I remember reading a Latin quote once "Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum."
Loosely translated it means ‘Therefore, whoever wishes for peace, let him prepare for war.’
It’s been a week since I came to Beirut and for the first time in my life, I have a glimpse of what war can be like. Having spent most of my life in Islamabad, peace is not a word but a reality in my life.
The people of Lebanon have grown up in a world where war and warring factions have been all too real. They don’t read about them in the newspapers or watch reports on CNN and BBC about a far off place where fighting is taking place and people are dying. They live in a country which has seen wars in almost every decade of its existence. The current generation of Lebanon grew up in the shadows of civil war. War is not a word but a reality for the Lebanese.
Before I left Pakistan, I spoke to Khalil Mohammad who is a Lebanese Diplomat. ‘Lebanon is a country of 18 sects, the only country in the world with this big a number’. He obviously knew his country well. I have tried to interact with people my age to see how life differs here. I met Ebad Saleh, a 29 year resident of Saida who was driving his family out to Beirut. He and his family held dual citizenship and were planning on leaving the country for good.
‘My family is important to me. We left the country when I was two during the Civil war and we only came back five years ago. Now we can’t stay here anymore. Our lives come first’.
While Ebad and people like him are leaving, there are those that say they will fight to the death. On my trip to Ghezei, I was escorted by a Hizbollah Volunteer Ali El Maktub but liked to call himself T2. He looked like any other teenager wearing a tee and baggy jeans. But unlike most teenagers, music and computer games were not his biggest concern. ‘This is my land, these are my people. If I don’t fight for freedom…who will’?
Today, I met Beila Khatim, an Economist who studied in US on Fulbright Scholarship and works in a local bank. I had met her a few days back and wanted to meet her again to ask her about her opinion on this war.
‘I don’t even know what this is all about’ Beila told me, ‘we have no part in this war and yet we are suffering just as much. I am scared of even coming down to Beirut for work now.’
Ebad and Ali belong to two different sects in Lebanon, Sunni & Shia while Beila is a Christian and wanted to be referred to herself as a party instead of a sect. These three are unique individuals in their own rights, with different backgrounds but they’re all Lebanese. Their opinions are a reflection of one of the problems Lebanon faces…finding a unifying identity.
This problem isn’t new. In 1919, King Crane report highlighted this very issue. The dominance of sectarian differences has long been a hurdle in formulation of political options. While Sunnis largely support Syrian influences, Hizbollah remains mostly a Shia’ite organization that want an independent Lebanon. Catholic Christians on the other hand want no part of this conflict. They want an independent Lebanon with no geo-political glitches. I asked Beila as much, why people in such a small country seemed to have such diverse political choices?
‘We say we are a secular country but we are not. We say that religion isn’t important in our national decisions but it is. At the end of the day, it is our religious affiliation that guides us’
Lebanon so far has been a country of contrasts for me. While on one side I see Mosques and churches in the same neighborhood, I have come to know that religious tolerance is not just about inhabiting the same area. That can happen out of indifference as well. While presence of Israel continues to be a threat to Lebanon’s national and economic survival, it also needs to find more than just a nationality to bind its people together. If Lebanon wants peace, it has to fight a war as ‘Lebanon’ not as different sects. Even when a ceasefire takes place and Israeli troops withdraw, Lebanon certainly has much bigger and more vital challenges lying ahead.