The Lebanese Forces (LF) once again find themselves targeting random Syrians to enact revenge for one of their own, Pascal Sleiman, being killed by what looks like (at the time of writing) a car theft gone wrong. LF men are roaming the streets of Lebanon to find Syrian men to beat up and humiliate. It is a scenario we’ve seen before, and we are likely to see again as the conditions that facilitate such outbursts of violence are all still present. If anything, they’ve gotten worse.
Let’s start with the fact that the LF continues to present itself as the Christian alternative to the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), the one capable of standing up to Hezbollah and the Syrians and the Iranians and whoever is currently not their friend (don’t bring up the fact that they once allied themselves with Hafez Assad – they don’t like that). The trouble with their narrative of being the alternative is that they have nothing to show for it. Its not like areas that are dominated by their supporters are more likely to do well. They’re just as likely to be living in misery like everyone else – eklina khara, as we would poetically say in Lebanon.
And yet one thing they have figured out is outnumbering and then beating up random refugees. They get to feel manly again, because their version of masculinity requires other men to be beaten into submission. It’s why it’s never sufficient for them to just punch someone and leave – they need their victim to admit to their own submission. This is the only way they can remind themselves that they are better than Syrians or Palestinians or any other vulnerable group in Lebanon. This violence isn’t some mere fasshit khelek (‘letting off steam’) but instead a ritualistic reaffirmation of their fragile sense of superiority.
It isn’t ‘just’ that they are men who happen to be violent. Instead, we need to understand that they do not know how to be men without this violence. I know this because I grew up in that same environment, amongst right-wing and far right Lebanese Christians in the Lebanese mountains. From an early age in our schools and even in our churches we are taught to hate the ‘Other’, usually referring to Palestinians or Syrians. It is so deeply engrained in our upbringing that those of us who reject this supremacist worldview end up with an identity crisis to sift through. But these men don’t need to go through the long process of healing and overcoming one’s bigoted worldview. They simply need to remain surrounded by their ilk to mutually reinforce that which would otherwise crumble instantly. Unlike the Syrians and Palestinians that they loathe, these Lebanese do not have a sense of themselves that is internally coherent.
Due to that reason (among others), every single day in Lebanon gets more dangerous for Syrian refugees. They have nowhere to go. Assad’s Syria is too dangerous and future-less. Lebanon is in a state of precarity which, in typical Lebanese fashion, risks unleashing violence against Syrian refugees at unprecedented scale. We’ve known that this is where things were headed years ago. Here are two articles I wrote in 2018 – 1 & 2 – which used studies and articles going back a decade or two. We cannot say that no one warned the world. Everything has been documented, not just regarding Syrian refugees going back to 2011, but also Syrian workers who have been building postwar Lebanon since the 1990s, and of course Palestinian refugees going back to the 1940s and especially 1960s. And yet, the borders of the West have been sealed shut, with desperate refugees risking death by drowning or being shot at should they try the perilous route to Fortress Europe.
In the meantime, Syrian refugees have been stuck in a country that was already structurally hostile to refugees in the best of days. Lebanon currently has more refugees-per-citizen than any other country on Earth, and this was already the case before the economic crisis which has not just made Syrian life in Lebanon even more difficult, but it has also facilitated their scapegoating. Could the Lebanese state have done more to minimize tensions and allow Syrians to contribute more openly to Lebanese society as many asked? Sure. But it was always more convenient to keep Syrian refugees in miserable conditions while requesting international financial aid to siphon off to their buds. That way they could blame the presence of Syrian refugees whenever convenient, a card many politicians from all sectarian backgrounds are happy to use.
Lebanon has a long history of mass violence against refugees, whether by state or non-state actors. Today, Syrian refugees are at great risk of pogroms and massacres. Their very existence is criminalized at every step, and it is not unreasonable to expect this situation to further worsen beyond any control. Should that happen, let it be clearly stated that this is the result of political calculations by Lebanese oligarchs and warlords with the complicity of many Lebanese citizens. These people have names and faces. Human rights orgs write about them all the time. There’s no mystery here. Nothing surprising.
Everything that is happening is documented, and the trend is clear. At every step of the way nationalism and sectarianism and patriarchy and racism were chosen over any sensible policy. It did not have to be this way. Anything from partial to full integration was and still is an option. Celebrating the diversity of peoples in Lebanon is an option. Adopting cynical economic calculations that view Syrians as cheap labor force is an option. There are dozens of options that are at least better than the disaster we are currently facing, options that don’t even require any Lebanese politician to frame their politics as ‘pro-Syrian.’ They can make sure of that by combining relatively sensible economic policies with their usual anti-Syrian rhetoric. To be clear, I am (obviously) not suggesting that option. I’m a crazy idealist who thinks it’s idiotic to limit ourselves to artificial borders when building a ‘national’ project. I’m merely pointing out that even this terrible option is less terrible than the one we’re currently in, because that’s how bad the situation is.
April 10, ‘24 update: Christian fascists are going from neighbourhood to neighbourhood warning Syrians to leave before Friday. They’re planning an ethnic cleansing and are advertising it. Here’s a video: