Lebanon: LGBTQ+ community says crackdown is endangering members

After Covid-19, economic collapse and the Beirut port explosion, the LGBTQ+ community finds itself newly targeted

The LGBTQ+ community is concerned at the scale of recent official hostility (AFP)

By Clément Gibon 

in Beirut, Lebanon
Published date: 10 July 2022 

Sitting on the balcony of his apartment in the Achrafieh neighbourhood of Beirut, Kareem, a 23-year-old filmmaker who identifies as queer, reflects on the latest developments targeting his community in Lebanon.

“As a Syrian and queer person, every time I pass a military base, I wonder what would happen if they arrested me,” he tells Middle East Eye, asking for his surname not to be used over fears for his security. “Last week, no fewer than nine Syrians were arrested in Beirut and Saida, and other places in Lebanon, on the basis of expired residency." It's little wonder he's concerned at being singled out, and that's before taking into account "the increase in measures against LGBTQ+ people in the country".

Kareem arrived in Lebanon in 2016 from his village in Sweida, southwestern Syria, with a scholarship to begin his studies in television and film at the Lebanese American University.

Looking out of the window, he describes how Lebanon's LGBTQ+ community has been impacted by a three-pronged crisis over the past three years: the Covid-19 pandemic, the country's economic collapse, and the Beirut port explosion in 2020 have created a housing crisis for the community, and left many without jobs.

“In Beirut, I learned to surround myself with people who accept me for who I am," he says. "It's part of the process of self-acceptance. However, the number of safe spaces we used to have has diminished considerably.


"The 4 August explosion in Beirut completely destroyed neighbourhoods that included safe places like coffee shops and bars, such as Riwaq, Kalei or Tota," he says, referring to the huge blast at the capital's port that left more than 200 people dead, and devastated some of the city's most trendsetting areas.

"Now they have been rebuilt and I can meet my friends again," he says, but adds that many LGBTQ+ people lost their homes in the explosion.

Riwaq, an LGBTQ+ friendly restaurant in Beirut's Geitawi district

 (MEE/Clément Gibon)

"Some activists from the community organised fundraisers to help people from the LGBTQ+ community to restore their homes," he says.

"However, the aid wasn’t enough, as a lot of people were also suffering from mental health issues as a result of the blast. Aid was also not enough to address all the needs of the community.”

'Contrary to the habits and customs of our society'

In its latest report on the situation facing the LGBTQ+ community in Lebanon, Oxfam determined that housing was one of their main challenges, with the community facing increased exposure to violence in their current living spaces and experiencing an urgent need for shelter.

The report found that as a result of the three-pronged crisis, 70 percent of LGBTQ+ respondents said they had lost their jobs, making meeting even their most basic needs increasingly complicated.

The deterioration in their economic status and loss of safe spaces have had a significant impact on the mental health of the LGBTQ+ community, ranging from suicidal thoughts to health risk behaviours related to coping mechanisms.

It was in this vulnerable context that Lebanon's outgoing interior minister, Bassam Mawlawi, sent a letter on 25 June, during Pride Month, to the General Security Directorate and the General Directorate of Internal Security Forces (ISF), asking them to prevent “gatherings aimed at promoting sexual perversions”.

"This phenomenon is contrary to the habits and customs of our society" and religious principles, Mawlawi said, adding that "personal freedoms cannot be invoked".

For Tarek Zeidan, executive director of Helem, the first LGBTQ+ rights NGO in the Arab world (established in Beirut in 2001), the measure was vague, underhanded and calculated to divert attention from unpopular policies.

Activists at Helem in Beirut, a pioneer for LGBTQ+ rights in the Arab world (MEE/Clément Gibon)

“This is like the cherry on top: many people are afraid and angry at this barbaric, unnecessary and unbelievable aggression that is used against us," he tells MEE.

"What we have done has not changed; what has changed is the status quo in Lebanon, and that was the catalyst for this letter.

“In despotic, autocratic or militarised regimes, it is common to fabricate artificial morals or moral panics to divert public attention in times of great economic and social dysfunction,” Zeidan adds.

Events cancelled and postponed

Mawlawi's letter is especially controversial because it not only exceeds the rights granted to him as interior minister, but also violates both the Lebanese constitution - which guarantees freedom of expression - and treaties it has ratified, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The measure also contradicts the recommendations to guarantee the right to peaceful assembly and expression of LGBTQ+ people that Lebanon accepted at its Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human Rights Council in 2021.

'The situation is very risky for queers in Lebanon. Some people can’t even leave their homes because they don’t feel safe'

- Kareem, 23, a queer filmmaker

It is also seen as normalising hate speech towards the LGBTQ+ community. Following its publication, social networks have seen a wave of incitement to violence against the community by religious groups, individuals and even members of parliament.

Several events offering safe spaces to the LGBTQ+ community have been cancelled - like those planned by Haven for Artists, a feminist-cultural organisation promoting art and activism - or postponed for security reasons.

Kareem says these cancellations and suspensions have come at the very time when the community needs to come together.

“A panel discussion that I was planning to attend has been cancelled, probably because in this situation the event could risk becoming a target by the government to arrest people who attend it, whether they are queer or not," he says. "This is another strategy of the Lebanese government to divide and conquer, and spread anxiety.

“The situation is very risky for queers in Lebanon. Some people stated that they felt like they can’t even leave their homes because they don’t feel safe,” he adds.

Other types of intimidation include the vandalism of rainbow billboards, such as one installed by the group Beirut Pride that was destroyed by a Christian group called the Soldiers of God.

Judicial backing

While Lebanese authorities have regularly interfered with gender and sexuality human rights events, it is the scale and intensity of recent events that have concerned the LGBTQ+ community.

Nonetheless, the community has been successful in asserting some of its rights in recent years.

Lebanon to break up LGBTQ+ gatherings after pressure from religious groups

Read More »

Since 2009, no fewer than five court rulings have gone against Article 534, the penal code directly inherited from the French mandate that criminalises “unnatural sexual intercourse”.

Karim Nammour, a legal researcher, activist and member of The Legal Agenda, a Beirut-based non-profit research and advocacy organisation, described to MEE the progress brought by the most recent 2018 Mount Lebanon Misdemeanour Court of Appeal decision.

“The judiciary started issuing decisions stating that homosexuality is not against the order of nature. In the last couple of decisions it went further and stated that homosexuality is the exercise of a natural right and therefore should not be considered as a crime,” he says.

“We wish to see parliament follow the footsteps of the judiciary in promoting LGBTQ+ rights. A lot of members of parliament spoke about LGBTQ+ rights in their campaigns, and programmes. Now we wish to see them advocating for it in the parliament.

"If that doesn't work, the judiciary can continue to oppose article 534 and stop prosecuting people under it,” he adds.

The issue of LGBTQ+ rights has officially moved from being a side issue to a serious and politically divisive debate, Zeidan acknowledges.

