How Protests in Lebanon Have Broken a Taboo in its Shia Community
By Cilina Nasser
“Hayhat minna al zilla” or “never to humiliation” is the slogan chanted by Lebanese Shia Muslim crowds at all demonstrations organized by the Iran-backed Hezbollah to assert readiness to fight Israel and other enemies.
In the early days of Lebanon’s most recent anti-government protests, some Shia in Hezbollah strongholds chanted this slogan—not against Israel or Iran’s other regional nemesis, Saudi Arabia— but to Hezbollah leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah. The protests that began on October 17 have led to the emergence of a new voice from Shia areas that is willing to question and criticize the performance of Hezbollah and its allies.
Shias were among many other Lebanese demonstrators across the religious and sectarian spectrum who took to the streets in cities and towns in a spontaneous reaction to government plans to impose new taxes on tobacco, petrol and WhatsApp calls.
The government hastily withdrew the tax proposals but it was too late to stop the people from protesting against years of corruption and a worsening economic crisis.
Speaking from the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, a Shia protester said they could no longer keep saying “never to humiliation” regarding Israel when they were the ones living in daily humiliation because of widespread corruption and a deepening economic crisis.
These kinds of criticisms from Shia strongholds against Hezbollah and its ally party, the Amal Movement, are unprecedented. Twelve days into the protests, there is no doubt that the Shia protesters have scored two victories.
First, a taboo has been broken because it is the first time that the Shia populace has publicly pointed a finger at its own leaders and blamed them for its grievances.
In the southern coastal city of Tyre, protesters marched in the streets chanting against the powerful and long-serving House Speaker and leader of the Amal Movement, Nabih Berri and his wife, Randa, who protestors accuse of illegally and hugely profiteering from local businesses.
Angry protesters have even destroyed the office signs of MP Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, and Amal MPs Hani Kobeissi and Yassine Jaber, as they blame Amal for corruption and Hezbollah for failing to fulfil its promises to combat graft in a government in which it has three ministerial posts.
The second victory is the emergence of a new, critical voice that is willing to hold Hezbollah and Amal accountable to the people in areas under their control, at least regarding their domestic performance and policies. This is a voice that both Hezbollah and Amal cannot and should not ignore any longer. This is a voice that did not emerge before these protests due to the dominance of what is arguably the strongest political alliance in Lebanon, that between Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.
This alliance dates to the summer of 2000 after Israeli occupation forces withdrew from southern Lebanon. After an incident in which Amal members shot and killed two members of Hezbollah over disagreements related to parliamentary elections in newly liberated areas, Hezbollah and Amal immediately forged an alliance to foil any Israeli attempt to manipulate the differences between the two main Shia parties. In August 2000, Nasrallah described this alliance as “true” and stemming from a responsibility to protect and preserve the “victory achieved against the enemy.”
This alliance has remained strong and intact to this day and has led to Hezbollah-Amal exclusivity in determining the interests of the Shia in Lebanon, silencing opposing Shia political voices, and controlling the mobilization of the Shia, all under the pretext of protecting against Israeli infiltration into Shia society. The Shia constitute the largest confessional community in a highly segmented sectarian and political landscape, and Hezbollah has evolved from an underground movement in the early eighties to the most dominant political player in Lebanon today.
To the disappointment of Hezbollah’s supporters, this long-term alliance between Amal and Hezbollah also meant that Hezbollah had been turning a blind eye and covering up for Amal, whose officials are notorious for allowing widespread corruption, particularly in south Lebanon.
For nearly 20 years, the Hezbollah-Amal alliance has placed the burden of protecting Lebanon from Israel on the shoulders of the Shia citizens whose love for their land meant that they would not oppose the decisions of this alliance out of fear that it would serve Israeli interests.
A significant portion of Lebanon’s Shia are not willing to continue carrying this burden.
“If Israel is to benefit from our protests, then the responsibility falls on the politicians, not us. It is the politicians that led the situation to be this bad, and it is our right as citizens to protest it,” said one man protesting in Tyre.
On Friday, Nasrallah said the protests were no longer spontaneous and that the demands changed from those relating to better living conditions to political demands targeting Hezbollah. He cast doubt on the funding sources of the protests, asserted that regional and international powers were now playing a role in demonstrations, and asked his supporters to not take part in them.
While some chants in Beirut called for disarming Hezbollah, such a demand was entirely absent from calls by Shia protesters in south Lebanon, who generally respect Hezbollah for driving Israel out of their towns and villages. The calls in south Lebanon and other Shia areas focused on the domestic performance of the Shia alliance.
Nasrallah’s speech, combined with smear campaigns regarding individuals organizing the protests in the southern cities of Tyre and Nabatiye and intimidating messages by Amal officials behind the scenes, have led to a drop in the numbers of those participating in the demonstrations in the south.
With the new accusation levelled by Nasrallah that regional and international powers were taking advantage of the nationwide protests to target Hezbollah, the Shia protesters are now on the defensive as they have to assert their sectarian identity and communal belonging and prove that they are against serving Israeli interests.
Taboos have been broken and a new voice has emerged within the Shia community. But the conundrum is how free and effective this new voice will be and how resilient it can remain against accusations and pressure.
Cilina Nasser is a Beirut-based independent researcher and expert on human rights ,who also works on transitional justice issues. She has worked extensively on investigating human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, primarily in Syria and Lebanon, as well as other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
Beirut protests 2019 - 1.jpg by Shahen Araboghlian licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Courtesy of Shahen Araboghlian
(Image has been cropped)
