SSNP parade in Hamra to commemorate 'Operation Wimpy'

BEIRUT — Dozens of activists from the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP), an ally of Hezbollah and the Assad regime in Syria, paraded down Hamra Street Sunday to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the "Operation Wimpy," which party member Khaled Alwan carried out against Israeli soldiers at the well-known café in 1982, during the Israeli occupation of Beirut.

Considered a hero by his party for killing an Israeli soldier, Alwan was himself killed in 1984 in the conflict.

According to photos supplied to L'Orient Today, SSNP activists, some dressed in black uniforms, criss-crossed Hamra, where the Internal Security Forces (ISF) were deployed.

Some SSNP activists were dressed in black uniform. (Credit: Hassan Assal)

The press office of caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said he had asked Beirut governor Marwan Abboud not to authorize the SSNP gathering.

"It turned out that the two divided wings within the SSNP had submitted two requests to hold parades commemorating the Wimpy operation on the same date and in two nearby locations," the press office explained, citing the risk of "security tensions that could lead to riots and exchanges of fire between supporters of the two wings."

The party is currently headed by Rabih Banat, after former leader Assaad Hardan was disbarred, but the former party leader's followers still regard him as the legitimate head. Sunday's parade was organized by the wing led by Rabih Banat, who was present at the scene.

In recent years, rival SSNP branches have been involved in several armed incidents.

Internal schisms are common within the pan-Syrian party, which during the Civil War split between a reformist branch close to Palestinian factions and another branch closer to Damascus. They were reunited in 1978. With the regional and domestic political landscape much changed since the death of its leader Antoun Saadeh, executed on July 8, 1949, the SSNP has experienced recurring tensions over how to perpetuate its legacy.