Lebanese already haunted by past traumas fear more catastrophes to come

Lebanese already haunted by past traumas fear more catastrophes to come
Fruits and vegetable shop owner, Hussein Fakih, and his daughter, Alaa, in front of their shop in Bourj Hammoud, Lebanon. (Reuters)
Short Url
Updated 04 September 2024
Follow

Lebanese already haunted by past traumas fear more catastrophes to come

Lebanese already haunted by past traumas fear more catastrophes to come
  • People are now most anxious about the prospect of another full blown conflict between Hezbollah and Israel
  • Lebanon took years to rebuild from a 2006 war between the arch-foes which killed 1,200 people in Lebanon

BEIRUT: Shopkeeper Alaa Fakih lies awake at night scared that another catastrophe could strike Lebanon. Like many she is traumatized by the past — from the 1975-1990 civil war to a devastating Beirut port blast in 2020 and an enduring economic collapse — and fearful of the future.
“I shouldn’t be thinking about all these things — I’m thinking how to continue my daughter’s education and if, for example, I was walking and God forbids, an explosion happens,” said Fakih, 33, whose heart beats rapidly at night as she shivers.
“How to walk and not have an explosion. All these have a negative effect on my psychological well-being.” People are now most anxious about the prospect of another full blown conflict between Lebanon’s armed group Hezbollah and Israel, who have been engaged in border warfare since the Gaza war erupted in October. Lebanon took years to rebuild from a 2006 war between the arch-foes which killed 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 158 Israelis, most of them soldiers.
Decades of corruption and mismanagement by ruling politicians led the financial system to collapse in 2019, wiping out savings, demolishing the currency and fueling poverty.
The following year, Beirut was shattered by a huge chemicals explosion at the port that killed at least 220 people and was so powerful it was felt 250 km (155 miles) away in Cyprus and sent a mushroom cloud over the Lebanese capital. Political pressure has derailed an investigation that sought to prosecute powerful people over the explosion.
“One can cry from the slightest things, your tears come down,” said Fakih.
COPING MECHANISMS
Psychoanalyst Alyne Husseini Assaf said Lebanese have struggled to process the many layers of suffering. Some hide away their feelings. Others live in denial.
“There’s a defense mechanism of escaping, mostly with alcohol or drugs. There’s also a defense mechanism where the person escapes in psychological and physical symptoms, sits in bed and does not want to do anything anymore,” she said.
Once called the Switzerland of the Middle East, Lebanon descended into a brutal multi-sided civil war in 1975.
Reminders of the war are not hard to find, including bullet-riddled buildings in an area once known as the Green Line that split Beirut into Christian East and mainly Muslim West.
Sectarian tensions and memories of war linger on.
“There is a psychological legacy passed on from a generation to the next and it stays alive if the person does not work on themselves on a psychological level,” said Assaf.
All it takes is a sonic boom over Beirut to trigger panic attacks.
Manal Syriani, the mother of Eidan, 4, is typical. Her trauma is triggered by memories of the port explosion.
“There’s no follow up, there’s no justice, no one is telling you what’s going on,” said Syriani, who is in the hospitality business.
“There is now a person relying on me so how will I make this person feel safe? I mean, anything could happen. He could be playing outside and a shell falls, that’s it.”
She has sought relief from her thoughts at a church.
“It’s this calmness, this is what I seek, this is what makes me... that gives you fuel to keep going, to repeat the same cycles, to go through the same cycles again.”


Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen, army says

Updated 15 sec ago
Follow

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen, army says

Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen, army says
Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at Israel
Israel has carried out numerous retaliatory airstrikes on Houthi targets

CAIRO: The Israeli military’s aerial defense system intercepted a missile launched from Yemen on Thursday following alarms sounding in several areas of Israel, the army said in a statement.

The Iran-backed Houthis have been launching missiles and drones at Israel as well as attacking numerous vessels in global shipping lanes, in a campaign that they say is aimed at showing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel has been fighting a war in Gaza since a deadly raid by the Palestinian militant group Hamas into southern Israel in October 2023.

Israel has carried out numerous retaliatory airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

The launch, the second in two days, coincides with US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf. Trump announced earlier in May that he reached a ceasefire with Yemen’s Houthis that would halt attacks on US vessels.

Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns

Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns
Updated 34 min 21 sec ago
Follow

Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns

Tunisia Jewish pilgrimage sees low turn out amid security concerns
  • The pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, Africa’s oldest, has in the past drawn thousands of pilgrims from Europe, Israel and beyond
  • This year’s activities were restricted to indoor events at the place of worship

DJERBA, Tunisia: Only about 30 people turned up Thursday at this year’s Jewish pilgrimage on Tunisia’s island of Djerba amid safety concerns following a deadly 2023 attack and as the war in Gaza rages on.

The pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, Africa’s oldest, has in the past drawn thousands of pilgrims from Europe, Israel and beyond, attracting international and local tourists as well.

But after a 2023 deadly attack on the synagogue that killed two worshippers and three police officers, fewer pilgrims have been turning out to make the pilgrimage.

“It has been difficult for people to come, given what’s happening in the world,” Rene Trabelsi, the event organizer, told AFP.

“The pilgrimage has gone through many difficult periods in its history,” he said.

This year’s activities were restricted to indoor events at the place of worship.

“In 30 years, I have never seen the Ghriba synagogue so empty,” said Khoudhir Hanya, the synagogue’s manager.

“Usually even a week beforehand, pilgrims begin to arrive — sometimes up to 1,000 people.”
Earlier this month, a knife attack injured a local Jewish jeweller, but Trabelsi said it was unclear whether it was motivated by anti-Semitism, as authorities have not provided further details.

The pilgrimage is at the heart of Jewish tradition in Tunisia, where only about 1,500 members of the faith still live — mainly on Djerba. Many have left for Israel and France.

Organizers say more than 5,000 people, mostly from abroad, attended the pilgrimage in 2023, whereas up to 8,000 pilgrims had attended in previous years.

Security at the synagogue had already been tightened after previous attacks.

A suicide truck bombing in 2002, claimed by Al-Qaeda, killed 21 at the synagogue, and another attack in 1985 killed four worshippers and a police officer.


US top diplomat Rubio meets Syrian counterpart; discuss Israel, human rights

US top diplomat Rubio meets Syrian counterpart; discuss Israel, human rights
Updated 50 min 58 sec ago
Follow

US top diplomat Rubio meets Syrian counterpart; discuss Israel, human rights

US top diplomat Rubio meets Syrian counterpart; discuss Israel, human rights
  • Rubio underscored the critical importance of protecting the human rights of all Syrians

ANTALYA: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani in Turkiye on Thursday, the State Department said in a statement.

“(Rubio) welcomed the Syrian government’s calls for peace with Israel, efforts to end Iran’s influence in Syria, commitment to ascertaining the fate of US citizens missing or killed in Syria, and elimination of all chemical weapons,” the department said.

“The Secretary underscored the critical importance of protecting the human rights of all Syrians regardless of ethnicity or religion,” the department said.


UN rules out role in US-backed foundation’s Gaza aid operation

UN rules out role in US-backed foundation’s Gaza aid operation
Updated 15 May 2025
Follow

UN rules out role in US-backed foundation’s Gaza aid operation

UN rules out role in US-backed foundation’s Gaza aid operation
  • UN participates in aid operations if they are in accordance with its basic principles, spokesperson says

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations on Thursday ruled out involvement with a new US-backed foundation for aid to Gaza, as Israel’s months-long blockade brings severe shortages to the war-battered territory.
“I made it clear that we participate in aid operations if they are in accordance with our basic principles,” said UN spokesman Farhan Haq.
“As we’ve stated repeatedly, this particular distribution plan does not accord with our basic principles, including those of impartiality, neutrality, independence, and we will not be participating in this,” he added.
The US State Department said last week the non-governmental foundation would soon announce its plans, effectively sidelining the UN.
Israel has imposed a blockade for over two months on Gaza, leading UN agencies and other humanitarian groups to warn of shrinking fuel and medicine supplies to the territory of 2.4 million Palestinians.
Since returning to office in January, US President Donald Trump has stopped the vast majority of the country’s international assistance.
Israel has already leveled most of Gaza’s buildings following militants’ unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on the country.
But it has rejected claims that a humanitarian crisis is unfolding and has vowed to increase pressure on Hamas.
Israel has long criticized involvement of the UN, seeing it as biased, and has banned work of the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees.
Little is known about the new organization, although a listing in Switzerland showed the establishment in February of the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.”
Swiss newspaper Le Temps earlier reported that the foundation was looking to hire “mercenaries” to work in the distribution of aid, sparking alarm in Amnesty International’s Swiss chapter.
Haq said: “The UN have a plan, an excellent plan, that is ready to be implemented as soon as we’re allowed to do our work.”
“I’ve talked about how we have trucks ready to go. We have more than 171,000 metric tons of food, on top of other life-saving supplies, and they’re ready to go the minute that Israel opens the gates,” he added.
But Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to “recalculate” the body’s approach to what would be a “major” operation.
He added that Israel would not be contributing to its costs, but would allow it to go ahead.
“We will not fund those efforts. We will facilitate them,” he said.
“We will enable them. Some of them will have to cross through territory that we operate, but we will definitely not fund them.”


At UN Nakba commemoration, Palestinian president urges action on Gaza

At UN Nakba commemoration, Palestinian president urges action on Gaza
Updated 15 May 2025
Follow

At UN Nakba commemoration, Palestinian president urges action on Gaza

At UN Nakba commemoration, Palestinian president urges action on Gaza

UNITED NATIONS: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, at a UN event Thursday commemorating the Nakba, urged more action to end the war in Gaza, linking the historical displacement during Israel’s creation to the current conflict.

The United Nations has since 2023 commemorated the “Nakba” — “catastrophe” in Arabic — which refers to the flight and expulsion of an estimated 700,000 Palestinians during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

This year the anniversary is particularly painful, as Palestinians say history is being repeated in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Tens of thousands have been killed in Gaza and an aid blockade threatens famine, while Israeli leaders continue to express a desire to empty the territory of Palestinians as part of the war sparked by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack.

“History is indelible and justice is not time bound,” Abbas said in a speech read out here by the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour.

“Today we stand before you, not only to commemorate the somber anniversary, but to renew the pledge that the ‘Nakba’ was not and will not be the permanent and inevitable faith of our people.”

Abbas said the war Israel has been waging for 19 month is a continuation of the “Nakba,” with the world standing by as Israel engages in “genocide” and starvation.

He said Israel’s goal was to remove the Palestinians from Gaza and steal land that should be part of a sovereign Palestinian state.

“The time has come for real and effective international action to stop this historic injustice and ongoing tragedy which has become a disgrace to humanity,” Abbas said.

The UN General Assembly is scheduled to hold a conference in June to promote a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It will be co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia.

“Peace will require tangible, irreversible and permanent progress toward the two-state solution, an end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with Gaza as integral part,” said Khaled Khiari, assistant secretary-general for the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific.