Lebanese identity, interrupted

Lebanese identity?

interrupted.?

a series of struggles interrupting the natural formation of a Lebanese Identity.

(paper written for the SRH Berlin school of design and communication By Haya el Khoury)

-

As a young Lebanese, one constantly questions the Lebanese identity, its fluidity, and the causes behind the interruption in its formation and maturity. An identity contains diverse characteristics influenced by different relationships cultivated over the years and is primarily concerned with the question: "Who am I?" (Erikson, 1994). An identity may be individual, collective or social; National identity is the product of the development of modern nationalism resulting in a nation-state (Liu & Turner, 2018). A national identity refers to the identity of the citizens of a country with their own country's historical and cultural traditions, moral values, ideals, and beliefs.?

What happens to a nation's identity when constantly interrupted and faced with struggles, war, and crises and located historically and geographically in a luminal area??

The paper will discuss a brief Lebanese historical overview to understand the source of the perturbation and misformation, a geographic study of the Land and the relation to societal behavior, a short study of the modern Lebanese history and the different events that lead to a perturbed identity in constant crisis, multi-ethnicity and protracted intercommunal conflict and lastly, constant characteristics in a fluid identity.?

History, lost and rebuilt.

Over 5000 years, and until the civil war, Beirut had already been destroyed and rebuilt seven times. The ruins of the old city were temporarily taken possession of by the Lebanese army after the civil war (Raschka 1996: 1). Today, some ruins are displayed in the national museum, some are in private houses, and some remain in the Beirut Downtown area (ibid: 2). Those ruins belong to different civilizations and cultures, including the Roman, Ottoman, Byzantine, Mamluk, and Phoenician (ibid: 4). After the civil war, the Lebanese government launched the "Solidaire" Project of rebuilding Downtown after its eighth time being destroyed. However, unfortunately, the ruins were poorly handled, and only 2.4 billion US-Dollars (0.17 % of the total "Solidaire" budget) were spent on archaeology and the conservation of heritage (ibid: 6). In other terms, it may be interpreted that following the civil war loss and death of thousands, destruction of Lebanese heritage and the Downtown area, business people and politicians were more invested in ways to quickly rebuild Beirut's economy rather than conserve and reconstruct its heritage and culture.

One may wonder what happens when heritage is erased, and only myths and legends circulate. Similar to human memory loss, the erasure of memory may perturb a nation's identity and shake its core. From one perspective, the ability and agility of Lebanon to overcome the war and natural disasters and rebuild itself by adopting resilient characteristics are something to be admired. However, the following question may be raised; From another perspective: Is Lebanon resilient because of its history of crisis and war? Or has Lebanon managed to survive the crisis and wars because of its resilience and agility?

In other words, Is resilience at the core of the Lebanese identity, or is it the result of wars and crises forcing Lebanese to adopt survival characteristics? Moreover, what would have happened if Lebanon lacked resilience? Would there even have been a Lebanon occupied, colonized, and attacked?

“My heritage covered

My belonging lost?

My identity struggles.”

Shaping a nation's identity: The Muslim Arab Nation, the Christian Phoenician descendent, and the pan-Arab Renaissance

In his book In the Name of Identity, Amin Maalouf argues that when people feel threatened, they tend to affiliate to the specific characteristics of their identity that have been threatened - most frequently, it is Religion and Beliefs (Maalouf, 1996: 13).?

This section will study the various failed attempts to form a Lebanese identity based on religion. In The inevitable of identity, 2010, Philip Larkin investigates the war dance between Sunni, Druze, and Maronite in Lebanon and the endless tactics and game in an attempt to claim more power and shape a unified Lebanese identity. Following the 1860 massacre of the Maronite town Dayr al Qamar by minority Druze militants, Christian Maronites, also a minority, isolated and threatened, felt the need to solidify a Lebanese identity far from the Arab Muslim Nation (Larkin, 2010: 3).?

Since the 17th century, Maronites in Lebanon considered themselves the most vital link to the West. Despite the oppression they faced in a Sunni majority, they dominated Lebanese society and politics for most of the 20th century before succumbing to the ravages of the civil war (ibid: 3). During the civil war, still feeling threatened by the majority of Muslims, the Maronites constructed a national narrative of ancestry from the Phoenicians, a civilization that briefly established towns and trading posts in Lebanon many centuries before. Until today, regardless of the inaccuracy of the identity appropriation, the Phoenician identity is still adopted by Maronites (ibid: 3). With the surge of the Shia sect, Sunnis are now faced with a new threat that triggers their need to construct a Lebanese Muslim identity (ibid: 5).?

