[Reader-list] A Letter from Beirut

[Mansour Aziz]

A Letter from Beirut

By Tamam Mroue*
December 6, 2006

Watching from over the Ring Bridge which use to demarcate the Green  
Line dividing East and West Beirut during the 15-year civil war, one  
can see the whole commercial city-center. The downtown that was  
rebuilt by  former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, after creating the  
private real-estate company "Solidaire" that bought-out by way of  
incentives and intimidation private and public property, turning the  
downtown into one private lot; one of the prettiest and cleanest in  
the world(2). Nobody visits this downtown, except for the Lebanese  
bourgeoisie and a few passer-byes, while it primarily serves as a  
tourist hangout, specially for those well-to-do visitors coming from  
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states(3).

But on the day of Friday November 30th, the scene from this same  
bridge had changed. It is as if the downtown had reclaimed its old  
name, "balad"(4), when buses use to come from the outskirts and  
suburbs of the city, filled with people wanting to buy or sell, or to  
simply go on an excursion. The balad appeared anew as if it were a  
camp: sounds of drums, derbeke(5), revolutionary and religious songs,  
the smell of hookas, and dancing in all its forms: from the Southern  
and  Zghertawi dabke(6) to break dance and other types of Western  
dance. They reclaimed the city center and lived in it in a way it  
hadn't been lived for over thirty years.

Perhaps the joyous spirit seen on the faces of the participants is  
due to the hope that they will soon bring down the goverment, or  
perhaps it is a letting-go of the pressure they lived under the July  
2006 Israeli bombardment. But it is foremost an expression of the  
desire of Shiites to participate in, and to feel part of, Lebanon. If  
one follows the television here, he or she may not see the same  
festive scene. Those who go on stage are representatives of  
oppositional parties, ideological and loyal to the banners and  
tactics of their parties. They aren't the ones who would hold the  
banner "Oh Fatfat, hurry please, two coffee and one tea."(7)

At night, Hizbollah supporters do not mix with the other protesters  
(perhaps for security reasons), although they are keen on interacting  
with their partners during the day. This mixing became commonplace  
between supporters of Amal(8), the Aounists (9), the left, and the  
Marada party, whose Maronite leader Sulaiman Franjiah broke a taboo  
by criticizing the Maronite Patriarch. From a program aired on  
Hizbollah-supported Manar TV, and in response to the call of the  
patriarch to the Christians to not partipate in the strike: "maybe  
[the Patriarch] got turned on by the visit of the women." Franjiah  
was referring to a visit made to Bkerke(10) by a number of wives and  
families of the "14the of March" martyrs(11).

Joyce Al-Jumayel's(12) expression of shock and regret to what  
Sulaiman, the son of Feira Frenjiah, had said about the Patriarch,  
was a comic irony. She might have forgotten that they (the Jumayel  
family) did not give a chance for Feira Frenjiah and her husband Tony  
to live and "properly raise" their son Sulaiman (the father, mother,  
and sister of Sulaiman Frenjieh were killed by the Lebanese Forces  
when he was five years old).

Al-Tayyar (the Party headed by former military general Michel Aoun,  
which is in alliance with Hizbollah) performed the Sunday ceremonies  
in a Maronite church attended by all oppositional parties (and hence,  
religious groups). At the same time, the government which has been  
beseiged inside the Sarail(13), was performing another Maronite  
ceremony in memory of the assassination of Pierre Jumayyel. A  
ceremony which comes after the grand Mufti of the Sunnis had  
performed his Friday prayer in the Sarail in solidarity with the  
Sunni Prime Minister Sinoura.

Inside the Sarail, the scene is more elegant and bourgeois: western  
and Arabic suits, clergymen, and prayers in solidarity with a  
government that is surrounded by thousands of protestors. It is said  
that the government had been sleeping in the Sarail and avoiding  
movement in fear of assassinations, since any such assassinations of  
ministers would call for the government to resign. Hasan Al-Sabea,  
the former Minister of Interior who had resigned over ten months ago,  
overturned his resignation in order to secure government quorum. The  
Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has called on the Druze students in the  
Lebanese University to stay at home and continue with their studies  
in fear of those "reactionaries" who want to drive the country into  
"revenge wars".


A New Civil War, a New Green Line

The night of Sunday December 2nd, and while a van of passangers was  
heading towards the southern suburb from Martyre square in downtown  
Beirut, passing by the predominantly Sunni area of Qasqas, the van  
was stopped and a number of men attacked the passengers. A quarrel  
errupted which resulted in tens of injured young Shiite men, and the  
death of one of them from a gunshot to his stomach. The next day,  
young men from the predominatly Shiite area of Shiyah went and broke  
the doors of stores in the Sunni Barbir area.

These events are highly symbolic for all the Lebanese, for the Qasqas  
van has replaced the Ein El-Rummanah bus, the famous bus incident  
which is considered by most as delineating the start of Lebanese  
Civil War (1975-1990). Back then, the supporters of Palestinian  
groups were returning from a ceremony, when they were shot at by  
supporters of the Philangist Party. Today, the Shiite return from a  
festive protest and are then shot at by supporters of the Hariri-lead  
Future Movement. The lines of demarcation have changed. While the  
line use to be between Shiyah and Ein El-Rummana, meaning between the  
Muslims and Christians, now it has been transformed to Corniche Al- 
Mazra'a (where the Lebanese Army has been now deployed), representing  
the line dividing Sunni and Shiite areas. The in-the-middle Shiyah  
area has simply moved its line of attrittion from the Christian Ein  
Alrummanah area to the Sunni Tariq Aljdede area. The common  
denominator reamins, which is that Shiyah is one of the poorest  
neighborhoods of Beirut.


The Economy

Taxi drivers in Beirut have been transformed into mobile radios for  
the defense and propagation of the government's policies. And here's  
a sampling of what happens in the shared taxis of Beirut. One of them  
told me: "the country has stopped and I hadn't worked today. All the  
blame is on the strike that has crippled the country. What do they  
want from us? Thugs dancing and playing the drums in central downtown  
and we are dying of hunger! We brought down the government of Omar  
Karame(14) but we did not dance in the downtown." Another taxi driver  
told me: "Isn't it a shame that we cut off the livelihood of 300  
families who live off of Solidaire? Isn't a shame that State funds  
and public land is stolen by citizens who are constructing in areas  
such as Alraml Alali?(15)" For him, public money is being stolen by  
the poor whose houses were bombed during the agression and received  
money from Hizbollah, and whom are now building with it houses on  
public lands.

The government has echoed such sentiments, specially its president  
Sinourah who previously served as a Minister of Finance and was  
therefore in charge of the public debt which has reached a staggering  
40 billion dollars. In irony, he has alluded to that all of Lebanon's  
economic crisis is due to five days of protest in the city center,  
and that an appeal against the government will lead to the  
cancelation of Paris 3, the France-led international meeting which is  
scheduled to study the public debt.


The Horror of Civl War

Fear is not hidden from the faces of the people in this city,  
specially those moving between areas at night time, as youth are now  
starting to carry sticks and stopping cars asking its passengers  
about their sect. A scene which recalls the times of kiddnapping and  
killing on identity during the civil war, which may soon be referred  
to as the Civil War I.

Lebanon is on the verge of civil war and this time a Sunni-Shiite  
one, and all the prerequesites are there for a people who has become  
accustomed to these wars, if not mastering them. Specially  
considering that whether the political class is in the "loyalist"  
camp or in the opposition, all of them have been tried and share the  
status of warlords, some of which are undoubtedly war criminals.

But the hope remains that it will not happen again, considering that  
this time around the Lebanese people know very well the horror of  
war, and like the last time when it was anxious for killing "the  
others". Also the hope is in Hizbollah, undoubtedly the most armed  
party in Lebanon, which has worked relentlessly on cleaning up its  
history of involvement in the civil war, and from religious extremism  
and kidnapping, in effort to become "a Lebanese resistance party".  
Will Hizbollah go backwards and draw his weapons towards the Lebanese  
after it excelled in aiming them towards Israel?


* Tamam Mroue is a social worker living in Beirut. This letter has  
been translated from Arabic.



________________________________
Translator's notes:

(1) This is why the downtown is also referred to as simply "Solidaire"
(2) Sukleen, the waste collection and street sweeping company  
commissioned by the government to clean Beirut, is also owned by Hariri.
(3) The number of tourists per year in recent years have exceeded one  
million per year, roughly a quarter of which come from Saudi Arabia.
(4) "Balad" which is the Arabic word for "country", is the colloquial  
Beiruti word for downtown. "Balad" refers to the old and "populaire"  
downtown prior to reconstruction, while usage of the English word  
"downtown" or simply "D.T." implies a new class relationship to the  
city center.
(5) A drum commonly drum used in Lebanon and many Levant Arab countries.
(6) Dabke is the traditional folk dance of the Levant, and different  
regions within Lebanon have slightly different variations of its  
steps and movement. Zghartawi dabke is in reference to the dabke  
danced in the Zgharta region in the north of Lebanon.
(7) During the 2006 Israeli aggression on Lebanon, a Lebanese  
military commander was captured on videotape serving tea to an  
Israeli office at a barrack in the town of Marjayoun. The officer was  
later arrested by the Lebanese government. Fatfat was the Minister of  
Interior during the Israeli aggression. Writer Asaad Abukhalil  
defines "Fatfatism" as a term which "... speaks of democracy and  
'liberalism' and yet cultivates support among Bin Laden supporters in  
North Lebanon and serves as a client for Saudi Wahhabism; it speaks  
in favor of 'sovereignty' and 'independence' while it faithfully  
represented the interests of the tyrannical Syrian regime, and now  
represents the external patrons of Sanyurah. The ideology of  
Fatfatism believes that the most effective way for fighting foreign  
occupation is serving tea to the occupation soldiers."
(8) Amal started out as a secular movement in the 1970s and became  
transformed into Shiite militia during the civil war.
(9) Aounists are those who support the Free Partriatic Movement, a  
secular and mostly Christian party headed by former military general  
Michel Aoun.
(10) Bkerke is the residence of the Patriarch of the Maronite Church.
(11) "14th of March" is the name political camp currently in  
government. The name comes from the rally that followed the killing  
of Rafiq Hariri last year, and demanded that the Syrian troops leave  
Lebanon. The 14th of March camp includes the Future Movement (created  
by Hariri), Lebanese Forces (a right-wing Christian party headed by  
Samir Jaejae), and the Progressive Socialist Party (headed by Walid  
Jumblat), as well as others. The other camp, lead by Hizbollah, is  
referred to as 8th of March (the date of their rally, which was held  
one week before the 14th of March).
(12) Mother of Pierre Jumayel, the Industry Minister who was recently  
killed.
(13) Also referred to as Grand Serail, the building and office of the  
Prime Minister and ministers of the government. It is derived from  
the word "sarai".
(14) The government that was brought down by "14th of March" forces.
(15) An area in Southern Beirut where "unregulated" construction  
takes place.