Official Delegation Report 2

Tuesday October 1:
Our first full day in Lebanon concluded with a walking tour through the city of Beirut with Elias Abu Saba. Dr. Abu Saba showed many of the historic buildings, neighborhoods and the only major city park. He laced his walk with comments on the history and politics of Lebanon.

We stopped in a beautiful Catholic church for a brief rest and walked into the massively reconstructed downtown area. In one site, an ancient Roman bath was discovered when excavating to construct a new building; it remains the centerpiece of a beautiful park and pedestrian walkway flanked by multi-storied bank buildings. We stopped for refreshments at a sidewalk café in the downtown center. The nightlife here begins in serious about 9:30 PM, we were told. The stylish new construction and self-conscious lighting and other treatments left us wondering if it reminded us more of Rome or Disneyland. It had qualities of each. But the center of several streets angling off the square, highlighted by several public buildings, was an amazing confluence of public and private space and uses. A spectacular exhibit of enlarged photographs circled the square and carried down the street where our café was located. We determined to return another time to this site in the late evening hours.

We boarded taxis for a drive across town to the Bay Rock Café. Elias helped us order a delicious dinner as we sat on the outdoor veranda overlooking Beirut’s most famous landmark, Pigeon Rocks.

Wednesday October 2: Beirut and Southern Lebanon
Our second morning in Beirut again began with breakfast at Elias’ apartment. We were greeted by Eli Ajouz of MECC’s International Church Network for Development and Relief. Ali traveled with us in the mini-van as were traversed Beirut’s busy streets to Shatila Refugee Camp. We stopped along the way to pick up Laila Al Ali, Director of External Affairs for Najdeh. We entered the Shatila Camp and parked in a walled area, left our bags in Laila’s trunk and walked around the corner to the local Najdeh Center.

There we were greeted by a most impressive person - Nuhad Hamad who coordinates the Najdeh program in Shatila. She described the origins of Najdeh in 1976, after the people of Tel Zaatar Refugee camp were relocated to the former Christian town of Damour. Many of the men were dead or had to flee. Najdeh was established to help the predominantly women heads of households to gain some economic self-sufficiency. Najdeh now has 26 centers through the various refugee camps (one is outside the camps). They survive primarily from donations from European supporters. She described many ways in which Shatila is the worst of the camps. 12,000 of its 20,000 residents are Palestinian refugees from 1948. The remainder consists of poor Syrians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Kurds and others who have sought out inexpensive housing from Palestinians who have been able to leave the camps for other homes. (“Misery invites company,” according to an Arabic proverb quoted to us.) Nuhad described the dilemma of those working with the camps, with political resolution always receding over the horizon and the UN and its donor countries pushing for diminution of refugees’ dependence on assistance.

We stopped briefly to observe a vocational training classroom and then Nuhad walked us through the camp. We threaded through the narrow alleyways to a shrine at which 600 were buried during the 1985-86 War when Shatila was again besieged. The people were unable to take their dead to be buried in the cemetery for Shiites and had to bury them under an existing structure. The walls of the cleared ground floor list the names of those buried there while a mosque is located upstairs. We looked into the washed white room and memorial through barred windows.

Many of the walls had photos of “shaheed,” or martyrs, those Palestinians who have been killed, some in armed actions and others for no particular reason. Lots of the photos featured Abu Mustafa, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who was assassinated by the Israelis in the West Bank.

Nuhad then took us to the home of Um Mustafa, but she had left because we were about 45 minutes late. We met instead with her son, Mustafa, who described his family’s experience of losing their home and land in a small village near Safed/Zefat in the Galilee.

It is impossible to hear these people’s stories and walk through Shatila Camp without being impressed by the seeming hopelessness of their situation. The fact of the Palestinian refugees is a humanitarian disaster that has impacted all of the surrounding Arab countries and regional and global politics. But, at the core, are the hundreds of thousands of personal and family stories such as we heard again today. Surely any sustainable resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict must address this reality.

We next boarded the minivan to travel to the home of Bishara Mirhej, Minister of State (cabinet member without portfolio) and member of the Lebanese Parliament. Mirhej comes off as a real patrician - cultured, measured, elegant in his personal past and association with the Iraqi Ba’athis Party. He now is affiliated with the Syrian Ba’athis Party.

Mirhej spoke of the incalculable toll on the Palestinians wrought by lack of a political settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He had just returned from an international conference on the needs of handicapped persons and spoke of the 40,000 Palestinians wounded and seriously handicapped by Israel, including 2,000 children (many of whom were shot in the knee and will never regain normal mobility).

