Just a couple of days ago, I thought the most scintillating thing I would be writing about here would be some real-life examples of how driving licenses in Lebanon are something that you buy rather than pass, or how much difficulty I was having in getting myself motivated to finish an assignment for my masters course (due next Wednesday, I may add).
But then, round midnight Sunday, a massive sound rudely interrupted my procrastination. It’s difficult to really describe it – almost like a “sonic boom” that you get in video combat games if you can take a very geeky simile. It felt like just the force of the sound itself was straining the windows and bashing car alarms. Anyway, not content with waking up the whole neighbourhood in a panic, the power cut off completely about ten mins later. Rather disconcerting as you can imagine. I was by no means the only one – I saw that my street was out and a number of my neighbours were gathering on their balconies and in the street. In their pyjamas.
Of course, it was the bomb that had exploded just behind the ABC mall just opposite my office – a mere ten minutes walk away from where I live. Responsibility was claimed by Fateh al-Islam – a Palestinian splinter group based in a refugee camp near Tripoli which had been involved in clashes with the Lebanese army after they had tried to arrest suspects in a bank robbery. This had quickly escalated and this is now the third day of fighting between the army and the militia with pictures plastered all over the BBC and CNN. Meanwhile, another bomb went off in Verdun, a Muslim version of my own relatively affluent Christian neighbourhood. Either this group has a serious grudge against up-scale and overpriced shopping malls or there’s something else going on…
I won’t go into the complexities and history of Lebanese politics – mostly because I hardly understand it myself, and also because it’s almost impossible to summarise without tilting considerably one way or another. So to just concentrate on the current situation: as you’ve probably all heard on the news, Palestinian refugees number around 10% of the Lebanese population but are denied citizenship and are basically shut up in largely autonomous camps and ignored by the rest of the country. Their basic needs are catered by UNRWA but that’s about it. The Lebanese government do not have jurisdiction in the camps – the army guards the entrance and exits but does not go in (although recent events may change this). Mix up all those ingredients, and it’ll be enormously surprising if you did not get a breeding ground for extremism.
This makes me extremely ambiguous about what’s currently going on and especially the way it’s been reported in the news. There’s a part of me which feels reassured: as long as most Lebanese politicians of all stripes are blaming the conflict and bombings on “outsiders” who may or may not be even Palestinian, there’s little danger that this will escalate the already precarious political divide in the country. However, this is just too easy and I feel, given the history of the place, that there’s another story here that isn’t being told – for one thing, how a militia numbering only a couple of hundred can keep an army occupied for so long and still have the resources to bomb civilian targets as “warnings”. Certainly, the two bombings so far were not designed to cause civilian casualties being late at night in relatively unpopulated areas – unlike the apparent indiscriminate shelling of the Lebanese army.
Of course the government points its finger at Syria – just like it does when anything goes wrong in this country – if a plague of locusts descended upon Lebanon, I’m sure March 14th coalition would somehow pin it on the Syrians. And if it continues to pin the blame for this on Syria, then it risks turning this into yet another internal political issue that would notch tensions with the Hizbollah-led opposition even tighter. Not that that is something that they’ve shown any reluctance to do in the past. Although I’m fairly certain that Syria is no saint and was most definitely involved in the Hariri assassination, I can’t see how destabilising Lebanon and pushing it again on the slippery slide to civil would really help matters for them – especially given what had happened during the civil war. But then, the cliché comes to mind about how the only thing that you can learn from the past is that people don’t learn from the past. On the other hand, it’s ignoring the elephant in the room: the untenable situation of the refugee camps. But to be fair, the issue of the camps is a much much larger issue than just Lebanon.
See what I mean - I just really have no idea. It really frustrates me to know so little about the situation: I find it just so difficult to really judge political tensions here. I’m living and working mostly with Christians – all rabidly anti-Syrian, so it’s difficult to get a really clear picture of what’s going on. Also, what scares is that I don’t know when politics will pass the point from talk to violence. Due to its past, the taboo against political violence is just not there – and nor is the idea of political compromise. There are no middle parties – especially with the appalling confessional system that has been set up by the French as Independence. Every single day, there would be something on the news racketing up the tension between the government and the opposition with accusations and counter-accusations – perfect game of brinksmanship. But I just can’t tell how far from the breaking point everything is. I feel like I’m in this little cocoon with no real understanding of how the world outside works. Not a feeling I particularly relish...
Oh well – need to just see what the next few days bring. Hopefully, there won’t be anymore bombings: would rather not have to sweep up glass for one thing. Alternatively, might try and find a job with some window repair company – my, they must be raking it in...
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