“Netanyahu not only destroys houses but also dreams”

“Netanyahu not only destroys houses but also dreams”

You first set foot in Lebanon at the end of the 1980s, in the middle of the civil war. Does the situation today remind you of a bad memory?

The same thing is not happening at all. At the time, it was a conflict between clans. On the one hand the Phalangists, a Christian political party against the Palestinians, but also Shiite Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Druze… To which were added other countries like Israel and of the United States.
This time, the war is between Hezbollah and Netanyahu’s government. I am not going to mourn the death of Hassan Nasrallah (former secretary general of the Party of God killed in an Israeli strike on September 27), he was a fighter. But in these bombings, children are killed. I recently met a boy who lost both his legs and his two sisters. He doesn’t understand why he was punished… How can he sleep in the face of this tragedy?

Don’t you fear seeing tensions between communities resurface in this flammable context?

It’s quite curious, but I have the impression that solidarity goes beyond communities. I am thinking in particular of this Christian couple who welcome displaced people from southern Lebanon. Half are Christians, the other half Muslims. A mix is ​​forming between the multiple communities of the Cedar country. With my family, for example, we live in a Christian village north of Beirut. Since the bombings, we have welcomed a friend of my daughter, a Shiite, who left home after seeing his neighbors’ two houses explode from his window. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not only destroying houses but also dreams. It’s worse, because the buildings can be rebuilt.

Why are you staying there?

I was supposed to return in mid-October, but my flight was canceled. Basically, I’m not unhappy. I am experiencing very strong moments, and above all I feel more useful than in Paris. I can testify to this exceptional solidarity in this battered Lebanon. I love this country. It constantly goes through wars or crises, but impulses of fraternity always arise. This human wealth is inestimable.

Isn’t it a waste to see the “Switzerland of the Middle East” annihilated?

Yes, the situation is extremely serious. The conflict has knocked on the door of a Lebanon without a government. Since the end of the civil war in 1990, here, we have been president from father to son and deputy from father to son. A politician told me a phrase that resonates more than ever today: “The Lebanese are capable of building empires abroad but incapable of building a state at home.” More than ever, we must work to promote citizenship. What a shame too, there are a whole bunch of overeducated young people full of good ideas!

Many have left the territory in recent years…

And yet, they love their country and did not want to leave. But they were forced to do so in order to provide for their family. But I refuse this defeatist discourse which circulates a lot in the West.

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