“Our mainstreaming efforts are horizontal, with other people mobilising; not just vertical, with an already established entity or institutions. In many cases, our role is to co-create a new Lebanon, a new system, or whatever is being developed.”

Activism for the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights has also been steadily increasing, with different initiatives and a growing motivation within the community.

“It is important to know that our strength and security come from our numbers, and we are many," says Kareem. "We have to stand up and tell them that they have to go, not us.”

A world apart, Lebanon and Sri Lanka share economic collapse

By ZEINA KARAM and DAVID RISING

1 of 12

Riot police stand guard as anti-government protesters try to remove a barbed-wire barrier to advance towards the government buildings during a protest against a slate of new proposed taxes, including a $6 monthly fee for using Whatsapp voice calls, in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019. The measures set a spark to long smoldering anger against the ruling class and months of mass protests. Irregular capital controls were put in place, cutting people off from their savings as the currency began to spiral. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon and Sri Lanka may be a world apart, but they share a history of political turmoil and violence that led to the collapse of once-prosperous economies bedeviled by corruption, patronage, nepotism and incompetence.

The toxic combinations led to disaster for both: Currency collapse, shortages, triple-digit inflation and growing hunger. Snaking queues for gas. A decimated middle class. An exodus of professionals who might have helped rebuild.

There usually isn’t one moment that marks the catastrophic breaking point of an economic collapse, although telltale signs can be there for months — if not years.

When it happens, the hardship unleashed is all-consuming, transforming everyday life so profoundly that the country may never return to what it was.

Experts say a dozen countries — including Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan — could suffer the same fate as Lebanon and Sri Lanka, as the post-pandemic recovery and war in Ukraine spark global food shortages and a surge in prices.

ROOTS OF CRISIS

The crises in Lebanon and Sri Lanka are rooted in decades of greed, corruption and conflict.

Both countries suffered a long civil war followed by a tenuous and rocky recovery, all the while dominated by corrupt warlords and family cliques that amassed enormous foreign debt and stubbornly held on to power.

Various popular uprisings in Lebanon have been unable to shake off a political class that has long used the country’s sectarian power-sharing system to perpetuate corruption and nepotism. Key decisions remain in the hands of political dynasties that gained power because of immense wealth or by commanding militias during the war.

Amid the factional rivalries, political paralysis and government dysfunction has worsened. As a result, Lebanon is one of the most backward Middle East countries in infrastructure and development, including extensive power cuts which persist 32 years after the civil war ended.

In Sri Lanka, the Rajapaksa family has monopolized politics in the island nation for decades. Even now, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is still clinging to power, although the family dynasty around him has crumbled amid protests since April.

Experts say the current crises in both countries is of their own making, including a high level of foreign debt and little invested in development.

Moreover, both countries have suffered repeated bouts of instability and terrorist attacks that upended tourism, a mainstay of their economies. In Sri Lanka, Easter suicide bombings at churches and hotels killed more than 260 people in 2019.

Lebanon has suffered the consequences of neighboring Syria’s civil war, which flooded the country of 5 million with about 1 million refugees.

Both economies were then hit again with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

LEBANON PROTESTS

LEBANON PROTEST

SRI LANKA PLASTIC WASTE ON BEACHES AS SHIP CATCHES FIRE AND SINKS 

SRI LANKAN BUDDHIST NUN OVERCOME BY TEARGAS 

TIPPING POINTS

Lebanon’s crisis began in late 2019, after the government announced new proposed taxes, including a $6 monthly fee for using Whatsapp voice calls. The measures set a spark to long smoldering anger against the ruling class and months of mass protests. Irregular capital controls were put in place, cutting people off from their savings as the currency began to spiral.

In March 2020, Lebanon defaulted on paying back its massive debt, worth at the time about $90 billion or 170% of GDP — one of the highest in the world. In June 2021, with the currency having lost nearly 90% of its value, the World Bank said the crisis ranked as one of the worst the world has seen in more than 150 years.

In Sri Lanka, with the economy still fragile after the 2019 Easter bombings, Gotabaya pushed through the largest tax cuts in the country’s history. That sparked a quick backlash, with creditors downgrading the country’s ratings, blocking it from borrowing more money as foreign exchange reserves nosedived.

On the brink of bankruptcy, it has suspended payments on its foreign loans and introduced capital controls amid a severe shortage of foreign currency. The tax cuts recently were reversed.

Meanwhile the Sri Lankan rupee has weakened by nearly 80% to about 360 to $1, making the costs of imports even more prohibitive.

“Our economy has completely collapsed,” the prime minister said Wednesday.

UPENDED LIVES

Before this latest descent, both Lebanon and Sri Lanka had a middle-income population that allowed most people to live somewhat comfortably.

During the 1980s and 1990s, many Sri Lankans took jobs as domestic workers in Lebanese households. As Sri Lanka began its postwar recovery, they have been replaced by workers from Ethiopia, Nepal and the Philippines.

The recent crisis forced most Lebanese to give up that luxury, among others. Almost overnight, people found themselves with almost no access to their money, evaporated savings and worthless salaries. A month’s salary at minimum wage isn’t enough to buy 20 liters (5 1/4 gallons) of gasoline, or cover the bill for private generators that provide homes with a few hours of electricity a day.

At one point, severe shortages of fuel, cooking gas and oil led to fights over limited supplies – scenes now replicated in Sri Lanka. Cancer drugs are often out of stock. Earlier this year, the government even ran out of paper for new passports.

Tens of thousands of professionals, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, have left the country in search of jobs.

Similarly, Sri Lanka is now almost without gasoline and faces an acute shortage of other fuels. Authorities have announced nationwide power cuts of up to four hours a day and asked state employees not to work on Fridays, except for those needed for essential services.

The U.N. World Food Program says nearly nine of 10 Sri Lankan families are skipping meals or otherwise skimping to stretch their food, while 3 million are getting emergency humanitarian aid.

Doctors have resorted to social media to seek critical supplies of equipment and medicine. Growing numbers of Sri Lankans want passports to go overseas to search for work.

OTHER DISASTERS

In addition to the political and financial turmoil, both countries have faced disasters that worsened their crises.

On Aug. 4, 2020, a catastrophic explosion s truck Beirut’s port, killing at least 216 people and wrecking large parts of the city. The blast, widely considered one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history, was caused by the detonation of hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate that was stored in a warehouse for years. The dangerous material was housed there apparently with the knowledge of senior politicians and security officials who did nothing about it.

There was widespread outrage at the traditional parties’ endemic corruption and mismanagement, which were widely blamed for the calamity.

Sri Lanka faced a disaster in early 2021, when a container ship carrying chemicals caught fire off the coast of the capital of Colombo. It burned for nearly two weeks before sinking while being towed to deeper waters.

The burning ship belched noxious fumes and spilled more than 1,500 tons of plastic pellets into the Indian Ocean, which were later found in dead dolphins and fish on the beaches.

