to respect others and accept them and that's a most important part. at the height of the islamophobia ninety asylum is employed as a local government family support worker in south west sydney. i was always organizing on christmas ham piss and christmas toys for families that and children. i called one client and she said not here would you mind if i ask you where you from.

i said why are you asking me i'm from here and she said no no no what's your background i said the only been is she said but you won't be muslim you're not muslim aren't you i said thank god i'm a muslim. in two thousand after immigrating during the lebanese civil war karl and i have saved for their family dream home next to punchbowl park. first thing. we're thinking about it to have a secure shelter for the family because coming from war. to have a sooky was shelled is is very important. but they soon horrified by what they hear . and fortunately hearing the gunshots in a early morning on. the first shock was i mean labor and.

we moved away from war we came he said it we're looking for safety and fortunately the. soon as he is it is gunshots across the yard from you it was not a positive experience the grandstand is actually is a meeting point for all the gangs all all over sydney. after twelve o'clock. we've got all this gang stand exchange drugs they fight together they shoot shoot together. gangsters who hang out across the in the grandstand at night. will be a haven for drug dealing a haven for meeting up with prostitutes it would be just. wasn't a taste that you would want to raise a family i have to admit. we all there are seven more news old lacan the real was a police will be there in every single day. calzaghe has enough he

rallies the neighbors and they take action our right to petition. its all neighbor . sign it. and sign the petition ask for speed are the police to come and patrol the area and do more large think. as well as close this grandstand. and. after six months seven months it's the problem is that people. are embarrassed schoolboys to get teased because my dad put speed humps in every street in punchbowl it was pretty funny moments ago speed how speed humps when i walk past it's it's funny but there is wisdom behind that because when my dad thought of

prince speed humps around the streets of punchbowl he let the gangsters the thugs with the fast cars always want to speed down every street belittle no you're not going punchbowl. as the community works with the police the hype is the media focus on criminal activity will finally die down. but things are about to get a whole lot worse. the sydney olympics a celebration of a modern multicultural nation. just a few kilometers away the lebanese a strained community is about to be outraged. of course i'm a shift early in the morning. and there's been

a suspected abduction. and possibly a sexual assault of a young female. and information that we had led us to believe that it could be in one of the parks in bankstown. senior constable danny mccarty is lebanese astray and. he's born and bred in south west sydney school that punchbowl boys high. in two thousand he's a new constable with less than a year on the force and nothing prepares him for what he's about to find. i'm walking through this park and i can say this because he's got a tissues. on the ground and then i noticed. an older gentleman you know. and he's hunched over something and he seems to be distressed.

i can see young fame on the ground so i don't know what's what's happening so i'm really going to hold him to keep keep more from from the ngo than i realize it is it's a father. someone fortunate in that situation the father has found his daughter first . and it was clear that the been a sexual assault. it was a very very very traumatic experience very very hard thing to say. that later on the information came out that it was part of a number of gang rapes that happened in the city very very upset very very sad and it was to me one of the most deplorable acts that you can have had to commit on someone else. and just thinking right that girl would have been going through at the time is just horrendous now being. that i've got i'm a father of a young girl it's just something that i can comprehend and. i would never want to be in that and the father's position and i went out to another.

the park in which it happened was only a few houses our problem also. being so close to home the media and the police and the and the stories of it i have three older sisters and it's scary to know that these things happen so close to home. when the rape occurs mohammed coupled lady is a student at punchbowl boys high some days later a new attack is a stark lesson in the cruelty of sex crime. painstakingly the police piece together a chilling pattern of crime. a gang of teenagers is raping young girls using unusual and degrading violence. because most of the accused under eighteen their names are not made public what is revealed is that they are all lebanese a strain. not much happens about them until well after the olympics when the.