Mirhej complained that the Israelis have removed themselves from any dialogue towards peace. He spoke of the historic breakthrough of the Saudi Peace Plan and Arab Summit in Beirut last year in which every Arab state, including formerly intransigent parties such as Iraq and Libya, agreed to a peace treaty with Israel. This sea-change in the Arab nations’ political stance on Israel was dismissed by the Israelis and largely ignored by the US. To the region’s great peril Mirhej observed.

Mirhej sees Bush’s recently announcement establishing a 2005 time frame for establishing a Palestinian state as a positive development, but is skeptical of the US’s willingness to work to reach that goal. He was clear in distinguishing between the US government and the American people, and expressed horror at the prospects of a US attack on Iraq. “Almost no Arab country accepts this position, including the Kuwaitis…. This campaign against Iraq, no matter how we look at Saddam Hussein and his regime, is unacceptable.”

We left Mirhej after more than an hour and debated on the sidewalk our next step. We eventually were able to use the bathroom of a local shopkeeper (a man who runs a laundry and tailor shop - who also invited us all to be his guest for lunch because he doesn’t want people to believe the idea that all Arabs hate Americans!). We decided eventually to take cabs to the bus station, and were soon aboard a bus headed south along the Mediterranean coast to Sidon (or Saida in Arabic).

Many of us napped as the bus droned along. But the trip was very beautiful, with views right and left accented by sweeping vistas of the Mediterranean and city after city rising up into the hills of Lebanon to the East. Elias had the perfect place for us to lunch: the Sidon Rest House. We ate under a white canopy overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The Rest House had an amazing array of salads and the group enjoyed the break and view as well as the food.

Elias then took us on a walking tour of Old Sidon, including the “Khan” that has been beautifully restored by Prime Ministers Hariri’s family foundation, and the “souk” or market. We walked back to the walkway along the sea, where we were greeted by Fathi H, Abu El Ardaat, and two others. Fathi, or “Abu Maher,” who is the head of the PLO’s Fateh faction in the area, member of the Palestinian National Council, and head of the Palestinian Popular Unions, welcomed us to his home in Mia Mia, outside the Refugee Camp. There we gathered in an ornately decorated sitting room. Fathi gave us more details about the situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. His wife and son brought out plates of fresh fruits and pastries. He described the Palestinians’ historic compromise by accepting a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. He also described the utter frustration and demoralization which set in after Oslo as Palestinian land continued to be lost, homes destroyed and lives taken as Israeli settlements continued and promised movement towards a Palestinian state were denied.

Towards the end of our visit we were joined by Amne Soulaiman, head of the General Union of Palestinian Women, Lebanon division. One interesting anecdote was telling how, after the Israelis occupied Southern Lebanon in 1982, Fathi’s mother and sister were able to travel across the border and visit their former home in Haifa. They found a family of Soviet Jews living there. “Why,” he asked, “Can’t we return there? Let them keep half and we’ll share the house with them.”

When pressed for next steps, Abu Maher said there is no other solution than a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital and a just resolution to the Palestinian refugee problem. By accepting 22% of historical Palestine, the Palestinian people are demonstrating their willingness to live in peace with Israel. Abu Maher presented Elias and Scott with art work and each member of the delegation with a kuffiyeh and a pin with the flag of Palestine.

We next drove further up the mountains to the hilltop church and community center in Majedaloun. There we met with Monseigneur Georges Kuwaiter, Archbishop of the Greek Catholic Melkite Church for the diocese of Saida and Deir El-Kamar. Bishop Kuweiter gave several interesting anecdotes about Muslim-Christian cooperation, including a group of Muslim clerics who walked the last 15 minutes to meet the Bishop upon his appointment so that local Muslim villagers would see that they were coming to greet him. We then traveled to the home of Elias’ niece Angeles Abu Saba for dinner and conversation. Elias’ brother Simon Abu Saba and Wait Abu Saba, his nephew also joined us. We were joined for the wonderful dinner by Eli Osseiran, Member of Parliament. I don’t think the Arak to which we were introduced was solely responsible, but we were very tired at the end of a long day and excused ourselves to go to our overnight guests.

We stopped en route at the cave and shrine commemorating the site where Lebanese believe Mary Magdalene and the Mother of Jesus waited while Jesus went to Sidon. Julie and Michael then went to the home of Fathi H. Abou el Ardaat (Abu Maher) for overnight. Peggy and Donna went to the home Amne K. Souliman, Member of Palestinian National Council and head of General Union of Palestinian Women, Lebanon Branch, whom we had met at the home of Abu Maher. George, Zack and Scott stayed with Elias at his family home.