Fishing was banned in the area because of health risks associated with the chemicals in the water, affecting the livelihoods of some 4,300 families, who still have not received compensation.

___

Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writer Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, contributed.

LEBANON PORT AFTER EXPLOSION

Lebanon: The Sailing Shipwreck

The Lebanese people have persevered through endless hardships with an impenetrable dedication to their culture and community, but, with no light at the end of the tunnel, it is unclear how much more they can take.

The Lebanese people have proven their grit in the face of their attempted demise yet again. (AFP) - Photo Courtesy of BBC


by Inside Arabia | May 21, 2022

Picture a ship carrying a nation’s worth of passengers. A large boat sailing in the middle of an ocean of others, which suddenly starts taking significant blows. An incredible number of hits aggravate its condition until it’s wholly submerged. However, although underwater, the vessel has not yet sunk. It continues to slowly move forward, often stopping and never reaching the bottom –– all under the surface. Now think of Lebanon as that ship, with all its citizens aboard. And like this ship, Lebanon has taken on as much water as it can but refuses to sink to the seafloor. And like any item freefalling into the abyss of the deep blue, the bottom is out of sight.

How do you explain to a sailor from another ship that your captain has repeatedly attempted to throw you overboard? Or that your ship does not have permanent power or a freshwater source? Or that your captain has one day informed you that your life savings had just disappeared into thin air? Or that you survived the largest non-nuclear explosion coupled with a global pandemic and one of history’s worst-ever economic recessions, all at once? And that you protested for reforms, but were met with violence and oppression?

The Lebanese people are aboard a ship experiencing constant and imminent collision.

Our ship is unlike all other ships –– in the worst way possible. The Lebanese people are aboard what can only be described as a ship experiencing constant and imminent collision, extreme weather, damaged stability, engine breakdown, fire at sea –– and any other possible marine emergency you can imagine, orchestrated by a ruling class of warlords, bent on keeping a tight grasp of their captaincy.

Media outlets worldwide have, since early 2020, recorded dozens of headlines detailing the scuttling of our ship. Except we have not sunk, not yet, at least. A lawless vessel that continues to descend towards deeper waters piloted by commanders that refuse to abandon ship. Instead, they have turned into dead weight, planning on taking the ship and everyone down with them. So why has the ship not sunk?

This resistant force refusing to evacuate –– the only remaining fighting figure pulling away from the deepest depths of the sea –– is the very passengers. The Lebanese people have proven their grit in the face of their attempted demise yet again. For those in Lebanon, it is our hope-filled lungs that keep our ship from plummeting deeper. For the Lebanese diaspora, it is the lifelines that they continue to throw in an attempt to pull the ship back to the surface. The very essence of Lebanese society, culture, and identity is one of resilience, support, and togetherness –– an essence that lives on in the people all aboard this ship, flaring their hopes and dreams of a better Lebanon, like emergency beacons signaling rescue.

These beacons live among us –– they are us –– whenever able and often when unable too. This unparalleled desire to once again resurface has been passed on by generations –­– by the people, for the people –– no matter how desperate and dire the situation. I was lucky enough to witness and experience some of the purest forms of the Lebanese culture in what can only be described as the most desperate time for the Lebanese in history. I share these narratives and personal accounts to depict a small part of the reality on the ground.

This unparalleled desire to once again resurface has been passed on by generations.

The purest embodiment of this notion of offering something you don’t have is Adib (uncle in Arabic). Adib is a homeless old man stationed under a bridge outside my place of work. I greet him daily and often ask if he needs anything, but I always receive his usual answer, “I cannot ask for more than your daily greeting.” A few months later and mid-Ramadan, I was staffing a later shift and would finish around iftar time. One night I was leaving just as the call for prayer signaled iftar, and I passed by Adib, only to find him still fasting. I informed him that the call for prayer had started and that he could break his fast. He answered, saying he had heard it but noticed I was finishing at this exact time and that he was waiting to share his donated meal with me. And he did so for the entire month of Ramadan. Every day, this man would wait for me to come down before he broke his fast, waiting to see if I wanted to share his donated meal with him. A man with nothing, sharing everything.

[Prospects for Real Change are Still Dim in Lebanon]

[Lebanon Crisis Leaves the Elderly Particularly Vulnerable]

Adib was not alone in giving something he didn’t have. Sometime during 2020, gasoline shortages hit on the eve of what I thought would be one of the most important meetings of my lifetime. I spent the night looking for a gas station to fill my car that was already running on fumes, but to no avail. The morning of, I left the house two hours before my meeting in search of gas. After an hour of franticly searching, I found an open station, but with a very long queue. Thirty minutes before my meeting, my turn finally came. As I approached with less than a kilometer left on the dashboard, the gas jockey lifted the gas pump nozzle, turned it upside down, and pulled the latch – nothing came out. The station had run out of gas –– I panicked.

Noticing my desperation, the gas jockey looked at me and asked me to turn my car on and follow him. We drove down the street and parked near a residential building. He asked me to get a screwdriver and an empty water bottle. He rushed up to the building and fetched what seemed to be a gallon of gas he had stored away in anticipation of a shortage. He sliced the bottle in half, put the screwdriver halfway into the bottle to clamp the valve open, and poured in the whole gallon. In disbelief, I started thanking him and reached inside the car for my wallet. When I had returned, he was already on his bike, driving off. I ran after him, requesting to pay him for the gas, but he didn’t stop and simply yelled back, “The people for the people. Pass on the blessing and help whoever comes your way.” I was speechless. There was no rhyme or reason for his generosity. I am sure there was someone who probably needed the gas more than I did.


“The people for the people. Pass on the blessing and help whoever comes your way.”

This very notion of the “people for the people” was most evident after the Beirut Port Explosion on August 4, 2020, when life in Lebanon ceased to exist for nine seconds. The very day after the blast tore through Beirut, Lebanon’s entire population, from all corners of the country, poured into Beirut. Armed with brooms, gloves, hammers, nails, and broken hearts, everyone came to the rescue of their fellow citizens. Streets filled with hundreds of thousands of volunteers –– cleaning, rebuilding, and supporting residents of the affected areas. A basecamp combining people of all backgrounds and expertise came into existence: organizing the distribution of supplies, documenting the damage, and allocating donated resources and construction teams to rebuilding homes –– all without the help or presence of the government. One particular house we helped stood out among others to this day. My friends and I were assigned to a top-floor apartment that had been completely torn apart and belonged to an old man who had barely escaped death. We spent over twelve hours cleaning and repairing all the damage. As we were finishing, the old man asked to show me an old picture. It was an image of him and his high school best friend –– someone he thought I shared a bizarre resemblance with. It took him a few minutes before he remembered his name, which quickly filled my eyes with tears. The old man was pictured standing beside my late grandfather back in high school. “He must have sent you to help me; he knew I would need you,” he said to me, crying his heart out.

There are too many stories that depict this unparalleled solidarity and commitment to our community, which has become the very identity of our culture. And this has been proven to be the case far outside and beyond Lebanon’s borders, just as recently as in the parliamentary elections. The Lebanese government played its dirty games to discourage people from voting by making the process more difficult, changing polling stations without notice, or locating them too far to reach. But we knew how important it was to vote them out, and the Lebanese diaspora was nothing short of incredible. People drove insane distances in multiple countries to get to the polling stations, stood in voting lines for hours under scorching heat, and flew to other cities to vote –– all to stop the corruption from gaining a tighter grasp.


We are part of something bigger –– for the first time in a long time.

We almost don’t have a choice. No one in Lebanon can do it alone. No one can survive. Perhaps the very reason we’ve been able to stay standing –– or more like crawling –– is because of how much we support each other. We are part of something bigger –– for the first time in a long time. And everyone knows it.

Perhaps sinking is necessary to rid ourselves of the ruling anchors dragging on the bottom of the seabed and start anew. Instead, we continue to adapt and grasp for more air or jump overboard to other ships and throw more lifelines. Adapt till when? Where and when is our breaking point? How much worse can it get? And how much more can we take? The Lebanese culture and identity have proven their expandability in depth and breadth, but are we really helping ourselves? Perhaps our culture’s very resilient aspect is also the enabler of our demise. How have we allowed ourselves to continue to take on so much, and why?

I am no expert to provide these answers. Still, when you live in a country where 78 percent of the population now lives under the poverty line, yet unattended bread crates delivered outside shops and restaurants go untouched or stolen, something does not add up. The reality is that the Lebanese identity –––the very essence of our culture –– cannot be killed. It cannot die. You can kill people, but you cannot kill an idea or an identity. It lives on, and it will live on. And it will continue to do so far after being supportive becomes a choice instead of a necessity. One day our ship will resurface – beaten, bruised, damaged, and destroyed –– but never sunk. Until then, “We are all for each other, and for [our] homeland” [كلنا لبعض و للوطن].

Despite public anger, Lebanon vote set to entrench status quo





Layal Abou Rahal
Tue, May 10, 2022,

Lebanon's elections Sunday won't yield a seismic shift despite widespread discontent with a graft-tainted political class blamed for a painful economic crisis and a deadly disaster, experts say.

Given Lebanon's sectarian-based politics, it will likely "reproduce the political class and give it internal and international legitimacy", said Rima Majed of the American University of Beirut.

"Maybe candidates from the opposition will clinch some seats, but I don't think that there will be a change in the political scene," said Majed, an expert in sectarianism and social movements.

Beirut voter Issam Ayyad, 70, put it more simply: "We will not be able to change."

The small country's political system has long distributed power among its religious communities, entrenching a ruling elite that has treated politics as a family business.

By convention, the Lebanese president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shiite.

In the current parliament, the Shiite Hezbollah party and its allies, including the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, command a majority.

The system has held back the emergence of non-sectarian political parties and civil society representatives.

The elections will be the first since a youth-led protest movement broke out in October 2019 against a political class seen as inept, corrupt and responsible for a litany of woes, from power blackouts to piles of uncollected garbage.

The anger exploded into months of street rallies but lost momentum as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, together with a financial crash that the World Bank has labelled one of the world's worst in modern times.

- 'Game of loyalty' -

Popular fury flared again after a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate that had languished in a Beirut port warehouse for years exploded in August 2020, killing more than 200 people and devastating entire neighbourhoods.

Successive governments have since failed to chart a path out of Lebanon's worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war that has sparked runaway inflation, deepened dire poverty and fuelled a mass exodus.

Where the Lebanese state has failed to provide basic services, traditional political leaders have tended to step in with their decades-old patronage networks -- a trend more alive than ever during the current crisis.

"The elections are not meant to assess the performance of politicians," said Majed. "They are more a game of loyalty to whoever provides... the most basic services."

Public sector jobs have long been among the main handouts, but now fuel and cash assistance also feature high on the list, giving an advantage to established parties over new opposition groups that lack funds and foreign support.

While bolstered by the 2019 protest movement, new independent candidates have also failed to build a coherent front that could energise a dispirited electorate, observers say.

Nearly 44 percent of eligible voters plan to abstain, according to a survey last month of more than 4,600 voters by British charity Oxfam.

- Voter intimidation -

Polling expert Kamal Feghali said many voters had hoped the newcomers would run "with a unified list and programme" but said that instead their competing electoral lists "will scatter the vote".

While independents will likely do slightly better than in 2018, when only one of them won a seat, said Feghali, the winner once more is likely to be Hezbollah, Lebanon's biggest political and military force, and its allies.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, first formed as a resistance force against neighbour Israel, is now often described as a state within a state that is all-powerful in regions under its control.

Its pre-election intimidation tactics are "salient", said Oxfam, warning that such behaviour tells voters "that change might be denied, and in turn might lead to either a reduction in turnout or a distortion in voting behaviour".

In east Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, three Shiite candidates were running on an anti-Hezbollah list but withdrew last month, despite the expiry of a legal deadline to do so.

The move stripped the anti-Hezbollah list of essential Shiite representation and was widely seen by local media as a result of pressure by the powerful movement.

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Lebanon: small, multi-religious Mideast country

Lebanese protesters block a highway during a protest in the capital Beirut on November 29, 2021, as the country struggles with a deep economic crisis - 

Anwar AMRO Agence France-Presse

Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon, a small Mediterranean country wracked by political and economic turmoil and the fallout of the decade-old Syrian conflict next door, holds parliamentary elections on May 15.

Here are some key facts about Lebanon.

- Multi-confessional -

The country with the cedar tree flag is one of the smallest in the Middle East, at about 10,000 square kilometres (3,900 square miles).


Its population of around 4.5 million Lebanese is dwarfed by its diaspora, spread across the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia.

Lebanon is considered relatively liberal in a broadly conservative region. Political power is split between 18 recognised religious communities under a confessionalist form of government.

Lebanon is a parliamentary republic, with a 128-member house split between Muslims and Christians.

In line with Lebanon's "national pact" dating back to independence from France in 1943, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the parliament speaker a Shiite.

- Between Israel and Syria -

Lebanon endured a brutal civil war between 1975 and 1990 and was under Syrian domination from the 1990s until troops withdrew in 2005.


Its political institutions have long been paralysed by disagreement between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps.

In March 1978, Israel launched "Operation Litani" in south Lebanon, which it said was to protect the north of its territory from fighters from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It withdrew partially in June that year.

In June 1982, Israeli troops invaded Lebanon and besieged Beirut, forcing the PLO to flee.

In mid-2006, a 34-day war pitted Israel -- whose troops had withdrawn from southern Lebanon in 2000 -- against the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.

In 2013, Hezbollah said it was fighting in Syria alongside the troops of President Bashar al-Assad, its involvement dividing the Lebanese political scene even more.

- Shelter for refugees -


Lebanon saw the influx of an estimated 1.5 million refugees following the outbreak of Syria's civil war.

More than three quarters of them live below the poverty line, according to the UN.

Tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees also live in Lebanon, mainly in the country's 12 camps.

- Economic turmoil -

Lebanon is going through a severe economic crisis, described by the World Bank as one of the world's worst since the 1850s.

Lebanese residents have since 2019 suffered draconian banking restrictions on access to money.

Meanwhile, the local currency has plummeted some 90 percent against the dollar on the black market.

Around 80 percent of the population are struggling to escape poverty, the UN says.

For the first time in its history, Lebanon announced in 2020 it was defaulting on its debt payments.

The country lags in development in areas such as water supply, electricity production and waste treatment.

The pain was worsened by the August 2020 Beirut port explosion of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that devastated entire neighbourhoods and killed more than 200 people.

- Ties with France -

France is a traditional ally of Lebanon, with which it has historic, cultural, political and economic links, underpinned by the French language.

The close links go back centuries. In the 16th century after an accord with the Ottoman Empire, the kings of France became the official protectors of the East's Christians.

After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, France became in 1920 the mandate power in Lebanon, setting the country's borders with Syria. It granted it independence in 1943.

Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/05/lebanon-small-multi-religious-mideast-country#ixzz7Sx0hjjSD

Timeline: Lebanon in economic, political dire straits

11/05/2022

© IBRAHIM AMRO 

Protestors demand better living conditions and the ouster of a cast of politicians who have monopolised power and influence for decades, on October 22, 2019 in Beirut

Lebanon, which holds parliamentary elections on May 15, has been mired in a deep financial, economic and social crisis, aggravated by a political deadlock.

Lebanon’s then prime minister Hassan Diab delivering a statement at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, on April 30, 2020

Here is a recap since turmoil broke out in October 2019.

– Protests erupt –

Mass protests follow a government announcement on October 17, 2019 of a planned tax on voice calls made over messaging services such as WhatsApp.

© ANWAR AMRO 

Police and forensic officers work at the scene of the massive explosion at the port of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, on August 5, 2020

In a graft-plagued country with poor public services, many see the tax as the last straw, with demonstrators demanding “the fall of the regime”.

The government of prime minister Saad Hariri scraps the tax the same day.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the presidential palace in Baabda on December 28, 2021

But protests continue over the ensuing weeks, culminating in huge demonstrations calling for the overhaul of a ruling class in place for decades and accused of systematic corruption.

 Lebanon’s former premier Saad Hariri, pictured on July 15, 2021

Hariri’s government resigns in late October.

– First default –

Lebanon, with a $92 billion debt burden equivalent to nearly 170 percent of its gross domestic product, announces in March 2020 that it will default on a payment for the first time in its history.

In April, after three nights of violent clashes, then-prime minister Hassan Diab says Lebanon will seek International Monetary Fund help after the government approves an economic rescue plan.

But talks with the IMF quickly go off the rails.

– Catastrophic blast –

A massive explosion on August 4, 2020 at Beirut port devastates entire neighbourhoods of the capital, kills more than 200 people and injures at least 6,500.

© JOSEPH EID 

$100 traded at around 1.5 million Lebanese pounds on the black market on March 16, 2021 as Lebanon battled its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war

It emerges the huge pile of volatile ammonium nitrate that caused one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded had been left unsecured in a warehouse for six years, further enraging the Lebanese public.

 Lebanon’s capital Beirut, with buildings in darkness during a power outage on October 11, 2021

– Political impasse –

Diab’s government resigns shortly after the blast after just over seven months in office.

© IBRAHIM AMRO

 A Lebanese Shiite fighter takes aim with a Kalashnikov amid clashes in the Tayouneh suburb of Beirut, on October 14, 2021

Diplomat Mustapha Adib is named new premier but bows out after less than a month, and Hariri, who already served as prime minister three times, is named in October.

– One of worst crises –

Amid runaway inflation, authorities announce in February 2021 that bread prices will rise further.

In June, the World Bank says Lebanon’s economic collapse is likely to rank among the world’s worst financial crises since the mid-19th century.

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati, third from right, with an International Monetary Fund delegation


– New government –

After nine months of political horse-trading, Hariri steps aside on July 15, 2021 saying he is unable to form a government.

Billionaire Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s richest man and already twice prime minister, forms a new government on September 10 after a 13-month vacuum.

– Bloody clashes –

But the new government is shaken by demands from the powerful Hezbollah for the judge investigating the Beirut blast to be removed on grounds of political bias.

Tensions come to a boil on October 14, 2021 when a shootout kills seven people following a rally by Hezbollah and its ally Amal demanding Tarek Bitar’s dismissal.

– Accord with IMF –

On January 24, 2022 the IMF launches talks with Lebanese officials.

Mikati’s government meets for the first time after months of negotiations between rival factions.

On February 11 the IMF calls for fiscal reforms to ensure Lebanon can manage its debt load as well as measures to establish a “credible” currency system.

On April 7, the lender says it has reached a staff-level agreement to provide Lebanon with $3 billion in aid over four years.

Timeline: Lebanon's ordeal - Economic and political crises since civil war


By Reuters Staff

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon is in the throes of a financial crisis widely seen as the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-90 civil war, encouraging a new wave of emigration from the country.

With hard currency growing ever more scarce, the Lebanese pound has lost some 80% of its value, depositors have been shut out of their savings and unemployment are poverty are soaring.

Here are Lebanon’s main previous post-war upheavals.

2005

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is killed on Feb. 14 when a massive bomb exploded as his motorcade travelled through Beirut; 21 others also died.

A combination of subsequent mass demonstrations and international pressure force Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon. Lebanese Shi’ite allies of Damascus stage their own big rallies in support of Syria.

Lebanon enters a new era free of Syrian domination. Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group and close ally of Damascus, enters government for the first time.

2006

In July, Hezbollah crosses the border into Israel, kidnaps two Israeli soldiers and kills others, sparking a five-week war. At least 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 Israelis are killed.

After the war, tensions in Lebanon simmer over Hezbollah’s powerful arsenal. In November, Hezbollah and its allies quit the cabinet led by Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and organise street protests against it.

2007

Hezbollah and its allies maintain a sit-in protest against the Siniora government for the entire year. Their stated demand is veto power in the government.

In May, fighting erupts at a Palestinian camp in northern Lebanon between the Lebanese army and Sunni Islamist militants of the Fatah al-Islam group. Thousands of Palestinian refugees are forced to flee the Nahr al-Bared camp. In September, Lebanese troops seize control of the camp after more than three months of fighting that kills more than 300 people.

2008

May 6, 2008 - Siniora’s cabinet accuses Hezbollah of running a private telecoms network and installing spy cameras at Beirut airport. The cabinet vows legal action against the network.

