The Jews of Lebanon Project

Video of a delegation visiting a Jewish cometary in Beirut:

“…simply proving there is still a community, just very low profile”- tour guide.

BEIRUT: Lebanon will not be driven back to civil war. That is the solemn oath taken by activists displaying for the first time the rusty bus that was full of Palestinian civilians when it came under attack in Ain al-Roummaneh in 1975, sparking the country’s 15-year strife. The bus, an oxidized shell, was on display on Friday for the 32nd anniversary of the war’s outbreak at a time when many fear that divided Lebanon may plunge back into violence.

“This is the outcome of civil wars,” said Sami Hamdan, owner of the old Dodge bus as he knocked on the reddish brown metal of the decaying vehicle.

“People get killed, everyone loses and everything gets destroyed. All that’s left will be a rusty carcass,” said Hamdan, who is now 61 years old.

Lebanon erupted into bloodshed on April 13, 1975, when Christian militiamen machine-gunned the bus carrying Palestinian civilians in Beirut’s eastern suburb, hours after gunfight killed a group of Christians outside a nearby church.

Twenty-seven passengers on board were killed and the Civil War began.

Although most Lebanese have never seen the Ain al-Roummaneh bus up close, it has become the symbol of the outbreak of the war through Hayat Karanouh’s famous black-and-white photograph.

On Friday, the public had the opportunity to see the real thing at the Beirut racetrack. Normally, it is kept in a small Southern Lebanese village, “probably too far for most people to visit it” says an organizer of Friday’s April 13 Civil War remembrance event.

Hamdan bought the bus 25 years ago from its original owner, Abu Rida, who was behind the wheel when it was attacked on that fateful April day.

Abu Rida was slightly wounded during the attack, but his life was saved when he ducked down and hid under the bodies of the victims. He later repaired the vehicle and drove it again briefly before selling it to Hamdan.

“When I met the original owner, I asked him how much he wanted to sell the bus for. He told me to take it for free; he just wanted to get rid of it.”

“I bought his bus because it was notorious. I also wanted a new bus because my own had been hit by a shell that killed three children and wounded 17 others,” Hamdan said.

Paola Eid says that the “I Love Life” campaign has been trying to negotiate with Hamdan to purchase the Ain al-Roummaneh bus, on behalf of the Culture Ministry.

Eid says that if they could purchase the bus, it would go on public display “maybe in a museum or UNESCO, where there are wide spaces.”

Hamdan does not want to sell the wrecked bus, however, because “he is too attached to it,” explained Eid.

Indeed in 1983, when the bus was attacked again, Hamdan saw the symbolic importance of his treasure. “I didn’t have the money to fix it. I had my own house destroyed and considered selling the bus because I really needed money to fix it, but I couldn’t part with it.

“We want to say that the Lebanese will not allow another civil war to break out, and we want to warn new generations of the atrocity and absurdity of wars,” Hamdan said, adding that the organizers had asked him to bring the bus to the capital so it could be put on show for the anniversary.

“I am a living martyr of Lebanon’s wars - that’s why I want to warn people not to do it again. I have been wounded and kidnapped. In the Israeli attack last year the whole building where I lived was destroyed,” he said.

“In January, my bus was destroyed and transformed into a barricade,” during street battles between the government and opposition militants which took a confessional turn and sparked fears of a return to civil strife.

“I am a Shiite, but I respect all religions. I am against confessionalism and I hate all our leaders and politicians because they are all liars,” he said.

His ultimate dream?

“I want to put all our leaders on a bus and drive them to a remote place where they treat disabled people because they all need therapy,” Hamdan said. “They are sick. They constantly seek blood, violence and money.”
Daily Star Beirut

Saturday, April 14, 2007 8:30AM EST
102,3 FM

Log-on the interview will remain in podcast format 1 week after original broadcast.

Saturday, April 14, 2007 8:30AM EST
102,3 FM

Log-on the interview will remain in podcast format 1 week after original broadcast.

An-Nahar Newspaper Online

Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar is asking any interested Lebanese Jew, whether in Lebanon or abroad, to speak about their experiences in Lebanon and their lives, even those who may have never been to Lebanon. Personal information will be secured and strictly private, this is an unprecedented act of outreach and one we wish to utilize to the fullest. If you are interested in contributing to the piece, and really helping to shed light on the dire circumstances Lebanon’s Jews face and continue to face, and to help accelerate the noble cause of this evolving project within mainstream Lebanese media and society, please contact us immediately by clicking here: Contact Form

Rise in radical Islam last straw for Lebanon’s Christians

By Michael Hirst in Beirut, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:26pm BST 31/03/2007

Christians are fleeing Lebanon to escape political and economic crises and signs that radical Islam is on the rise in the country.

In a poll to be published next month which was exclusively leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, nearly half of all Maronites, the largest Christian denomination in the country, said they were considering emigrating. Of these, more than 100,000 have submitted visa applications to foreign embassies. Their exodus could have a devastating effect on the country, robbing it of an influential minority which has acted as an important counter-balance to the forces of Islamic extremism.

About 60,000 Christians have already left since last summer’s war between Israel and Hezbollah. Many who remain fear that a violent showdown between rival Sunni and Shia factions is looming.
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“If we love our children we have to tell them to get out,” said Maria, a Christian mother of one from the northern city of Tripoli, who refused to give her surname for fear of reprisal. “When my daughter finished her high school I sent her to Europe, and I will follow her if I can.”

Christine, another Christian woman, said that all of her family’s younger generation had left the country, adding that Tripoli had become increasingly Islamised in recent years. There is a rising number of veiled women and religiously bearded men on the streets - although she blamed economic and political instability for much of the emigration. Christians, who make up 22 per cent of the population, have historically played a major role in the development of Lebanon’s political, social and cultural institutions. Currently the president, the army commander and the head of the central bank are all Maronites, and under the agreement which ended the civil war in 1989, half the 128 seats in Lebanon’s parliament are reserved for Christians.

“Lebanon has always been a bastion of religious tolerance, but now it is moving towards the model of Islamisation seen in Iraq and Egypt,” said Fr Samir Samir, a Jesuit teacher of Islamic studies at Beirut’s Université Saint-Joseph.

Lebanon’s Christian community is concerned that its influence is waning as a result of a continuing internal power struggle, which for the past five months has pitted a Sunni-led government against a predominantly Shia opposition, spearheaded by the Shia militant group Hezbollah. The collapse in influence has been exacerbated by a roughly equal spilt in support among Christians for rival Shia and Sunni leaders. The battle between Muslim factions has paralysed the Lebanese administration and crippled the economy.

The exodus of young workers crosses the religious spectrum. Some 22 per cent of Shias and 26 per cent of Sunnis say they are considering going abroad, according to the study by Information International, an independent Beirut-based research body.