Identity debate in Lebanon against a backdrop of generalized chaos
A protester waves a Lebanese national flag during a demonstration in downtown Beirut on March 3, 2021. AP - Hassan Ammar
Text by: Paul Khalifeh Follow
8 mins
The systemic collapse of the state and the economy continues in Lebanon against a backdrop of political deadlocks and heated debates over the country's identity.
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From our correspondent in Beirut,
A young woman grabs a state-subsidized bag of powdered milk, screaming loudly.
Other people try to stop it.
The melee turns into a
violent tussle
.
The incident takes place in a supermarket in Beirut on Thursday, March 4.
This scene, whose images have toured the Internet, faithfully sums up the situation in Lebanon a year and a half after the outbreak of the worst economic and financial crisis in its history.
Since October 17, 2019, the country of the Cedar has been sinking inexorably into an indescribable chaos, characterized by the collapse of the state, the national currency, the banking sector, the economy, the education and hospital systems. .
A widespread collapse, accompanied by an increase in crime and insecurity, aggravated by the devastating double explosion of the
port of Beirut
on August 4, 2020, which left 206 dead, more than 6,500 injured and destroyed part of the capital.
Also aggravated by the exponential progression of the coronavirus pandemic.
People's anger erupts in the street
After a lull of several months, the Lebanese
returned to the streets in
early March, blocking roads across Lebanon with flaming tires and dumpsters.
Anger provoked by a
new historic drop
in the national currency, which reached 10,000 pounds to the dollar, sweeping away what was left of their purchasing power in a country which imports most of its basic needs.
Before the crisis, a dollar was worth 1,500 pounds.
The minimum wage has lost 84% of its value, from the equivalent of $ 450 to $ 72 per month, placing Lebanon just ahead of Afghanistan and behind Bangladesh in the ranking of countries with the lowest per capita incomes, according to the
Beirut-based
“
Information International
”
research center and polling institute
.
In just a few months, the number of Lebanese who have slipped into extreme poverty has tripled from 8% to 23%, and more than 55% of the 5 million Lebanese live below the poverty line, according to figures from the World Bank dating from May 2020. Since then, the situation has deteriorated considerably.
“
I sell lemons from my garden and fresh eggs from my henhouse to try to make ends meet.
I never thought I'd get there,
”laments Hoda, a 60-year-old widow psychologist.
► See also: Lebanon: the price of bread increases for the fourth time in six months
Unable to meet the most basic needs of the population stricken by the disappearance of scarce social safety nets, the State contracted, in January,
a loan of 246 million dollars
from the World Bank (WB).
This emergency aid to disadvantaged households should support the development of a national system of social security nets to allow a better response to the “
aggravated and unprecedented
” crises
that the country is undergoing, according to the World Bank.
Two hundred thousand families, or about 786,000 people, should benefit from it.
A plan whose only ambition is to ward off the specter of the major food crisis against which the resigning Prime Minister Hassane Diab had warned last spring.
No government for seven months
These serious financial and socio-economic disturbances are amplified by political blockages which continue to become more complex over the months.
The country is still without a government since the resignation of
Hassane Diab
on August 10, 2020, after the tragedy of the port, under the combined pressure of the street and part of the political class.
However, the formation of a "mission government", capable of carrying out reforms demanded by donors to unlock
aid in Lebanon
, is at the head of a crisis settlement initiative proposed by France with the support of Western countries and the UN.
The formation of the government by Prime Minister designate
Saad Hariri
stumbles on political differences and conflicting interests between the traditional parties who compete for portfolios and quotas.
She had been blocked for five months by conditions set by the Trump administration, which demanded the exclusion of Hezbollah from executive power.
This demand is difficult to satisfy because the Shiite party and its allies of the Free Patriotic Movement (CPL, the main Christian party founded by President Michel Aoun) and other parties hold a majority in Parliament.
The Maronite Church wants to internationalize the crisis
The political crisis has taken a new turn since the Maronite Patriarch Béchara Raï called for the holding of an international conference under the aegis of the United Nations in order to proclaim the "neutrality of Lebanon" vis-à-vis the conflicts that shake the region.
Despite the opposition of part of the political class and the population to his initiative, the head of the largest Christian Church in the country returned to the charge on February 27 during a rally of support which brought together thousands of people under the patriarchate balcony in Bkerké, 25 km north of Beirut.
But this demand considered by certain parties, including Hezbollah, as a refoundation of Lebanon and should first be the subject of an internal consensus.
►
To read also: Thousands of Lebanese gather in support of the Maronite patriarch
“
Of course, the members of Hezbollah have Lebanese nationality.
However, they are organically linked to the Islamic Republic of Iran,
told RFI Toufic Hindi, politician and former adviser to the head of the ex-Christian militia of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea.
Consequently, we cannot say today that Lebanese partners refuse neutrality.
"
This is not, however, the opinion of Maher Hammoud, head of the Rally of Muslim Ulemas, which brings together Sunni and Shiite men close to Hezbollah.
"
This resistance liberated the country from Israeli occupation,
" wrote this high-profile Sunni cleric in an
open
letter to Patriarch Rai published on March 2 in the daily
Al-Akhba
r.
It offered Lebanon great political and moral depth without demanding anything in return, apart from not being stabbed in the back and being seen as an integral part of the local political landscape.
"
"
We must first of all explain the meaning of neutrality, otherwise the only definition of this word is surrender to the Zionist enemy
," added Sheikh Hammoud.
Same story with Hezbollah.
"
We have had bitter experiences in the past and we are not prepared to hand over our country to the lusts of Israel,
" said Hassan Fadlallah, a member of the Shiite party.
"
We believe that internationalization constitutes a danger for Lebanon and will complicate the crisis, because the different countries have their own calculations,
" he added.
But for Mr. Hindi, "
neutrality is in the very foundations of the Lebanese entity
".
“
It was consecrated during the independence of Lebanon by the concept
'neither West nor East', he said.
It is the geopolitics of Lebanon that calls for this neutrality since it is at the heart of a tormented region.
Whenever there is interference or a part of the Lebanese is supported by a state, other actors come into play, which leads to destabilization and civil war.
"
This debate on the identity of Lebanon and its place in the region is as old as the country's independence in 1943. During the civil war (1975-1990) it took place under cannon fire, today it stands under the sword of famine.
►
See also: Lebanon: Lokman Slim, activist and intellectual critical of Hezbollah, found dead
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