“O homes, you have homes in the hearts / You are deserted, and they are from you, or are they your people?” Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi was right…
A host of anxieties and questions directly related to tomorrow stir in the hearts and minds of the southerners – tomorrow alone worries them: What awaits us after this humiliating exile? They wonder in their hearts whether their homes and villages, which have stood firm until now, will collapse in the coming moments? And if, God forbid, those places that hold such a wondrous and sublime memory for them, and from which they were forced to be separated, are destroyed, what will they do?
These are complex issues and questions that are legitimate morally, humanly, legally, socially, and even religiously.
Recently, there have been discussions circulating, unofficially and unannounced in local and regional political discourse, about the possibility of a Shiite “transfer” from Jabal Amel – either an internal transfer within their area of displacement, or an external transfer, perhaps to Iraq or Iran.
On the level of the Lebanese interior, a serious problem is imposed on everyone – the state, institutions, and host regions – and especially on Hezbollah, which has led the country and the people to ruin, a problem that cannot be avoided: integration.
Will the host community, whatever its sect, accept the integration of an “other” group into it, without excluding the state of alienation created by “Hezbollah” between its supportive environment and the rest of the Lebanese groups? The party will not take it easy, nor will it digest the idea of the unraveling of its environment, which it has worked for a long time to nurture and raise ideologically, familially, and educationally.
The Lebanese have long experienced waves of displacement, and I won’t delve into the historical details, except to mention the events of the civil war when the people of Damour were displaced in 1976, for example, or the Christian residents of the mountains and villages east of Sidon. The fundamental difference is that these Christians genuinely belonged to their homeland, Lebanon. They did not serve any foreign agenda, and therefore it was easy for them to integrate into a new Christian—and sometimes Muslim—society that welcomed them, providing them with decent housing and the necessary job opportunities to resume their lives, even if only with a minimum of human dignity.
Clearly, the Shiite members of the party severed their branch from the tree of the nation and draped it over a fabricated myth, then knelt before it in submission. The artery of logic froze in their minds, and any objection to this appalling surrender of activism and renewal is considered a sin, while obedience to the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist is the key to paradise.
The situation of displaced people is also linked to the educational process: teachers, too, have left their homes, towns, and cities. This will undoubtedly lead to a new and intractable problem in the formal education sector: a surplus of teachers in areas already suffering from a surplus. As for the students, the sense of alienation and displacement will quickly manifest itself in their learning performance and collective behavior.
The problem of integration into a new society and an unfamiliar school, especially during childhood and adolescence, becomes more complex and may require necessary group therapy.
On the other hand, if deportation were to occur outside of Lebanon, no one can imagine the consequences and disastrous repercussions on all levels: on a livelihood level, given that both Iraq and Iran are grappling with dire economic crises; and professionally and practically, since unemployment is a major obstacle to job opportunities not only in the Middle East but in most countries of the world. Not to mention the challenge of social integration into a society whose traditions, customs, and lifestyle are foreign to them. The predominantly Shiite faith in both countries alone does not create social or cultural cohesion.
A combination of real and tangible facts justifies the circulation of some news indicating displacement. The systematic destruction and continuous burning of southern villages, which Israel employs in its horrific raids and brutal artillery shelling, reinforces in the hearts of southerners that deadly feeling of the disappearance of homes, and of the impossibility of returning to their towns that “were” safe on the day of their liberation on May 25, 2000.
Added to this is the lack of vision and the “suppression” of any reconstruction plan, where priority is given to holding onto weapons and to illusory victories with the aim of completing the war until the enemy is “defeated”.
We do not ignore at all the despair, frustration and “disgust” that displaced southerners are suffering, especially those afflicted in shelters or sidewalk camps.
Abu Firas al-Hamdani composed: “Our people have delivered us into calamities / The easiest of them in the hearts is the most deadly.”
If someone complains about the tragic and miserable reality that has befallen him, or cries about the dispersal of his family and relatives, or grumbles about the scarcity of aid and medicine, and the cramped space and basic necessities of life (securing bathrooms and heating), then blame, insults and threats pour down on him, and his grumbling is often classified as a free service to the gloaters locally, and to the enemy externally.
This idea brings to mind a wonderful emotional phrase by Salah Jaheen: “He who does not speak, how much trouble he has.”
Hezbollah has not left any Shiite community untouched; rather, it has exerted tremendous efforts and allocated vast sums of money over forty years to isolate Shiites from their fellow citizens. With cunning and meticulous planning, the party established formidable ideological “incubators”: schools, scouting organizations, and media outlets. It went even further, using its power against patriotic Shiites who opposed its domestic policies and regional conduct.
The party has excelled at severing the Shia majority from their Arab identity—culturally, politically, and in terms of their sense of belonging: Arabs are enemies of the Shia and agents of Israel, and there is no room for discussion. If we were to ask anyone from Hezbollah’s own community: Who can undertake the reconstruction of the South? They would answer: Certainly, only the Arabs are capable of carrying out the task!
And here is the party still being stubborn, its leaders, media figures and strategic experts appearing on platforms and television screens, arrogant and claiming that they will make the impossible possible – direct negotiations with Israel – and the impossible possible – deluding the southerners with the illusion of victory and the recovery and liberation of the land.
I believe that these anxieties plaguing southerners, turning their daily lives into a vague hell in terms of time, place, and emotion, in addition to their deep-rooted historical tragedies, deserve our attention and consideration. We have suffered countless calamities; we have rebuilt our homes; we have revived our farms, plains, and orchards. We have performed every miracle we could to survive, yet the truth is: {God does not burden a soul beyond its capacity}.
We are human beings, not saints or infallible, and we are not a rock that is not moved by action and reaction.
Chronic tragedy has exhausted us, and our patience and resilience have been depleted. What some claim to be a “decent life” is nothing but a flood of humiliation and degradation pouring into our souls moment by moment, poisoning them and leaving them dead, not martyrs.
We refuse to remain sad and grieving forever… It is our right to heal our wounds so that we may live in health and joy.