From Cairo to Beirut to Damascus to Baghdad, a revolutionary wave of Arab thinkers was forming following the end of the Ottoman ruling with the end of World War One (Bouchakjian, 2012: 35). The Nahda, the dream of a new, modern, Arab nation, led by thinkers, visual artists, and experimental designers, was interrupted by the French and British mandate (ibid.36) and thus began a new western-influenced Lebanese identity.

"Region reshaped by the West,?

Maps and Lines, drawn

Middle East, Created." (ibid, 3)

Geographic liminal built on chaos and contradictions

Lebanese borders present randomness, contrast, and chaos from a geographic perspective. This section will study the geographic characteristics of the country in an attempt to understand how physical contrast may affect psychological clashes in a nation's identity. Lebanon, founded officially in 1920, is a small and narrow strip located between Palestine and Syria and opens its coast to the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea (Khalaf, 2021). The Land offers extreme complexity and variety in its landforms, climate, soil, and vegetation. With its narrow and discontinuous coastal plain, the shore offers sudden rocky and sandy beaches and extends towards the east, with deep gorges and snow-capped mountains rising steeply from its coast (ibid, 2021).

As Land may be a substantial part of the identity, a correlation may be drawn between geography, social behavior, and social identity. One may think that the randomness of the country's limit and its high contrast and contradictions may have influenced it to appropriate a mirrored identity of contrast, extremism, and profound interruption. In fact, "Its rugged mountainous terrain has served throughout history as an asylum for diverse religious and ethnic groups and political dissidents" (ibid, 2021).?

Furthermore, while most densely inhabited cities are located on the coast, wars and crises have created a rural architecture moving Christians north of Beirut along the coast and Muslims south or east of Beirut; thus, settlement patterns separating sects physically (ibid, 2021).?

" coiled threads of wonder, shining brightly from dusk till dawn

soft waves of blue, gently caressing your stones of karst?

bones of limestone;

voluptuous genes of reverence and awe.

Sun-kissed cheeks, fields of pomegranate and orange blossom trees

lavishing with damaged pride, generosity, and left-over resilience."

Identity interrupted by a timeline of crises

In Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, the emergence of an identity crisis occurs exposed to sudden and significant changes, events, and crises (Cherry, 2021). The following paragraph will list the series of traumatic historical events that hit Lebanon between 1975 and August 4, 2020, which may have led to the identity interruption.

1975: Civil war erupts dividing Beirut East and Muslim West.?

1978: Israel invades south Lebanon.

1982: Israel invades Beirut. Christian militiamen and Israeli allies massacre hundreds of civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. Iran's Revolutionary Guards establish Hezbollah in Lebanon.

1984: The peace deal with Israel signed a year back is canceled.

1989: war of liberation against Syrian forces led by Aoun (Lebanon's president elected in October 2016)?

1990: A blood battle between 2 Christian sects.

1991: Amnesty law pardoning all political crimes as the civil war comes to an end; no justice to victims.

1996: Israel launches the 17-day "Operation Grapes of Wrath", killing more than 200 Lebanese.

2005: Assassination of Prime Minister Hariri by a massive bomb explosion killing 21 other civilians. Mass demonstrations and international pressure force Syria to withdraw troops from Lebanon.?

2006: Five-week war between Israel and Lebanon, killing at least 1,200 people in Lebanon and 158 Israelis.

2012: Car bomb kills senior security official Wissam al-Hassan.?

2015: Civilian Demonstration against Garbage Crisis.?

2019: The start of the Revolution, Amid a stagnant economy and slowing capital inflows, against the ruling elite. Lebanese of all sects take part, accusing leaders of corruption and mismanagement.

2020: Economic collapse; Currency losing more than 80% of its value. Poverty rates soar.

August 4, 2020, a vast quantity of ammonium nitrate exploded at Beirut port, killing 200 people, wounding 6,000, and devastating swathes of Beirut." (Perry & Maclean, 2020),

Multi-ethnic societies, a social cleavage between division and cohesion

Lebanon is a small country with eighteen different religions and sects, including five Islamic sects, twelve Christian sects, and the Jewish community. Except for the Jewish community, all are politically represented in a confessional system (Henly, 2016). The merge of politics and religion, whilst ensuring the legal representation of most sects, may lead to sectarianism and struggle in belonging as One Nation. Culture and identity-related conflicts, referred to as Protracted social conflict (PSC) and more often than usual taking place in third world countries, are suppressed over a long period and burst into violence when triggered (Raad 1988: 201). With that in mind, Maalouf's argued point of violence in the name of identity and belonging becomes tangible in a Lebanese context.

Protracted intercommunal conflict (PIC), a subcategory of PSC, is more complex and challenging to resolve. PIC has two significant roots: a deformed and polarized environment and the denial of basic needs, such as security and recognition (ibid, 202). According to Raad, a deformed and polarized environment features three significant factors:

1- A deeply divided multi-ethnic societies and conflict over religion, culture, and ideology,?

