‘We are tired and anxious all day long’

‘We go from one war to another, from one complication to another. Stocking up on food, dealing with money and economic crises, staying and leaving. It is a pattern for us, it has become part of our society,” explains Azmi Kawas on the terrace of his restaurant in Beirut.

Kawas, 69, a restaurateur and owner of a souvenir shop and art studio, reflects on the current unrest in Lebanon over a possible conflict with Israel, while drinking a cup of tea and smoking a cigarette. “We live in this dynamic, it is nothing new. Everyone has gone through a period like this.” He is not afraid, he says, but he is worried about what might happen next.

Like Kawas, his compatriots view the war taking place in Gaza and Israel with suspicion. Since it broke out two weeks ago, it has also been very unrest in the south of Lebanon, which borders northern Israel. Both the Israeli army and the militant Shiite organization Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, have been increasingly shooting back and forth there for about two weeks. There have been fatalities on both sides, but civilians have also been killed. A week ago, a group of filming journalists from news agencies Reuters, Al Jazeera and AFP were hit by two Israeli missiles. One of them was killed and five others were injured.

In the Tariq Jdideh district, residents and shopkeepers walk the streets between the heavy autumn showers. 20-year-old Adam Ayad is hanging out with a friend in front of his electronics store, waiting for customers. “People have been coming out much less since the war in Gaza, and they are also buying very little. Everyone is worried and saving their money. These are dark days.”

In Tariq Jdideh, the majority of residents are Sunni. The district is located right next to the old Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, which have now become normal, albeit very poor, neighborhoods of Beirut. The day after the explosion at the Ahli Arab hospital in the Gaza Strip, many people took to the streets in response to the impact, Ayad says. They talk a lot at home about the war and what could happen in Lebanon. “Unfortunately, it is not the Lebanese government that decides whether there will be war. That decision is in the hands of Hezbollah.”

electronics store ownerAdam Ayad People have been coming out much less since the war in Gaza, and they are also buying very little

Love-hate relationship with Palestinians

The current clashes and bombings in southern Lebanon stem from a decades-old conflict between the two countries that now threatens to flare up again. After the Nakba (1947-1949) and the Six-Day War (1967), hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled and ended up in neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan. Some of them organized themselves in resistance movements such as the Palestine Liberation Organization PLO and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In recent decades, they have been fighting from Lebanon against the state of Israel together with Hezbollah (which is financially and militarily supported by Iran). In response, Israel invaded Lebanon several times (1978, 1982 and 2006) and occupied the south until 2000. Politically and socially fragmented and unstable Lebanon, which itself experienced a civil war, has never been able to keep out these types of militias or to contain.

“Lebanon has a love-hate relationship with the Palestinians and the Palestinian cause,” said Reinoud Leenders, assistant professor at King’s College London and fellow at The Policy Initiative, a think tank in Beirut. “Part of the Christian population in particular, the Maronites, saw the influx of Palestinian refugees as a threat to the demographic distribution.” This demographic division is the basis of the political system in Lebanon, which means that functions are subdivided based on religious group. This balance of power has always been extremely precarious, and is therefore an additional concern for a possible new conflict.

Many Lebanese support the Palestinian cause, says Leenders, but at the same time they do not believe that they should risk everything for it. “This is less true for part of the Shia population and the supporters of Hezbollah, who prioritize ideological or moral solidarity.”

To escape Israeli rocket attacks and shelling from Hezbollah, many Lebanese from the south seek shelter elsewhere, such as here in a school in Tire.

Over the past twenty years, Hezbollah has grown into a seriously influential party, both politically and militarily, which, despite the presence of the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, de facto rules the roost in the south of the country. That threat in Israel’s backyard is now a possible reason for the start of a regional conflict. In addition, the unconditional support that many Western leaders have expressed for Israel in recent weeks, also for many Lebanese – regardless of whether they are against or for the State of Israel, and whether or not they are happy with Hezbollah in Lebanon – feels like adding fuel to the fire that could cause the conflict to spread to neighboring countries.

Leenders, like many Lebanese, suspects that Hezbollah also knows that it would suffer a lot of political loss if it drags Lebanon into a new war. After all, the impact of a war could be disastrous. “But if the attacks on Gaza continue, it would also look pathetic if they do nothing when they have been saying for 40 years that they will liberate Jerusalem.”

Stay or leave

The question for residents in Beirut and other parts of the country is whether the conflict in the south will indeed expand as it did in 2006. Israel then mainly bombed Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon and the Dahieh district in southern Beirut. Many residents who do not live there or nearby therefore seem to be less concerned about Israeli bombings, if that actually happens. “It would really be a war between Israel and Hezbollah, not with the entire country,” Ayad thinks.

The 2006 war, which lasted more than a month, killed around 1,200 Lebanese and 165 Israelis. Several hundred thousand Israelis and about 1 million Lebanese were displaced. Lebanon also had to recover for years from severely damaged infrastructure, such as roads, the port and the airport in Beirut.

While a few residents of the capital are considering moving to a family home in the mountains, most residents of Beirut do not have that option. This also applies, for example, to the approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled a war in their own country over the past twelve years.

The sorry state of the Lebanese economy, the ubiquitous corruption and the fact that there has been no president for a year, which has forced the government to close more and more services, means that many people were already looking for ways to leave the country. The number of people from Lebanon, be they Lebanese or refugees such as Syrians, even trying to get to Europe by boat, has increased rapidly in recent years.

Nagham Ghandour (40) never thought about leaving Lebanon until three years ago, after the explosion in the port of Beirut. Now she is considering this again, she says. “It is a very bipolar situation. We are tired and anxious all day long. Then at the end of the day I meet up with friends again to find some distraction. But we are already traumatized by the many previous wars. What worries me most now is that everyone is preparing based on how things went in 2006. But who’s to say things will go the same way as they did back then? It might get a lot worse.”

Ghandour’s only option is to find a job abroad. “Yesterday I received an offer in Dubai,” she says. But she only wants to leave if she can take her family with her.

The Lebanese diaspora is large – larger than the number of people who actually live there. People with dual nationalities have been faced with the choice for two weeks whether to go elsewhere. But Azmi Kawas’ children, all in their thirties, don’t think about it, even now. “They have their friends and family here, and a good income from which they earn dollars.” Kawas, like many Lebanese, has family in Canada, the US and France. A few years ago he asked his children if they could all move to the US. “But they refused. They love their country.”

Kawas himself left Lebanon four times. “I lived in Dubai for periods in the 80s, 90s and 2000. Each time I came back because I longed for Lebanon, to live here. Then I thought that things would get better in the country, for example then [Rafic] Hariri was prime minister, or when a government was formed again after a while. But now I have lost so much money due to the crisis that I cannot move again and start a business again. And I’m way too old to look for a job.”

left Lebanon four timesAzmi Kawas Each time I came back because I longed for Lebanon, to live here. Then I thought things would get better again for the country

Kawas grew up in a family in which the children were taught not to get involved with religious and political groups. “My father said, if you want to believe, it is between you and your God. But don’t join a religious group. That’s why we don’t talk about politics here at work or with customers.” Religion and politics have already divided the country enough, he believes.

In any case, says Kawas, “anyone who has enough money, even if not a lot, can be very happy here. My wife is Brazilian, and she is coming back to Lebanon next week. She is much more concerned about her safety there than here, which is why she would like to return as soon as possible. Now it is hoped that the airport will remain open. She told me: please don’t ask them to close until I get back.”