An Insight on Lebanon

Fadi Abi Allam is president of Lebanese organization Permanent Peace Movement.

Although nowadays it can be asserted that the political situation in Lebanon has stabilized, can this be regarded as a peaceful situation? Or whenever peace is mentioned, does not it embrace only the present but both dealing with the past and looking ahead to the future?

There are still too many issues pending on the table. On the internal level, the legacy of impunity along with the level of violence that has been characterizing the Lebanese history; the issue of the Palestinian refugee camps; the sovereignty of the Lebanese government throughout its territory. Looking at Lebanon from a regional perspective, it is interesting to consider the unsolved question of Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms and Farshuba Hills; the issue of borders with Syria and the Iranian policy with regards to nuclear power which influences all the countries present in the region.

The legacy of impunity by some means enables the proliferation of a culture of violence and this was manifested from the assassination of Rafic El-Hariri to the clashes of May 2008.  The proliferation of arms and their use by outlaw groups to push their issue on is connected with this logic. Extremist groups also find a fertile soil for their growth within the marginalized groups of the society and the 12 Palestinian refugee camps present in the country are an example of that. Palestinian refugees living in the camps suffer many problems such as no proper infrastructure, overcrowding, poverty and unemployment and additionally there is no real power they can address to in order to protect themselves, therefore the recourse to the use of arms seems the easiest way to ensure their security. Actually, the Lebanese government does not have sovereignty over the camps and over other parts of the territory including the south of the country and this situation enables extremist groups to prosper in those areas.
Evidently, this internal problem is connected with the unsettled question of the Israeli occupation of the the Shebaa Farms and Farshuba Hills used by many armed-groups in Lebanon as an alibi to justify their defense strategy.

All those factors increase the already existing divisions and frictions within the Lebanese society as well as constituting a major challenge to the effort the civil society is putting in fostering peacebuilding strategies.

On the other hand, the Lebanese peace movement has been able to continue its work towards social integration through peaceful means in creating spaces for dialogue, where not only people’s needs and fears can be assessed and addressed but also where tools to deal with thorny problems related to the past and the future are provided. Other than that, it is extremely important to look at development as a key factor to boost peacebuilding activities and address issues such as poverty and unemployment, which are commonly root causes of the resort to violence.

Today, the civil society can activate this constructive discussion at all levels through workshops - non-violence, conflict resolution, citizenship, etc-; through the creation of regional and national networks; through setting tools for early warnings/response for conflict prevention. An example of that is represented by the Nonviolence Network in Arab Countries (NNAC), which constitute a forum for sharing different experience on how to build a culture of peace and non-violence. The NNAC in fact has been providing capacity-building trainings for NGOs in Lebanon and in the region, producing awareness raising material as well as training manuals, organizing conferences, etc.
A potential strategy for non-violence should embrace all the levels of society from the grassroots up to the top elite; the activities the civil society has been carrying out are not sufficient to tackle and solve the deep rooted problems, a political will is indeed needed in order to accomplish that.

Consequently, the peace movement is advocating for the creation of a peacebuilding commission by the Lebanese government, who, along with the civil society, will impact more in building a road for peace. Another struggle is that of the integration of peace education in the school and university curricula. This can be later on facilitated by the commission, but for the time being, the civil society is struggling with extra work and effort, which can have an enormous effect on peace in Lebanon and which should be undertaken or, at least supported by, the government as a start and then the commission later on.