2- A cumulative/superimposed social difference.?

3- Failure to post-independence and maintain the legacy of the colonial policy of divide and rule. (ibid, 203).

With that in mind, Lebanon may be the perfect ground to nurture a protracted intercommunal conflict. Nevertheless, according to Raad and based on the International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM) at the University of Maryland, major conflicts involve non-negotiable needs such as security, identity, and recognition that cannot be denied or repressed. In his paper, The Termination of Protracted Social Conflict in Lebanon, Raad elaborates on the damaging methods of the termination of PSCs. He includes Ethnic hegemony and the repressive method of dominance by forcing integration and forced displacement (ibid 204). Previously we listed in chronological order the series of crises, events, and wars that happened on Lebanese ground to understand the possible interruption and perturbation they might have had on the formation of the Lebanese identity. Looking back at the series of events, one may also notice the repetitive harmful methods of PSC termination, such as the civil war with ethnic cleansing and the multiple genocides, forced conversion, and displacement.?

Following a brief look into Protracted social conflict, one may question: Conflict and violence may be triggered by multi-ethnicity. Are conflict and violence now considered characteristics of a Lebanese identity? Furthermore, since history shapes society and its identity, was Lebanon forcefully pushed into adopting a violent identity and troubling values caused by the occupation, colonialism, war followed by threat, and the need to belong??

This takes us to the following section of the paper; while discussing the turbulent Lebanese identity, constant characteristics in a Lebanese identity occasionally surfaced, such as conflict, violence, corruption, and victimization.?

Migrant and Immigrant: a constant characteristic in a troubled identity

I am a migrant, a post-colonial result, a cross-cultural child with struggles in belonging. Before becoming an immigrant, one is a migrant (Maalouf, 1996: 38). Following historical events, Lebanon has been both the Land of migrants and the Land of immigrants. This section of the paper will look at the different events that led to this assumption and how "migration" and "immigration" may become constant characteristics of a troubled Lebanese identity.

Between 1870 and 1930s, and under the Ottoman ruling, the French mandate, and world war I, a scarcely large wave of families, majority Christians from the mount of Lebanon, migrated to America and Latin America searching for a better life (Khater, 2017).?

According to Dakessian from the Armenian Diaspora Survey, In the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide, tens of thousands of Armenian refugees found shelter in Lebanon in times that coincided with the proclamation of the State of Lebanon in September 1920. Following the Lausanne Treaty in 1923, Armenian refugees were granted Lebanese citizenship and offered security and political integration (Dakessian, 2019). During the Lebanese Civil War, Armenians adopted neutrality but were affected by the war's insecurity and economic dislocation, which forced a vast number of families to migrate abroad (ibid, 2019). The integration of the Armenian community, supported by the French empowerment and Christianity at that time, had a significant influence on the Lebanese identity regarding craftsmanship, cuisine, and culture (ibid, 2019) as well as the sectarian balance.

"What

will we do

without

Exile?"?

(Poetry Foundation, 2007)?

While the Armenian refugees faced social cohesion in their integration in Lebanon and influence on the national identity, the majority of Muslim refugees may have faced more hardship, As opposed to the Armenian general neutrality during the civil war in Lebanon, Palestinian and Syrian presence in Lebanon was accompanied by high political stands and stimulation of conflict and danger.?

Following the proclamation of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948, also known as Yaum al-Nakbah, implemented with a Zionist vision (Sand, Lotan, 2010), around 100,000 Palestinians fled to Lebanon and faced painful unwelcoming (Erni, 2013). Today, the Palestinian refugees remain in a poor state of transition, supported by the Lebanese government, which refuses to give them the nationality, or tawtiin, to maintain sectarian balance, supposedly essential in maintaining peace, which may be offset by the majority of Sunni Palestinians (Erni, 2013).?

While the French Mandate and Christian authorities supported the presence of Armenians in Lebanon, the united nations created the UNRWA in January 1993 to provide relief and development aid to the refugees (ibid, 2013). According to the official UNRWA, a "Palestinian Refugee: shall mean any person whose normal place of residence was Palestine during the period June 1, 1946, to May 15, 1948, and who lost both homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 conflict" (UNRWA, 2012). With that in mind, the rule does not apply to all Palestinian refugees. Lebanon gave citizenship to about 50,000 Christian Palestinian refugees during 1950 and 1960 and about 60,000 Shiite Muslims in the mid-1990s. After the protest from Maronite authorities, citizenship was granted to all Christian refugees (Haddad, 2004). Before moving on, it is essential to list two events that occurred in the Lebanese Land, which may give us an insight into violence in the name of identity.?

Tal al Za'tar massacre, 1976: Syrian troops entered Tal al- Za'tar, a Palestinian camp in Lebanon, and massacred at least 1,500 Palestinians with the help of Christian forces (ibid, 2013).?

