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 11^th, 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 14^th 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!