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Teachers learn of history behind the summer 2006 Lebanon war
Zeina Azzam Seikaly
Published in 2006
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Summary:
On September 19, CCAS Outreach Coordinator Zeina Seikaly organized and held a workshop on the formation of modern Lebanon in response to many requests by local educators for a tutorial on the historical context of the most recent developments in the region.
On September 19, CCAS Outreach Coordinator Zeina Seikaly organized and held a workshop on the formation of modern Lebanon in response to many requests by local educators for a tutorial on the historical context of the most recent developments in the region.
“Lebanon: The Political History of a Fragile State” invited three speakers to share their views with 31 teachers from area schools: Osama Abi-Mershed (Assistant Professor of History, Georgetown), Nadya Sbaiti (Doctoral Candidate, Department of History, Georgetown), and Bassam Haddad (Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, St. Joseph’s University, and Adjunct Professor at CCAS). The three scholars collaborated with Ms. Seikaly in conceptualizing the content and structure of the workshop, and remained with the teacher audience throughout the program.
Prof. Abi-Mershed began with brief comments that affirmed the importance of examining the historical context of Lebanon in order to understand the country’s current internal and regional situation. He spoke of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798 and its subsequent impact on local cultural and ideological identities. From its inception, he explained, Greater Lebanon was caught between France’s self-interested patronage of sectarian hierarchies in the region, and the rise of Arab nationalist demands for political and economic self-determination, and for the overthrow of the “colonial” boundaries of the Middle East.
Ms. Sbaiti followed, focusing on the Ottoman Empire’s efforts to reform its political and military institutions in the wake of Napoleon’s invasion, and described in detail the “Tanzimat,” or organizational reforms that ended the Empire’s traditional communitarian or “millet” system. The Ottoman province of Mount Lebanon enjoyed a high degree of autonomy from the Empire in the19th century, a fact that facilitated European cultural and economic penetration. As the Empire became a battleground for European strategic and commercial interests, the main powers looked to the local religious communities as potential allies and clients. European pressures generated much sectarian strife in the19th century between the Maronite, Druze, Sunni, and Shi’ia communities of Mount Lebanon and Syria, and culminated with the partitioning of the Middle East according to the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 and the imposition of Franco-British mandates over the region after 1919. She described mandate Lebanon’s constitution as a balance based on confessional proportionality, which constituted something of a return to the Ottoman millet system. She concluded with references to the educational system in mandate Lebanon, and the importance of education in forming national identities.
Dr. Abi-Mershed’s presentation, “Divided We Stand: The Limits of Sectarianism, 1946-1982,” examined significant markers in the history of independent Lebanon, such as the various Arab-Israeli wars, Cold War politics, the Baghdad Pact of 1954, the Suez War of 1956, and the Eisenhower Doctrine of 1957, which created regional divisions and exacerbated tensions between Arab nationalists and those looking for alliances with the West. The influx of Palestinian refugees after 1948 changed the demographic profile of Lebanon; and as Beirut developed into the cultural and financial heart of the Arab world, it also became home to a number of political groupings that exerted additional pressures on Lebanon’s outdated political arrangements. In the 1970s, the government experienced a number of crises of legitimacy as the power-sharing formula was continually contested. Abi-Mershed reiterated the persistent policy of the Lebanese government (and the French mandatory power before it) to develop urban areas at the expense of the rural poor, who remained marginalized. This situation contributed to the establishment of organizations that aimed to undermine the Lebanese regime by empowering the country’s poor and providing them with needed social welfare programs. Meanwhile, the continuing confrontations between Israelis, Palestinians, and Lebanese factionalized the country further, and exploded with the Civil War of 1975. Finally, Abi-Mershed discussed the ramifications of the Syrian intervention, and the role of the ensuing Israeli occupation of south Lebanon in creating resistance movements spearheaded by Shi`i organizations (such as Hizbullah) that operated in the vacuum created by the expulsion of the PLO and the removal of its infrastructure in the wake of the Israeli invasions of 1978 and 1982.
Dr. Haddad focused his remarks on, “Hizbullah, the War on Lebanon, and their Political/Historical Context.” He said that despite the cessation of this summer’s hostilities, the human misery of Lebanon continues without media attention; the civilian toll of the war was immense, and reconstruction of the country and its people’s lives will be very difficult and painful. He analyzed four factors that contributed to the volatile context before the war, in addition to continuing friction between Hizbullah and Israel: tension with Iran regarding its nuclear weapons program; the decline of the Cedar Revolution and the American project in Lebanon; Syria’s withdrawal from the country; and the domestic debate in Lebanon regarding Hizbullah’s role. Dr. Haddad maintained that Lebanese mobilize largely around the issues of politics and class; because Shi`i villages and communities in southern Lebanon were most directly affected, recent events were ultimately understood as a “war on the poor.” In addition, Hizbullah is perceived to have succeeded where most Arab regimes have failed: to stand up militarily to Israel. He offered a grim prospect for the future, in light of Lebanon’s persistent sectarian alliances and cleavages.
The audience then viewed a short segment from “Arabs and Terrorism” (a film series directed by Dr. Haddad), which featured an interview with Nawaf Musawi, the Head of International Relations of Hizbullah. The segment consisted of a series of “nested interviews,” whereby clips of Musawi’s interview were shown in U.S. think tanks and to former U.S. officials, like Jeanne Kirkpatrick, for their reactions. The interviewer recorded the individual responses of his interviewees and shuttled back and forth between Lebanon and the United States in order to bring his subjects as close as possible to a “direct” conversation. The segment offered fascinating glimpses into the differing perceptions and understandings held by political actors, and prompted a discussion about what Hizbullah is and is not, how it differs from other Islamist movements, and how it shapes the Lebanese political landscape.
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