Sabra and Shatila massacre, 1982: the Christian forces, backed by Israeli forces, executed between 700 and 3,500 civilians in the refugee camps (Brynen, 1989).?

Migration and immigration caused by war, natural disasters, and crises, in general, may affect a nation's identity and encourage it to adopt vulnerable traits such as victimization and dependency. However, The history of refugee crisis handling in Lebanon may reveal unsettling characteristics within the Lebanese national identity, such as violence and cruelty.?

Adding to the previous, the start of the civil war in Syria in 2010 led to a new wave of refugees; Between 2013 and 2014, 47,000 Syrian refugees got registered monthly by the UNHCR in Lebanon, resulting in economic, political, social, and religious tensions in the country (ibid, 2017). The battle of Arsal and the execution of Lebanese soldiers by radical Syrian Sunni Islamists steered a constant fear that the presence of Syrian refugees with a majority of Sunni would provoke a civil war. Due to this fear, the entries of Syrian refugees were limited to "extreme humanitarian cases", turning away as many as 60 percent of people attempting to cross the border (ibid, 2017). without elaborating more on this point and the situation of Armenians, Palestinians, and Syrians in Lebanon, the following concern may be raised: In an attempt to create a choreographed Lebanese Identity, some immigrants fit the requirements intended while others miss the criteria; nevertheless, migration as characteristics, seems to highlight itself on Lebanese territory.

As Amin Maalouf insists in his book In the Name of Identity (Maalouf, 1996), while society shapes religion, religion in its turn shapes society as well. With the fear of breaking the sectarian equilibrium, Lebanon may be actively feeding and nurturing Protracted social conflict to avoid being shaped by one religious society. Many Lebanese come from a mixed marriage with a complex history and hazy geographic, local, and global borders. Nevertheless, they managed to obtain the Lebanese identity under the right circumstances and a bit of luck.?

What are the odds of belonging and the bureaucratic circumstances that approved the inclusion of some to the Nation's identity while depriving others? In an attempt to write about a Nation's identity in crisis, unable to be shaped due to unfortunate events, many dominant turbulent characteristics seem to have floated on the surface; Chaos, contrast, corruption, violence, conflict, and more.?

Different sentiments are triggered, including disturbance and the refusal to affiliate to an identity shaped by a series of ill-fated events. With that in mind, one may choose to appropriate themselves to a liminal identity instead, fluid enough to camouflage into many different scenarios and powerful enough to distract spectators with its food, white mountains, and what remains of its occupied and polluted beaches. It is ironic what happens to a migrant once leaving borders; the need to represent themselves with clarity and the utmost sudden craving to belong.?

What traits define citizens of Lebanon and shape a Lebanese? What to hide, what to showcase, and how to talk about multi-ethnicity while avoiding conflict? How to talk about the contrast of Land without mentioning geographic asylum? How to talk about a peaceful revolution and awareness of reform in a land of conflict and violence and overused “Habibi”s. With all that said, many Lebanese stood and still stand on a threshold, outsiders, spectators watching their identity being shaped and smashed by local and foreign affairs, unsatisfied with many outcomes.

I am a roman, Greek and Phenician decedent; toes dipped in the Mediterranean sea.

I am a land of the holy with crucified souls wandering in the dark, wondering what they did wrong.?

I am a proud Heliopolis, tamed and conquered by the Ottoman.

I am a freedom fighter that fell into French colonialism and has not risen still.?

I am seventeen different religions built on faith, and disbeliefs all tucked in 10,452 km2 of contrasted Land.?

I am the mountains, the valleys, the coast, and the polluted sea.

I am a rebel by action; corruption and activism simultaneously?

I am a woman-led revolution under a patriarchal system

I am an Arab? Fluent in a foreign language? Lisping in Fosha??

I am the Middle East, middle to what? Middle to whom?

I am confused and disabled, demolished and dissolved, bombed and bruised and forgotten,

Victimized and victimizing,

Migrant and immigrant.

I am a paradox, an oxymoron, and many more contradictory adjectives found in your standard dictionary."?

Bibliography:?

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De Bel-Air, F. (2017). Migration Profile: Lebanon. European University Institute. https://www.academia.edu/33464564/Migration_Profile_Lebanon?

Erni, F. (2013). Tired of Being a Refugee: Social Identification among Young Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon. Graduate Institute Publications.

Haddad, S. (2004). The Origins of Popular Opposition to Palestinian Resettlement in Lebanon. The International Migration Review, 38(2), 470–492. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27645386

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Perry, T., & Maclean, W. (2020, December 24). Timeline: Lebanon’s ordeal from civil war to port blast. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-crisis-turmoil-timeline-idUSKBN28Y0S1

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