when the accused are brought to court and suddenly the media ruppert. what happened next is that the there was an intense clear of media and public attention about what happened about the ethnic backgrounds of the use and they will use that were involved. i think it really shook the community taught school. i think it really made every family question whether they were how they were raising their kids because it was something that was unforeseen or unheard of was unthinkable that people so local so close to home could do something that terrible to somebody and think that they had a right to do that when the media storm erupts. muhammad's future wife is a teenager in high school. it was very scary off think

a lot of families became fee for their daughter's. like harm of the person they thinking i'm never going to marry a lebanese muslim god because if that's what they're like then that's disgusting three young women still just for teenagers every libby degrading ordeal in the courtroom hearing again and again the horrifying crimes committed against them in all they work for victims three separate attacks in fairborn locations in sydney found waived the daily telegraph in particular finds the victims and gets them to repeat. allegations about the woods that the assailants used against one of the victims said she was referred to as an aussie speak and was told by one of the right just i'm going to start. the words libs style flash around the nation. suddenly the lebanese astray and community

stand. accused. it was the epitome of the anti lebanese and team muslim history in this country but the lebanese community would as outraged and horrified by the rights as any other. there was like a biblical stoning ceremony. people could not throw those stones hard enough right the racial razor. of the court demonstrated the responsible for these pictures from the beginning. as. i did by the film where these muslims fall into the plan of attack and liberate muslims. and introduces a new dimension he moves from the notion which is widely known about ripest that they are a small minority often psychotic sick minded people who are at the age

of the social world and he places stand in the middle as an exemplar of all muslim men. across the community they were threats received they were missing just left in little boxes they were threats that muslim women would be dragged from the streets and ripe to intervene. and so working the streets you absolutely looked at differently you were looked at as they could be another another right but still they could be part of that gang or you know and because all these guys came from the area and living in it that's on. it affected me even more that it it's my identity to the world i mean i knew who i was the world saw me differently. although i feel as if all that made for the right goals are not possible the jew told that they were christians all catholics will do exactly that is that they're muslim and ok we did not go right by anybody. finally the

accused convicted and then names released this is a bailout gaff the man at the center of one of the nation's most notorious crimes for gang rape for his victims for you believe thing of the suppression order was welcome. to be named. where. the heaviest sentence of all is reserved for the eighteen year old gang leader the message is clear the loud gaffe surveying an unprecedented fifty five year jail term for a gang rape. on appeal the sentence is reduced to thirty one years and name that capote lee believes the convicted did not understand the damage they did to their own community. does no remorse and i think that was the most awful disgusting thing and it was an example love with the court was applying general detriments and i think the example was definitely set but i think they were

destroyed as society thought the lebanese muslim community were the perpetrators of this type of behavior when really what it did was victimize individuals in our community even. the guilty are behind bars but for the community the trial goes on we were torn apart by z. hold events as you were the way it was publicized before but we needed to defend or was sold. against the media we knew that the friend was soft against a politician when he did defend always serve our gone against the hate. mail that we received we were afraid. we were just afraid that that our we didn't know what to do. it wasn't only lebanese muslims who experience this many lebanese christians also experienced it because in the why. the public

ignorant mind it was simply enough to be arab lebanese from the middle east irrespective of religion or faith or lack of. a community is under media see. and as racist tensions increase so too does the police presence on the streets. the drug gangs are the most obvious targets. but as the crackdown continues the underworld drug supply continues to spread than a cabbage didn't stop the drug distribution didn't stop i want to take a run around unfortunately there is someone there to take the advice almost immediately. tilopa street punchbowl one time to see nice most notorious gangs the street has returned to its old suburban life. most of these people are now in prison or invoke

would submitter. but like a virus the drug trade spreads to other areas of the c.c. . was developed a new process of visibility how impact pushing through through the new south wales police. so we would get up to hundred poised to run operations through banks stand in the streets of punchbowl of cambridge growing like you're in those other areas to turn imo as many criminals as we caught. and possible with lose the ability to get. and unfortunately. there's a there's a culling process with the poise wake up realize that there's an issue quite a few people are arrested then taken to prison and then they're with us back to normal. and then the next generation comes through. and there is a young kids who are influenced by money and the or of being a big gangster or a criminal who hang around with these blokes and their mentor in their board up to

