Let Lebanon Live

Growing up in Argentina in the 1940s, I remember my late Lebanese father reminiscing about Lebanon in almost reverential terms. The fruits were bigger, the foods tastier, the sights more beautiful than in other places. More importantly, the people were very peaceful, as shown by the harmonious coexistence of people of different religious denominations. It was, alas, a situation that wouldn’t last.

At that time, Lebanon hadn’t yet suffered the internecine wars and the foreign interventions that would mar this almost idyllic picture. A few years after my father died in 1971, Lebanon was transformed from a land of peace into a land of war. How does one understand what provoked such a significant change?

After a visit to Lebanon, his father’s native country, Dr. James J. Zogby, the President of the Arab American Institute in Washington, D.C., explains Lebanon’s descent into chaos, “Lebanon was a country that was modern on the surface, but its forward path was hamstrung by a political system that fueled feuds born of sectarian, tribal, and regional divisions. And so, I wasn’t surprised when Lebanon erupted in civil war a few years later and these tensions exploded into full view –with devastating results for the people and the country.”

Those divisions could have been its undoing. A period of relative peace was interrupted by a multifaceted and bloody conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 deaths and great number of injured. It also provoked the exodus of almost one million people.

Although internal tensions have continued until today, foreign interference –particularly from Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Israel– and waves of refugees from neighboring countries have only aggravated the situation. For the last six years, Lebanon has been in a deep economic crisis. According to the World Bank, poverty in the last decade has almost tripled, affecting 44 percent of the population, a sad situation for a once prosperous and proud country. Irresponsible fiscal and monetary policies led to a crisis that the World Bank calls among the “most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century.”

The continuous state of crisis has had a pernicious effect on the provision of public health and social services. While most people have been affected, the crises have particularly impacted women, children, migrant workers, refugees and people with disabilities, according to the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty. Large waves of refugees have strained the country’s social protection system, that has been chronically underfunded.

Social unrest, political instability, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and lack of funding have seriously affected the public health sector. In addition, daily strikes are hitting deeper and deeper into the country, killing thousands of civilians and putting tens of thousands of civilians at risk. As reported by UNICEF, immunization campaigns have been severely disrupted, as have early childhood development and nutrition services.

Children and their families have limited access to public health services, sanitation and safe water supplies. Hospitals are unable to respond to increased demand for public health assistance, and many patients are unable to pay for basic health care needs. Hospitals’ financial difficulties have led to a shortage of medications, such as antibiotics and drugs for chemotherapy treatment. Reports of anxiety and trauma have significantly increased due to displacement and relentless shelling and air raids.

Salaries for health care workers have dropped roughly 80 percent, leading to the exodus of hundreds of physicians because they are unable to feed their families. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 49 percent of Lebanese are afflicted with some form of war-related trauma. For fear of stigma, many rape victims do no report it, thus preventing them from having proper medical and psychiatric treatment.

The educational sector has also been seriously affected as a result of teachers’ resignations, strikes, and lack of essential educational materials. According to ReliefWeb, a humanitarian information service provided by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA,) approximately half a million children, or 25% of all children in the country, remain without any form of education.

Women continue to face discrimination, including unequal access to divorce, child custody and property rights. Unlike men, Lebanese women cannot transfer their nationality to foreign husbands and children. There is also a demand for stronger implementation of Lebanon’s family violence law to respond to growing cases of domestic violence and femicide.

According to legend, when Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Iguazu Falls in Argentina, she said, “Poor Niagara!” In the same spirit, comparing today’s Lebanon to more peaceful, better times, one could say, “Poor Lebanon!” Reflecting on the situation of today’s Lebanon, besieged by violence, I am glad that my father doesn’t have to witness what is happening in his beloved country. He would have been destroyed by sorrow, seeing the country of his dreams become a nightmare.

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