May 7 - Hezbollah said the move against its telecoms network was a declaration of war by the government. After a brief conflict Hezbollah takes control of mainly Muslim west Beirut.

May 21 - After mediation, rival leaders sign a deal in Qatar to end 18 months of political conflict. Parliament elects Michel Suleiman, the army chief, as president.
2011

In January, Saad al-Hariri’s first government is toppled when Hezbollah and its allies quit because of tensions over the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The tribunal later indicts four senior members of Hezbollah for the murder of Rafik al-Hariri. Hezbollah denies any role in the assassination. Its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said the authorities would not be able to find the indicted men.

A fifth Hezbollah member is indicted in 2013

2012

Hezbollah fighters deploy into Syria, secretly at first, to aid Syrian government forces facing a mostly Sunni rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad. The group plays a major role in beating back the rebellion.

2015

A crisis about waste erupts when authorities close the main landfill site near Beirut, having arranged no alternative. Large protests broke out as rotting waste filled streets and demonstrators chanted “You stink!” at the government. It became a glaring symbol of the failures of a sectarian power system unable to meet basic needs like electricity and water.

2017

Saad al-Hariri’s ties with Saudi Arabia, which is furious at Hezbollah’s expanding role in Lebanon, hit a nadir in November 2017 when it was widely acknowledged Riyadh had forced him to resign and held him in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia and Hariri publicly deny this version of events, though France’s Emmanuel Macron confirmed that Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia.

2019

Amid a stagnant economy and slowing capital inflows, the government is under pressure to curb a massive budget deficit.

Proposals to cut the state wage and pension bill meet stiff opposition. The government vows to enact long-delayed reforms but fails to make progress that might unlock foreign support.

Oct. 17 - A government move to tax internet calls ignites big protests against the ruling elite. Lebanese of all sects take part, accusing leaders of corruption and economic mismanagement.

Hariri quits on Oct. 29, against the wishes of Hezbollah. Lebanon is left rudderless as the crisis deepens. A hard- currency liquidity crunch leads banks to impose tight curbs on cash withdrawals and transfers abroad.

2020

After two months of talks to form a new, Hariri-led coalition government hit a dead end, Hezbollah and its allies back Hassan Diab, a little-known academic and former education minister, for the post of prime minister.

March 7 - Diab announces Lebanon cannot repay a maturing bond and calls for negotiations to restructure its debt.

May 1 - Beirut signs a formal request for IMF assistance after approving a plan setting out vast losses in the financial system. The banking association rejects the plan, saying its proposals for restructuring the banking sector would further destroy confidence in Lebanon.

July - IMF talks are put on hold pending agreement on the Lebanese side over the scale of financial loses. The Lebanese pound touches lows close to 10,000 to the dollar. The rate was 1,500 in October.


Writing by Tom Perry and William Maclean; editing by Ed Osmond

Lebanon's descent into turmoil: assassinations, war, financial collapse


A man walks past posters depicting Lebanon's former Prime Minister Saad Al-Hariri in Beirut

Sun, May 8, 2022, 

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon holds an election on May 15 that could see a shift of power that sends shockwaves far beyond this small country squeezed between Syria and Israel.

Here is a timeline of the nation's recent history, from assassinations and war to a devastating explosion and economic meltdown.

2005

Lebanon's billionaire former premier Rafik al-Hariri is killed on Feb. 14 when a huge bomb explodes as his motorcade travels through Beirut; 21 others also die.

Mass demonstrations erupt blaming the assassination on Syria, which had deployed troops during Lebanon's 15-year civil war and kept them there after it ended in 1990.


Shi'ite allies of Damascus stage their own big rallies in support of Syria, but international pressure forces the troops to withdraw.

2006

In July, armed movement Hezbollah crosses the border into Israel, kidnaps two Israeli soldiers and kills others, sparking a five-week war. At least 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 Israelis are killed.

After the war, tensions in Lebanon simmer over Hezbollah's arsenal. In November, Hezbollah and its allies quit the cabinet led by Western-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and organise street protests against it.

Anti-Syria politician Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in November.

2007

Hezbollah and its allies maintain a sit-in protest in central Beirut against the Siniora government for the entire year. Their stated demand is veto power in the government.

2008

Wissam Eid, a police intelligence officer investigating the Hariri assassination, is killed by a car bomb in January.

In May, the government outlaws Hezbollah's telecom network. Hezbollah calls the government's move a declaration of war and takes control of mainly Muslim west Beirut in retaliation.

After mediation, rival leaders sign a deal in Qatar to end 18 months of political conflict.

2011

The government led by Hariri's son and political heir, Saad, is toppled when Hezbollah and its allies quit because of tensions over a U.N.-backed tribunal into the Rafik al-Hariri assassination.

2012

Hezbollah fighters deploy to Syria to aid President Bashar al-Assad's forces against a Sunni rebellion.

In October, a car bomb kills senior security official Wissam al-Hassan, whose intelligence service had arrested Michel Samaha, a pro-Syrian former minister charged with transporting Syrian-assembled bombs to wage attacks in Lebanon.

2017

Sunni regional superpower Saudi Arabia, increasingly frustrated with Hezbollah's expanding role in Lebanon, is accused of detaining Saad al-Hariri in Riyadh and forcing him to resign.

Both Riyadh and Hariri publicly deny this version of events, though French leader Emmanuel Macron later says Hariri was being held in Saudi Arabia.

2018

Lebanon holds its first parliamentary vote since 2009, after lawmakers repeatedly extended their four-year mandate, citing security concerns.

Hezbollah and allied groups and individuals win at least 69 of the 128 seats, consolidating their hold over the legislative branch.

2019

Despite a stagnant economy and slowing capital inflows, the government fails to enact reforms that might unlock foreign support, including cutting the state wage and pension bill.

In October, a government move to tax internet calls ignites mass cross-sectarian protests accusing the ruling elite of corruption and mismanagement.

Hariri quits on Oct. 29. The financial crisis accelerates. Depositors are frozen out of their savings amid a hard currency liquidity crunch and crashing currency.

2020

Hassan Diab, a little-known academic, becomes prime minister in January with backing from Hezbollah and its allies.

Lebanon defaults on its sovereign debt in March, the currency loses up to 80% of its value and poverty rates soar.

Talks with the International Monetary Fund flounder as the main parties and influential banks resist a financial recovery plan.

On Aug. 4, a vast quantity of ammonium nitrate explodes at Beirut port, killing more than 200 people, wounding 6,000 and devastating swathes of Beirut.

The Diab cabinet quits and Hariri is designated to form a new government but the parties remain at odds over portfolios.

A U.N.-backed tribunal convicts a Hezbollah member of conspiring to kill Rafik al-Hariri 15 years after his death.

2021

The economic meltdown deepens. Hariri abandons his effort to form a government and trades blame with President Michel Aoun for the failure.

