A residence completely destroyed by Israeli shelling in Alma Shaab. (Credit: A resident)
The recent words between Maronite Patriarch Bechara al- Rai and Jaafarite Mufti Ahmad Kabalan, who is close to Hezbollah, showed the extent to which tension has been mounting between Christian and Shiite communities in south Lebanon since the start of the October.
Anger and weariness grew among Christian inhabitants of the border area as fighting has been dragging on between Hezbollah and Israel, seriously affecting the residents’ security and livelihoods.
On Saturday, the patriarch once again denounced a war that has “aggravated the economic, commercial, agricultural, financial and educational tragedy of the inhabitants and the Lebanese in general.”
This statement drew the wrath of the mufti who said, “What the resistance and the people of south Lebanon are doing is strategic defense, so that Netanyahu doesn’t drink his tea at [the presidential] Baabda Palace.”
This tension arose a few days after an incident in the Christian border village of Rmeish. On March 26, four armed elements (presumed to be of Hezbollah) allegedly infiltrated and tried to set up a missile launch pad in this village that overlooks Israel. The residents mobilized to stop them, and a fight broke out. Hezbollah immediately denied involvement in this incident. Although several residents including the mayor of Rmeish Milad Alam initially accused the Hezb, they nuanced their remarks the next day.
However, an anti-Hezbollah sentiment is growing in Rmeish, as in the other Christian villages.
“In our eyes, Israel remains an enemy country,” said Alam, head of the Lebanese Forces (LF) in the village. “However, Christians in the south are unanimously expressing their weariness of an unjustified war that has no horizon,” he added.
“It is noteworthy, however, that reactions to last Tuesday’s incident [March 26] were a bit radical. The incident was politically instrumentalized,” said Amil, referring to the political affiliation of the resident, a LF activist, who rang the church bell.
The following day, calm prevailed and was reflected in a desire for appeasement and the need to preserve coexistence. “It’s important to distinguish between political positions and neighborly relations. I’ve made it clear to the residents that we don’t want to be forced to leave due to radical slogans,” said Alam.
“Here, we can’t follow the political orientation and rhetoric that Christian parties endorse in Metn or in Kesrouan. Rmeish and the Christian villages of the south have a particularity that can't be disregarded,” he added.
This particularity compels the community to resort to dialogue and pacify relations. First of all, there are the economic interests. The vast majority of Christians, just like the Shiites, own businesses and land they cultivate and to which they are very attached. However, the war has worsened their conditions, given the sharp downturn in their resources which had already been weakened before the fighting started.
“The Hezb’s commitment [in the name of support for Gaza] is certainly noble, but the people can no longer accept that it is being done at the expense of their property and livelihood,” said a resident of Alma Shaab, another Christian village.
This village of almost 3,000 inhabitants, 70 percent of whom have fled the area, has suffered significant damage after being targeted by Israeli missiles on more than one occasion. Two houses were reduced to ashes and 20 others were partially destroyed. “The people are fed up with this war, particularly since they still can’t see the end of the tunnel,” said a resident who declined to be named.
‘Unlike Metn and Kesrouan’
In Rmeish, the missile incident rubbed salt into the wound. According to local residents interviewed, it was the third incident of its kind, after the first less flagrant two went unnoticed, probably because Israel had so far relatively spared this village.
The main reason is the tacit agreement that Hezbollah and the Christians of the border villages reached in the July 2006 war, under which the Hezb firmly committed to not firing from these localities. At the time, Western diplomats and the Vatican were instrumental in placing pressure on Israel.
“In 2006, the agreement worked well. We even turned our villages into safe havens for the nearly 30,000 Shiite civilians who fled their villages. But this time, the circumstances have changed, not least because the relations between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement [which is influential in Rmeish] have deteriorated,” said Wissam Amil, a university professor from Rmeish.
In recent weeks, both FPM leader Gebran Bassil and its founder Michel Aoun have come out against the border fighting that Hezbollah triggered and the “unity of the fronts” in the Iran-aligned axis.
In 2006, the good relations that prevailed between Aoun and Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah had nevertheless contributed to the implementation of this tacit agreement. At the time, the FPM, which concluded the Mar Mikhael MoU with Hezbollah in 2006, had clearly supported the “resistance,” considering Israel to be the aggressor. This stance had made the war more “legitimate.”
‘Consolation prize’
The tension between Hezbollah and the Christian community is heightened by the fact that the Christians there feel that they are “historically perceived as potential collaborators,” in the words of one resident, which sharpens the Iran-aligned party’s distrust.
“However, the Hezb knows perfectly well that we are not, as no security breach has been blamed on the Christians to date. It also knows that its own ranks are infiltrated, but can’t admit it publicly,” said Amil.
This mistrust dates back to 1976 when Israel created the South Lebanon Army, a local auxiliary militia made up of Christians and Shiites, working on behalf of Tel Aviv.
“There is no hostility between Christians and Shiites, but rather a conflict over the relevance of this war,” said Alam. “But that in no way means that it has affected Christian relations with their Shiite neighbors,” he added.
This pragmatism is not devoid of a sense of humanity, which almost everyone said is keen to preserve. “No one here has gone so far as to wish that Israel would eradicate the Shiite population. There is compassion, especially with those who have lost everything,” said the Alma Shaab resident.
However, Hezbollah has lost a major ally (the FPM) and cannot afford to alienate the entire Christian population of south Lebanon. “I can assure you that the intentions of the Shiites in general, and Hezbollah in particular, remain positive towards the Christian community, with whom the Shiites have forged historic relations,” a source in the March 8 camp told L’Orient-Le Jour on condition of anonymity.
“As soon as calm returns, the Hezb will graciously invest in the development and reconstruction of south Lebanon, including in the Christian villages. Substantial resources from Iran will be made available,” the source said.
The source added that it is a gesture of “solidarity and appreciation” for the generosity that the Christians in the area exhibited in 2006. Yet, to the Christians of the area, it’s more like a “consolation prize.”
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translated by Joelle El Khoury.