Category: lebanon

one day in beirut i headed to the hills of south lebanon to visit an infamous new hezbollah museum. hezbollah’s paramilitary branch is considered a terrorist organization by much of the world, and they consider destruction of the state of israel to be their primary objective. let me obviously and emphatically disclaim that i do not support this objective and that i think any group that employs terrorism is terrible, even when/if if they do have valid reason to be upset with their situation. this said, i thought it would be fascinating to visit their brand new, 60 million us$ museum, which was funded by iran.

the “tour” starts with a 13 minute movie about the “resistance” in south lebanon, overlayed with emotionally-stirring war movie type music. israel occupied south lebanon from the mid 80’s through 2000, with another another war in 2006. the climax of the film comes when hassan nasrallah, the bearded fundamentalist cleric who leads hezbollah, has his fist in the air and looses control of both the volume and resonance of his voice when describing how the group can hit ben-gurion airport in tel aviv with their missiles at any moment’s notice. such passion.

i was then given a tour by another bearded cleric, dressed in camouflage, who spoke perfect american english. he showed me the museum’s centerpiece, “the abyss,” meant to symbolically represent the future of israel as they see it going down. bizarre and surreal. a huge hole in the ground is filled with captured israeli tanks and helicopters that were shot down in the 2006 war. israel also used cluster bombs during that and other wars, which were on prominent display. these bombs are illegal according to international law, as they are designed to inflict maximal civilian casualties. in no way defensible, but at least israel’s prime objective isn’t to wipe south lebanon from the face of the earth.

the facility also included trenches and bunkers used by paramilitary fighters in their resistance, including the founding leader of hezbollah before he was assassinated by israel. they have published a schematic of the power structure and leadership of all the branches of the israeli military, previously classified information which they claim to have discovered covertly, and which israel was apparently very angry about when they found out. they also have maps of israel with the quantity and types of military aircraft at each israeli air force base, for example, and schematics of their rockets hitting these targets. throughout the place were stationed, symbolically and anything but subtly, many rocket shaped gold-plated receptacles for monetary donations to the cause. i’ll bet that this will be one of the first places taken out in the next of the long string of israel-hezbollah wars.

the museum was far up in the mountains, and the clerics/tour guides didn’t have any cell phones to call for a taxi, so i started what turned out to be a four hour hike down the mountain to the nearest highway. it would seem that the whole of south lebanon is covered in posters of recent martyrs for the hezbollah cause. a guy gave me a ride on his moped for a while, and eventually an extremely elderly and seemingly senile but unbelievably hospitable couple gave me a ride in the their rusted out, sputtering mercedes benz. we crawled along at two kilometers per hour as the man mumbled along to his classical arabic oud music while the woman kindly and slowly spoke words to me which i was unfortunately completely unable to comprehend.

i spent that evening in the south lebanese city of sidon/saida, where i found an abandoned and locked up crusader castle out in the ocean, connected to land only by a causeway. i snuck into the premises, and chanced upon a group of three teenage boys who showed me all around inside the castle. on the roof, looking out over saida, one of them broke out in arabic song (with some akon mixed in there too), and the four of us vigorously danced away all our problems. it was really nice, just like the whole trip 🙂  hopefully one day in the future the typical citizens of israel and lebanon will legally be able to visit each other’s beautiful countries. until then, i feel especially honored that i’m able to experience both!

i spent about five days of my passover break in the “paris of the middle east” – beirut, lebanon – and it was an excellent time! lebanon is an enigma in so many ways. 40% christian, 60% muslim (both sunni and shi’ite, as well as druze and every other imaginable muslim sect). in beirut, bearded islamic fundamentalists rub shoulders with some of the most hedonistic party-goers that exist anywhere. sometimes they’re even the same people. there are seemingly more luxury german cars in lebanon than there are in germany, and recently more syrian refugees than can be counted. bullet-riddled buildings destroyed by decades of brutal civil war stand next to truly glamorous shopping malls.

