The spirit of Pentecost on the fifth day of civil war
Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous / 011.May.08 / 13:00 AM
The besieged Lebanese government called yesterday for a demonstration of solidarity with the victims of the occupation of West Beirut for today, Sunday the 11th, the second highest Christian holiday, celebrating the gift of the Holy Spirit. They called on all Lebanese to express their support for the families who had lost loved one’s to the advancing Iranian backed militias and to take a stand for democracy in Lebanon, by standing for one minute of silence at 12:00 noon.
Dima, Nour and I took the same flag we had held for hours at Martyrs’ Square on the 14th of March, 2005 and headed down to the main secondary road leading from Hazmieh to Beirut, where her family, who is living just off Mar Elias Street, is still being held hostage, along with residents of many other predominantly Sunnis neighbourhoods, by marauding militiamen; this despite the “Opposition’s” promise that their armed forces would be removed from the streets of the capital by this morning.
Reaching the main road, we realized that we were standing in front of the Shi’ia Higher Council building, recently renovated after the last Civil War, but still not in use, vacated except for a few recruits from the Lebanese Army who had the morning shift guarding this impressive massive stone structure. They lazily watched on as Dima unrolled the flag she had so proudly held during the Cedar Revolution, which freed us of Syrian occupation, but has failed to provide full independence to the Arab world’s only existing democracy.
In honor of the occasion, Nour was wearing her brand new labour solidarity bib, “An owie to one, is an owie to all!” a kiddy take on the anarcho-syndicalist slogan “An injury to one, is an injury to all,” which we had just ordered for her from Northland Posters .
We thought this appropriate because this whole “situation” was supposedly to be about the impoverished Lebanese workers and middle class, an issue nobody is talking about anymore.
We were the only ones on the streets of this residential area, who were taking part in this demo. After the moment of silence, we walked around our new neighbourhood, which seemed oblivious to the suffering that was going on just down the hill. There were no Lebanese flags hanging from the balconies, none of our Christian neighbours taking a stand for democracy and in honour of those who had been killed over the last five days of fighting. A car full of fashionably dressed young women did stop and ask for directs. They were curious about the flag; when we explained it was in support of occupied West Beirut they exclaimed “How cute!” When Dima added that is was also in honour of the largely civilian victims of the siege, including three members of her own family, they sobered up and expressed their condolences and drove off.
What I only found out a few hours after I wrote my first open letter is that a male cousin of Dima’s father has lost his wife and two of his four sons in the battle for Beirut. They lived just around the corner from our former Mohammed el Hout Street apartment, in Ras al Nabeh, and had divided up the family in two cars in order to flee the approaching Hezbollah and Amal forces. A RPG hit the car the mother was driving, killing her immediately and mortally wounding her son. As two of their adults sons ran to help them they were mowed down in cold blood by the Shi’ia militias. It is important to note here that there was no TV footage shown of the civilian casualties and the names of the victims have not yet been made public.
As you probably have heard, fighting has now spread throughout the country. In Tripoli and Akkar in the north, Sunnis are fighting and killing Alawites and vice versa. Hezbollah and the Druze PSP have been settling scores in the Chouf Mountains just east of Beirut, including heavy shelling. Muslim-on-Muslim, Sunni-Shi’ia violence has broken out in the ancient cities of Sidon and Tyre in the south and the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. The way it looks now, things will be getting a lot worse before they get any better; the dieing continues. To date, the minority Christian population and the Palestinians have managed to stay out of the fighting. However, with would-be president General Michel Auon gloating on TV yesterday about the successful siege of Beirut having “put the cart back on the right track” and that we can now return to business as usual, it seems to be only a matter of time before his predominantly Maronite Free Patriotic Movement starts taking some flack from the utterly humiliated Sunni and Druze population.
One final political note, in closing, about the new confessionalism that has started showing itself over the last few days. During yesterday’s press corps demo in solidarity with the Future journalists, whose pro-Hariri TV, radio and newspaper outlets were sacked and burned by the militias, the regionally renowned television talk show host, Zaven Kouyoumdjian, stated publicly that he had given up on his anti-confessionalist stance and realized, because of the events in Beirut, that one can only count on one’s own confession. People are now being forced, many times against their will, back into their religiously dominated sectarian camps for protection. This has often heartbreaking personal consequences.
I close with an email I received from one of my Sunni students, who fled to her village immediately before the worst fighting broke out.
When we arrived home I went to my room and called my boyfriend to tell him that I arrived home. He answered my call and was happy that I’m safe at home, I asked him why you didn’t contact me in the last 24 hours and why you didn’t answer my calls, he said that he was busy preparing for war, and I was like what are you talking about, he said yes Al Said Hassan Nasrallah said it in his speech, those who will hurt us we’ll cut their hands and all what he said….(I’m sure you heard his speech).
I’ve been with my boyfriend over 2 years, we never talked politics because he didn’t like politics, and he used to tell me that it’s a big game that you and me are not able to understand. But today he called me “you Sunni”………….
For those of you reading this from outside the country and who are religiously inclined, pray that the Holy Spirit might fill the combatants and give them the strength to find their way out of this entanglement.
Faith in the power of the Holy Spirit does unite us all here in the region, Jews, Christians and Muslims. To my knowledge, the only mention of Hezbollah in the Koran is in reference to those strengthened by the Spirit of God. In all three Abrahamic traditions God instructs us to return good for evil and that through his Spirit we will find the strength to overcome both fear and hate.
58:22 It is they in whose hearts He has inscribed faith, and whom He has strengthened with His Spirit, and whom He will admit into gardens through which running waters flow, there to abide. Well pleased is God with them, and well pleased are they with Him. They are the party of God (Hezbollah). It is they, the party of God, who will reach a happy state!