In August, the central bank declares it can no longer finance subsidies for fuel imports, prompting power outages and fuel shortages that lead to long queues and sporadic violence at filling stations.

A tanker explodes in the north, killing more than 20 people.

In September, after more than a year of rows over cabinet posts, a new cabinet is finally agreed led by Najib Mikati.

Its work is quickly derailed by tensions over the investigation into the Beirut port explosion. Hezbollah and its ally Amal demand the removal of investigating judge Tarek Bitar after he charges some of their allies.

The Shi'ite parties call a protest against the judge. Six of their followers are shot dead when violence erupts. Hezbollah blames the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party.

The probe into the port blast grinds to a halt, impeded by a flood of legal complaints against the judge by officials whom he has charged over the disaster.

Gulf states recall their ambassadors and Saudi Arabia bans all Lebanese imports in protest at comments by a pro-Hezbollah minister criticising Saudi Arabia over the war in Yemen.

2022

In January, the pound sinks to 34,000 against the dollar before being strengthened by central bank intervention.

The World Bank blasts the ruling class for "orchestrating" one of the world's worst national economic depressions due to their exploitative grip on resources.

In April, Lebanon reaches a draft agreement with the IMF for a possible $3 billion in support, dependent on Beirut enacting long-delayed reforms.

The ambassadors of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia return. Saudi Arabia and France announce a joint 30 million euro ($32 million) fund to boost health and other services in Lebanon.

Hariri announces he and his Future Movement will not run in a May parliamentary election.

($1 = 0.9471 euros)

(Writing by Tom Perry and William Maclean; Editing by Maya Gebeily, Mike Collett-White and Pravin Char)

Protest by other means: Lebanon activists run in election
 

Lawyer Verena El Amil is one of a growing number of independent candidates

 running in a parliamentary vote in crisis-hit Lebanon 

(AFP/Joseph EID)

 

Lebanese expats voted abroad in countries around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, 

ahead of the start of polling in the country

 (AFP/Karim SAHIB)

Activist, writer and director Lucien Bourjeily emerged as one of the key figures 

of the 2019 protest movement and is running for a seat in the legislature for the second time

(AFP/Joseph EID)

Hashem Osseiran
Sun, May 8, 2022

As a law student in late 2019, Verena El Amil joined mass street protests against Lebanon's political elite. Now she wants to fight them at the ballot box.

At age 25, she is one of a growing number of independent candidates running in a May 15 parliamentary vote in the crisis-torn country.

"We are going to fight," the young lawyer, dressed in a black leather jacket and combat boots, said at a coffee shop outside Beirut.

"The slogans we screamed during the protests are the ones we want to carry into campaigns and into parliament."

The vote will be the first major electoral test since a youth-led protest movement from October 2019 vented its rage at Lebanon's graft-tainted political class.

The revolutionary fervour has been sapped since by cascading crises, from a financial collapse and the pandemic to the 2020 Beirut port blast that killed more than 200 people.

While most of her fellow graduates have fled abroad, Amil honed her political skills in student activism and spent all her savings on the campaign.

"Running for parliamentary elections for me is a continuation," said Amil, one of the youngest candidates to stand.

"After the 2019 protests, we all grappled with defeat and the reality of a massive emigration wave.

"But in spite of this, we still need to try, and I am running for the elections to show that we are still trying."

- 'Election as protest' -

The number of independent candidates running against established parties has more than doubled since the last vote in 2018.

Beirut-based think tank the Policy Initiative said opposition and independent candidates make up 284 of the 718 hopefuls -- up from 124 four years ago.

They are running in 48 different electoral lists across Lebanon, including in peripheral regions where traditional leaders have seldom faced a challenge.

Also in the race this time is Lucien Bourjeily, an activist, writer and director who emerged as one of the key figures of the 2019 protest movement.

Running for a seat for the second time, Bourjeily said he sensed more engagement from the public this time around.

But the opposition is mainly gunning for accountability, not a major win, he said, urging voters to document any signs of electoral fraud.

"The way we documented people getting beaten and losing their eyes and getting killed on the street, we should document how votes will be stolen," he said.

"People should treat election day as a protest."

- 'Haphazard, disorganised' -

Even in a clean election, opposition candidates would face an uphill challenge, lacking the funds and campaign machines of the traditional parties.

Lebanon's electoral law is designed to benefit established players, and the opposition is far from united.

"You have competing opposition lists in most districts, and this is unacceptable," said Carmen Geha, a professor of public administration at the American University of Beirut.

"We needed hope, and hope would have come from a national campaign."

Voter turnout may be low, in part because high fuel prices deter travel to ancestral towns and villages where constituents are required to cast their vote.

An Oxfam report last month said only 54 percent of over 4,600 people surveyed said they intended to vote, a trend it blamed largely on widespread "disappointment and hopelessness".

Most of those planning to abstain cited a lack of promising candidates, while nearly half of those who plan to vote said they would choose an independent candidate, the British-based charity said.

Veteran activist Maher Abou Chakra, who ran briefly for the election before pulling out, criticised the opposition for lacking a coherent strategy to rock the establishment.

"Lebanon's political regime is hundreds of years old... and it is deeply entrenched," he said.

"You can't challenge it in a haphazard and disorganised way."

ho/fz

Fearing civil war amnesia, activists fight to preserve Beirut port silos

A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion reacts during a protest in Beirut

Families of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion hold pictures during a protest near Beirut port




FILE PHOTO: Aftermath of Tuesday's blast in Beirut's port area



A family member of one of the victims of the 2020 Beirut port explosion holds a picture during a protest in Beirut



FILE PHOTO: Site of Tuesday's blast, at Beirut's port area

By Timour Azhari
April 13, 2022

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Families of victims of the 2020 Beirut port blast are pressuring Lebanon's government to keep its silos as a memorial, arguing the move would be a powerful acknowledgement of suffering in a country still struggling to come to terms with years of war and strife.

Ghassan Hasrouty worked at the towering white grain silos for nearly four decades - even through Lebanon's 15-year civil war, when he would tell his wife he felt protected by the thick walls of the storage facility.

"He used to tell my mum, 'I'm scared for you (at home), not for me because there is nothing, no shrapnel, that can harm the silos... nothing can bring them down," Hasrouty's daughter Tatiana recalled.

On August 4, 2020, Ghassan was working late when a massive chemical blast at the port ended his life and those of at least 215 others, and cleaved off part of the cylindrical towers.

As Lebanon marks the 47th anniversary of the start of the war on Wednesday, Ghassan's daughter and other relatives of those killed in the blast are fighting government plans to demolish the disembowelled silos.

Lebanese officials say the ruined silos should make way for new ones, the proposed move gaining momentum amid projections of global grains shortages due to Russia's war in Ukraine.

But activists and bereaved families say the columns, which stand like a great tombstone at Beirut's northern entrance, should stay as a monument - at least until an investigation into the blast can serve justice in a country accustomed to moving on from violence without accountability.