do this is a job so unfortunately they could be school my family relatives or dropouts or or good kids or tongs. and the way steve society's punishment fails to act as a deterrent. when i got out of general within two weeks i was back to doing the same stuff that was doing because i tried to follow the drug war tried to do something good and i just gave up or was just so used to living the. fun lifestyle . after a year in prison and still on parole. back into dealing drugs in the city you become a slave. to the club to the customers and to the money and just takes your mind to show your power energy and. you've got no control over its use made.

to try and make money in a fast way. it consumes you. on you don't want on. to get caught finally come. westy is caught and he's sentenced to another term in prison but while he's in jail he writes down his life story as a warning to young people not to follow his path in crime. but back in south west sydney it's the law abiding lebanese people who are now faced with picking up the pieces of their shattered community. disgusted. element was in the community have been

conducted themselves the community were victims of all these elaborate so we're fifty of the gang wars of writers there were victims of the medias and were victims of the politician they were victim of. at the time they didn't know how to react to it over that one. feeling was discussed does communities feel they have no recourse no protection so they become cynical angry depressed monoculturalism as it. took this horrendous kick to the stomach. already reeling any hope of recovery is snuffed out by world events nobody could have predicted. without warning lebanese astray and suddenly have their greatest challenge yet. as arab astray and a brand of the enemy within. and the community faces

a new threat. after september that different people have been under a different kind of fluids. it's no longer the get the rich quick no longer. it's even worse than that it was. a religious radicalization. next time on once upon a time in punchbowl. by saturday. the first australian in history is prosecuted under a new no laws designed to protect the nation from terrorism he wanted to belong to someone to keep him on that his wing told him they would wrong thing about islam. you can call a radical islam and be full of fundamentalism extremism call it someone. and racism raised its ugly head as

a strain borne lebanese atol and to go back to where they came from the lasting image there of a person who is just to survive the running for their lot of the boardwalk at the base of it for those who will watch it to destroy how could it get to the. in two thousand and one vs spreads around the. arab australians accused of being enemies within. and attacking the us the way of life we were treated like we had all suspects we were all under suspicion struggling to adapt to their new found home. al-jazeera explores the history of the lebanese community in australia. once upon a time in punchbowl and this time on al-jazeera. from

was flowing in and winds to an enchanting desert breeze. i know there is hope for some of us in south america at the moment it's mostly in the southern part of hama where the hot weather is further north while the heat tape here is being tempered by these showers and some of them fairly heavy but down in the south here it's just staying very very hot indeed we're looking at forty degrees there in the sunshine and even up to fifty five in born as ari's this area of town and rain though it's working its way northward and behind that there's a bit of a cool change so twenty four would just be the maximum on sunday in buenos aires asuncion though still very very high temperature wife and it's later on as we head through monday and tuesday with the temperatures will eventually begin to drop off

here in riyadh up towards the central americans here for many of us this plenty of sunshine and just a few showers dotted about but in the northern part of our map you can see this area of cloud here this is bringing some great weather and also a fair amount of rain to parts of mexico and it's just spreading up further north as well so for some of us in mexico we're also seeing some wet weather and we could do with some rain here so having a look then what's going on over north america you see that area of cloud there just poking its way a bit further north was there say that is the welcome rain we've got in texas then the system gradually edges its way eastwards there as we head through the day on sunday bringing more heavy rain. there with it sponsored by qatar peace. after fifty years of occupation and un condemnation of illegal israeli settlements but i haven't got you to have i'm from tahrir yet and i want to preserve the safety of the village i've clashed several times with suckers on these lands al jazeera

world tells the story of a palestinian village that's struggling to survive and the growing threats to their residence desperate to preserve their homes village under occupation at this time. al jazeera. and. this is al-jazeera.