Thursday October 3: Southern Lebanon
Thursday morning we awoke to a light rain and overcast skies. The dip in temperature was a relief after several very hot days.

We had breakfast in our homes. George, Zack and Scott enjoyed a first round of Breakfast with grapes and tea made from the herbs of Lebanon’s mountains, and then stopped at the home of Simon Abu Saba for the main course: sweet cheese pie, Kanafe, served in a sliced role, plus tea. It was interesting to watch from Simon’s veranda as two young men climbed into the olive trees, hitting the branches to knock off the ripened fruit for harvest.

Rev. Dr. Nuhad of MECC met the first car from Elias’ house at the traffic circle in Sidon but a miscommunication about departure time resulted in a 45 minute delay before the other delegation members joined us. We soon were traveling in Nuhad’s and Elias’ cars up the mountains towards the village of Khiam/Khyam. I’ll end this report in order to send it off and begin the next update with our visit to Khiam.

PostScript:
Though it is perhaps early in our trip, I think a few more general observations are in order. First, one cannot but be impressed by the dramatic impact of confessional identity on the politics of Lebanon. Lebanon, especially Beirut, gives every impression of being a vibrant and diverse modern society. But just below the surface is the question and significance of one’s identity as a Muslim or Christian, or a particular kind of Muslim (Shi’ite or Sunni) or Christian. This dynamic is quite distinct from the impact of 30-40,000 Syrian troops or 350,000 Palestinian refugees still in Lebanon. It seems by one’s name alone a person is immediately known to be this or that. And, from this or that, derives a whole series of assumptions. This is a reality with which we from the USA are not familiar. Confessional politics also underlies all political discourse and was a primary contributing factor in the devastating Civil War in Lebanon from 1975 to 1990.

Secondly, the affects of the Civil War are still powerfully evident in Lebanon - not only in the physical devastation evident despite massive reconstructive that is underway. As we walked through Beirut the lingering affects of the war are evident - the exterior of buildings pock-marked by bullets and shelling, piles of rubble. During dinner last night we learned of homes destroyed during the time the host family’s village was occupied by Palestinian and Lebanese Muslim forces during the war. They had perfected a means of burning tires in the homes to weaken the concrete which became brittle and could be broken by hammers. The reinforcing steel bars were then cut and removed for use elsewhere.

Enormous strides have been made in the infrastructure, such as wide new highways and bridges, and in construction, both residential and commercial. We learned that Elias’ mother had been killed in her home by unknown assailants after refusing to leave during the War. So the after affects are also evident in the inter-communal dynamic that informs and determines Lebanese politics. We hear lots about how well the Lebanese actually get along, how the war was caused by outside forces using Lebanon for their own purposes, (The Lebanese often refer to the civil war as “the War of Others in our Country”). But other Lebanese will tell you in lowered voice that the problems are real, the contrast in cultures, “openness” and tolerance between Christian and Muslim cultures makes for ongoing conflict.

I’ve mentioned it before, but I can’t help but think that part of the almost cavalier manner in which people in the US talk about going to war with Iraq, or against Iraq, reflects the worldview of a people who have not fought a war on their own soil for a century and a half. When you see what devastation war brings and how the fabric of society is so easily rent by the forces unleashed, I quake at the nonchalance with which people in the US accept war as a possible, almost preferred option. It is especially galling when it is Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld who surreptitiously avoided military service during war who are the most adamant in beating the drums of war.

Finally, it is worth observing that we feel perfectly safe here. Some concern was expressed by friends and families about us being in Lebanon. There are police and military around. Yesterday as we drove south to Sidon/Saida there were a number of Lebanese army checkpoints. But I remember 1985 when there were 9-10 check points just going from the airport to Beirut. Now, the checkpoints seem mainly to be at the entrances to the Palestinian refugee camps, as Lebanese authorities try to prevent or forestall the reassertion of Palestinian authority and armed forces in the camps.

The biggest inconvenience for some of us has been to get the latest scores from the Major League Baseball play-offs. (What with the time difference and the fact that people here seem to think there are bigger worries to focus on, we’ve not had much news on progress of the play-offs.) We have been so warmly hosted by Elias Abu Saba and Nuhad Tomeh that we are brimming with information, new friendships and vital information. I think that the experience of this delegation thus far will create an expectation that future Interfaith Peace Builders delegations also visit Arab countries other than Palestine. It definitely broadens and rounds out the discussion of the issues.

Scott Kennedy
Delegation Leader