first things first, you must realize that getting to lebanon from israel requires some determination, more than one passport and some thorough planning (read about my route in the previous post). you also have to hide any evidence of anything israeli or hebrew, or you will be immediately deported. i found a great place to hide the passport with evidence of israel (good guess but no it was not in an orifice of my body, although that would have made a great story for the grandkids!) it was also a challenge to never use any hebrew words while i was there. i managed right until the very end when i accidentally said “toda” (thank you in hebrew) to the taxi driver who gave me a ride to the airport. he gave me a look that said “i know exactly what language that just was,” so i quickly ran into the airport! people know their basic hebrew from the movies. anyway, due to the extremely charged ongoing history of animosity between lebanon and israel, i felt that i had no choice but to lie to everyone in lebanon about where i currently live. once you start, your lies have to become increasingly complex. it messed with my mind a little; didn’t feel right. but also a fun challenge sometimes – to make up as crazy a life story as possible and still have it come off as believable 🙂

i stayed at a near-perfect hostel (hot showers would have upgraded it to perfect) called saifi urban gardens in a trendy and rapidly gentrifying area of beirut called gemmayze. everyone was extremely friendly. the vernacular is arabic, but most of the older generation also speak french, and most younger people also speak english, many with perfect american flair!

here are just a few of the friendly folks i met. all bros, i know. i guess the ladies must not be quite as friendly.

-ralph is an oral surgeon who divides his work between beirut and kuwait. the only reason he works in kuwait is so he can afford to satiate the significant material demands of his lebanese wife.

-azhar is a recent medical graduate from aleppo, syria who, due to the ongoing civil war there,  is unfortunately now an unemployed refugee staying in the hostel. he was also preparing for a united states medical licensing exam, a fact over which we bonded.

-muhammad was my roommate in the hostel, a software engineer from england and an aspiring photojournalist. he kindly introduced me to what must have been dozens of his beiruti friends. the prime time for meeting new people in beirut is between the hours of midnight and 5am.

-zaki is a palestinian-iraqi who grew up in baghdad. we talked about the present state of affairs in iraq and he told me he could totally arrange for me to come hang out in baghdad any time! i must say it is super tempting 🙂

-rami was going to visit his grandmother in baalbek, a town in lebanon’s isolated and ultra-conservative beqaa valley the next day. after what turned into a deeply philosophical discussion, he genuinely invited me to come with him and hang out for a few days. if only i had more time.

-leo was a french journalist, in lebanon to cover the influx of syrian refugees. he was intrigued by the fact that i had survived walking through the south beirut palestinian refugee camps of sabra and shatila wearing shorts and socks that didn’t match.

-i met saleh on a bus in south lebanon. we discussed topics such as who our heroes are in life. he said hassan nasrallah, the leader of hezbollah. i said Jesus 🙂

the sights to see in beirut include the pigeon rocks, which are huge islands of rock sticking out of the mediterranean; martyr’s square, in which stands a statue pierced with countless bullet holes and missing appendages thanks to years of civil war; and the 20-something story bombed out shell of what was once a holiday inn in downtown beirut. also, the beautifully green and tranquil downtown campus of the american university of beirut, an english-only institution known as one of the best universities in the middle east. i even happened to meet a few medical students who go there!

one day i went to the south beirut palestinian refugee camps of sabra and shatila. these “camps” have an unfortunate place in history due to a massacre of over 3000 innocents that occurred there in 1982 by the “christian” phalangist fighters, with the implicit support and assistance of the israeli military (former prime minister of israel ariel sharon was defense minister at the time, and was forced to resign over the incident, before later becoming prime minister – only in israel). the camps were created by palestinian refugees when they were forced from their homeland when the state of israel was created. though they have been in lebanon for over 60 years, unfortunately these folks are still prohibited from becoming citizens of lebanon, and as such are barred from such careers as medicine and the law. thus, i would suggest that the oft used argument that these people shouldn’t be considered refugees anymore because they’ve been where they’re at for such a long time doesn’t really hold up. the conditions in the camps are really terrible, with some of the highest population density anywhere in the world and very poor sanitary conditions – for example, only recently getting adequate sewage disposal. i had been told that it was a dangerous place, but i decided to check it out anyway. it did end up striking me as a little sketchy. the streets were rife with militia-type guys with guns, and i definitely felt like everyone was glaring at me. absolutely huge posters of yasser arafat (former leader of the palestinian liberation organization) and sheikh ahmed yassin (quadriplegic former spiritual leader of hamas before he was assassinated by israel) adorned the streets. i was tempted to take some pictures, but opted not to as there are many a story of people being apprehended at gunpoint for doing just that in these camps. i love me a little tourism adrenaline!