“Those who killed my daughter are politically supported. I don’t belong to any political party, and I don’t have enough money to hire a lawyer to get my daughter justice from those who killed her.”
The tourism sector is a vivid example of the country’s economic decline, with enterprises partially or totally closing down, reducing employees’ salaries, or laying them off completely, particularly by forcing them to offer their resignations.
In great awe, we watched their leaked pictures after the meeting, which took place on the quiet away from the media. It was as if we just found out that Fairouz was real, that she has a house, a laugh and that her door was open… but not for us.
You, Mr. Macron, came to tell us that we were the ones who had elected Hezbollah, and so we will have to live with its weapons! You yourself however, do not practice what you preach. All of Europe has classified Hezbollah’s military wing as a terrorist organization, and yet we live under the rule of the party’s military wing. Why should you be entitled to what we are not entitled to? How can the elections, held under the supervision of this military faction, be fair?
It is only a matter of time. In days, or maybe weeks, the Lebanese state’s failure to subsidize raw materials like fuel, wheat, and medicine will be announced. There won’t be any loud explosions, but it will be another time bomb that will destroy whatever had survived the crime at the port.
Populist accusations that refugees are stealing Lebanese jobs ignore the fact that Lebanese employers are happy to hire non-citizens and pay them much lower wages than what they would pay to Lebanese workers and not pay social security fees.
The symbolic gallows and the calls for accountability for those at the top of the authority pyramid in Lebanon, not those at the bottom, was the problem that angered Lebanon’s leaders and perhaps made them really fear for their lives.
All we had wanted when we left was survival, but today we want something even simpler than that. We merely want a hug from our family members, to remove the mountainous weight from our chests, which the murderous Lebanese authorities have accumulated there. We wish to hear any good news from Lebanon, any… but unfortunately, our homeland only sends us sorrow, misery, oppression and more alienation.