"In Lebanon we got used to the fact that something happens, and then they bring us something bigger and more intense than that, and we forget," Hasrouty said.

"They (politicians) work so that we wake up every day with new fears and new worries, and that's why I say they (the silos) should remain, because maybe people pass by them and recall: 'people really died here'".

'LIVING WITNESS TO THEIR CRIMES'

The probe into the blast, one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, has faced pushback from a political system installed at the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, when an amnesty was issued for warlords who gained government seats.

The war left some 100,000 dead and 17,000 are still missing - but is left out of school curricula and Beirut's most damaged areas were rebuilt with no public monuments. Historians say that has led to a collective amnesia about the war - something the families of blast victims are desperate to avoid.

"We all grew up with the civil war and remember how the rockets would fly above our heads. The Lebanese people forgot it because it was erased, because, simply, they reconstructed everything," Rima Zahed, whose brother Amin died in the blast, told Reuters.

Zahed has since helped organise protests in support of the investigation and of the silos' preservation. "Now we need the silos as the living witness to their crimes," she told Reuters.

Lebanon's government says it has other priorities.

'COLD HEART, COLD MIND'

Culture Minister Mohamed Mortada told Reuters the Cabinet had decided to demolish the silos and rebuild new ones based on a "purely economic assessment" of Lebanon's food security needs.

Lebanon needs more wheat storage to cope with global grains shortages resulting from the Russian war in Ukraine, from where Lebanon imports most of its wheat, officials say.

Mortada said the building could not be renovated for technical and sanitary reasons, so it had to be destroyed.

While the minister has put the silos on a list of heritage buildings, he noted the protected status could be removed if an alternative is found.

"What satisfies the families of victims or does not satisfy the families of victims, despite its importance, is not what's asked of the culture minister. What's asked of the culture minister is to approach it with a cold heart and cold mind. Is it tied to history or not?" he said.

Urban activist Soha Mneimneh said the move to destroy the silos amounted to "the erasure of a crime scene."

An engineers syndicate of which she is a member has commissioned a report on the silos to study the feasibility of renovating them. Mneimneh said they should be reinforced "so they stay in peoples' collective memory, so it is not repeated."

For Tatiana Hasrouty, the silos evoke painful memories - but are also a symbol of strength.

"I think now after he died there, the silos, some standing and some destroyed, symbolize for our family that (despite) everything that happened to us and all the sadness we have experienced, our family is still standing, steadfast, as if nothing can shake it."

(Reporting by Timour Azhari; Editing by Maya Gebeily, William Maclean)

Impacts of Ukraine conflict on food security already being felt in the Near East North Africa region and will quickly spread, warns IFAD

17 March 2022

© WFP

Rome, 17 March 2022 – As the war continues to rage in Ukraine, impacts of rising food prices and shortages of staple crops are already being felt in the Near East and North Africa region and spreading to the world’s most vulnerable countries, including in the Horn of Africa, with poorest people at greatest risk, warned the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today. This comes amidst mounting concerns by the international community that the ongoing conflict will escalate global hunger and poverty.

A quarter of global wheat exports come from Russia and Ukraine. Forty percent of wheat and corn from Ukraine go to the Middle East and Africa, which are already grappling with hunger issues, and where further food shortages or price increases risk pushing millions more people into poverty. Russia is also the world’s largest fertilizer producer. Even before the conflict, spikes in fertilizer prices last year contributed to a rise in food prices by about 30 percent. IFAD’s analysis looks at the impact that the war will have on already poor small-scale producers and rural communities.

“I am deeply concerned that the violent conflict in Ukraine, already a catastrophe for those directly involved, will also be a tragedy for the world’s poorest people living in rural areas who cannot absorb the price hikes of staple foods and farming inputs that will result from disruptions to global trade,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD. “We are already seeing price hikes and this could cause an escalation of hunger and poverty with dire implications for global stability.”

IFAD’s analysis shows that price increases in staple foods, fuel and fertilizer and other ripple effects of the conflict are having a dire impact on the poorest rural communities. For example:
In Somalia, where an estimated 3.8 million people are already severely food insecure, the costs of electricity and transportation have spiked due to fuel price increases. This has a disproportionate impact on poor small-scale farmers and pastoralists who, in the face of erratic rainfall and an ongoing drought, rely on irrigation-fed agriculture powered by small diesel engines for their survival.
In Egypt, prices of wheat and sunflower oil have escalated due to Egypt’s reliance on Russia and Ukraine for 85 percent of its wheat supply and 73 percent of its sunflower oil.
In Lebanon, 22 percent of families are food insecure and food shortages or further price hikes will exacerbate an already desperate situation. The country imports up to 80 percent of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, but can only store about one month’s worth of the crop at a time due to the blast in Beirut’s port in 2020 that destroyed the country’s major grain silos.
Central Asian countries that rely on remittances sent home by migrant workers in Russia have been hit hard by the devaluation of the Russian ruble. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, remittances make up more than 31 percent of the GDP, the majority of which comes from Russia. Remittances are crucial for migrants’ families in rural areas to access food, education and other necessities.

IFAD’s experts stress that small-scale producers are already reeling from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, droughts, cyclones and other natural disasters. Their incomes are expected to be affected by the rising cost of inputs, reduced food supplies and disrupted markets. This is also likely to have devastating and long-term impacts on their nutrition and food security.

IFAD is working closely with governments, rural communities and other partners and exploring ways to step up global support to the regions most affected, including building on its Facility for Refugees, Migrants, Forced Displacement and Rural Stability (FARMS), which supports agricultural livelihood opportunities for refugees and host communities. It is also intensifying its work to reduce post-harvest losses, improve storage and strengthen local and regional food markets.

“IFAD is committed to increasing the resilience of the world’s poorest rural people who are critical for producing a third of the world’s food. We must do all we can to ensure they have the resources to keep producing food and be protected from additional shocks,” said Houngbo. “In the short-term, however, it will be difficult to mitigate the global impacts of this crisis. I join the UN Secretary-General’s call to end the conflict now and restore peace. It is the only solution to avert global catastrophe.”

IFAD’s experience during previous food crises shows that interventions such as stabilising local market systems, cash transfers, strengthening remittances, setting up savings and loans groups, training and subsidies for agricultural enterprises, and value chain investments (including infrastructure, support for microfinance institutions, aggregation services that link farmers to markets) are effective in building resilience and reducing the impact of shocks. IFAD will draw on this experience and its unique expertise as an International Financial Institution and UN rural development agency to guide its response to the current crisis.

Press release No.: IFAD/11/2022

IFAD invests in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, we have provided US$23.2 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached an estimated 518 million people. IFAD is an international financial institution and a United Nations specialized agency based in Rome – the United Nations food and agriculture hub.

A wide range of photographs of IFAD’s work in rural communities are available for download from its Image Bank.