August 15, 2006
Greetings from Beirut, where day 2 of the cease fire might signal very rapid change. If road passage is quickly repaired, many groups are ready to begin reconstructing areas in southern Lebanon, Beirut suburbs, and other areas destroyed by the past month of warfare. Hassan Nasrallah has vowed that Hezbollah will undertake reconstruction in southern Lebanon.
Earlier today, Abu Mustafa, a cab driver,who lives in Dahiya, an area on the outskirts of Beirut which was heavily bombed during the war, took us to his neighborhood. Hundreds of people walked slowly along streets lined by wreckage. Many parents walked hand in hand with their children; all, even the toddlers, looking extremely sad and grim.
Before the Shock and Awe bombing of Iraq, a contingent of peace activists living in Baghdad hung huge banners at various locales stating, “To bomb this place would be a war crime.” Today we saw the sequel, banners that said “Made in the U.S.A.” in Arabic and English, detailing U.S. complicity in manufacturing and shipping the weapons that demolished homes, gas stations, shopping malls, overpasses, clinics, the town square, ….block after block of ruin.
On the fourth floor of a five-story apartment building, a father and his daughters scooped up load after load of broken glass, called out a warning and pitched it onto the sidewalk below. You have to start somewhere.
Mr. Yakoub Sarah introduced himself to us. He is Lebanon’s Minister of the Environment for the area. With him was a Prime Minister from Hezbollah. He asked for my impression of what I’d seen. I told him I’d seen clear evidence of war crimes, using conventional military weapons against a civilian area. He assured us that Lebanon is a proud country and that it will rebuild.
Last night Farah and I sat with the group of young Lebanese people who welcomed us to accompany them on their convoy project. (Lebanese Special Forces stopped the convoy, but the group is still intact and planning to link with several villages in southern Lebanon to assist with reconstruction and also continue helping people who can’t return to their homes.) “It was so good to wake up this morning with this war over,” said Maha, a young architect teaching at AUB. “You don’t feel like you have a huge weight on your chest.”
A meeting had been planned at the small café where we gather, but when we arrived about 15 people were listening intently to Hassan Nasrallah. An Egyptian woman who has joined the group said she was surprised to see people from different traditions and religious backgrounds so united in their acceptance of Nasrallah’s leadership at this point.
Earlier in the day I had gone to visit the Daughters of Charity in East Beirut to learn more about possibilities for bringing relief to villages in southern Lebanon. “Crazy,” said one friend that Sr. Vincent called the previous day. “Impossible. There is no way.” When I arrived at the convent today, each of the nuns with whom I spoke was very troubled. The Israelis had bombed the convent of a Lebanese congregation of nuns the previous night.
No need now for them to visit West Beirut or southern Lebanon to assist in cleaning up the wreckage.
This morning, I felt special appreciation for a note from a friend who quoted Eduardo Galeano’s observation of a graffiti message he once saw painted on a wall: “Let’s save our pessimism for better times.” It’s a gift to feel solidarity with people rolling up their sleeves and facing the tasks of rebuilding. We write with gratitude for all those committed to building a better world, a world wherein it’s easier to be good.
Sincerely,
Kathy
