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Now
Why
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV is Broadcasting Sunday Mass
By SOPHIE McNEILL
Beirut.
A truck laden with yellow Hezbollah
flags drives past the Christian neighbourhood of Gemayzeh early
Sunday morning in downtown Beirut. There's a picture of Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah on the windscreen, but it's not his name
that the young men on board are chanting. "General, General!"
yell these young Shiite boys.
Their chant is for the leader
of Hezbollah's largest Christian ally, the former General Michel
Aoun. And this van captures an important dynamic that many of
the international and Lebanese press have omitted from their
coverage of the last few days -- that almost a quarter of the
crowd at the huge anti-government protests have been Lebanese
Christians.
The size and commitment of
the Christian participation became clear Sunday, as thousands
of Christians from Aoun's 'Free Patriotic Movement' marched in
from East Beirut to join their Shia allies in calling for the
Prime Minister to resign.
"We are all Christians
and we are against the government," 45-year-old Joseph from
East Beirut tells me as he walks past with his son, "We
want our own Lebanese government with no Syrian influence, no
American influence and not any influence from other Arab countries.
"
Umm* but haven't we been told
that Hezbollah are just Syrian agents? Why would nationalist
anti-Syrian Christians want to be in a coalition with them?
"No! I'm not worried about
Hezbollah working for the Syrians," Joseph exclaims. "Maybe
Hezbollah likes Syria's words against Israel and in that they
supports Syria--but in Lebanon they are Lebanese!"
For Joseph, the fact that his
Shia allies have never been involved in his country's many civil
wars is proof enough of the party's commitment to Lebanese nationalism.
"Hezbollah has never used its weapons inside Lebanon against
the Lebanese," he explains, "Not like the other side;
they all killed each other and ran militias."
As the marchers walk on, they
pass a TV crew they think is from 'Lebanese Forces' Television,
a network that belongs to a pro-government Christian party firmly
aligned against Hezbollah and Syria.
"The Christian people
in Lebanon are different to what you are showing on TV!"
yells one young man at the camera crew as others join in with,
"Stop your lies!"
"We are yelling at them
because they do not tell the truth," explains 30-year-old
Mona to me after party officials make the crowd march on. "They
are saying that it is only Muslims who are here protesting. They
say all Christians belong to the Lebanese Forces. But look, we
are here demonstrating and we are not Shiite!" she says
exacerbated.
Twenty-eight-year-old Sharden
believes the media have been ignoring them on purpose. "We
know all the media in the world, especially the Americans, are
trying to make the picture that it is just the Shiites. They
don't want it to look like the Lebanese are united against the
government," he tells me.
It's hard to tell exactly how
many of Lebanon's Christians belong to parties aligned with either
Hezbollah or the government. Both will tell you that their numbers
make up 70% of all Christians in Lebanon--and it's a continuously
argued figure that no one is this country seems to know the answer
too.
"They're not the majority
of Christians," scorns 26-year-old Hammad as he watches
the crowds march past. "They might have used to be with
Aoun, but not now he's with Hezbollah." A pro-government
supporter, Hammad describes the coalition between Michel Aoun's
Free Patriotic Movement and Hezbollah as just 'a marriage of
convenience.'
"Aoun just wants to be
the President and Hezbollah has promised him this, so now he
will do anything to reach that," he accuses. "He would
work with the devil just to be president!" interrupts Hammad's
friend Ziad.
To these government supporters,
'the devil' is Syria. And it's a strange twist of Lebanese politics
that Michel Aoun spent many of his years in exile in France lobbying
against the Syrians and calling for their withdrawal from Lebanon
-- to now be in coalition with the Syrian backed Hezbollah; leaving
many Lebanese to view this new coalition as disingenuous. "I
believe he's turned pro-Syrian," charges Hammad. "I
believe he's even working for them now, the Syrians."
Hezbollah's keenness to highlight
their Christian allies was obvious at Friday's huge opposition
rally, with Aoun given the role of key speaker rather than the
crowd favourite Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah; and many pro-government
supporters view these kind of tactical moves very cynically.
"To make Aoun speak is to try and show people that the opposition
is united. Hezbollah doesn't really care about Aoun. They just
want him now -- to use him to say 'the Christians are with us',"
alleges Hassan.
Whatever is behind this strange
coalition between the hardline Shiite group and their Christian
allies, it's certainly producing some unique cultural mixes.
As the march reaches downtown Beirut's St Georges cathedral,
Hezbollah TV vans are out the front transmitting Sunday mass
live. "No we don't usually have Sunday mass broadcast on
Al-Manar," one of the Fathers tells me inside, "but
it's still just normal mass, nothing political is said here."
As I push my way out of the
packed church, I pass a funny looking kid on the steps. He has
an orange T-shirt and wristband in the colour of Aoun's Free
Patriotic Movement, but a yellow Hezbollah cap and a picture
of Hassan Nasrallah hanging around his neck.
"Oh yes, I'm a Christian,
I went to mass," explains nineteen year old Josef... and
um, why do you have a picture of the man the West sees as a terrorist
leader hanging off you? "Because I love him," says
Josef simply, "He's a good man, and he's not bad like all
the others."
Later that afternoon, representatives
from all Hezbollah's allies are given the stage, but the crowd
is told that the speeches won't start until everyone puts down
their party flags. After fifteen minutes of delay, a respectable
amount of Lebanese flags dominates and Hezbollah TV is allowed
to begin their broadcast.
Once again, the universal demand
is for Siniora's immediate resignation, but listening to the
speeches from these opposition speakers, there is certainly unifying
themes here that bring this seemingly mismatched coalition together.
Hezbollah's Christian and Druz
allies stand proudly with the party's Shiite army, and they join
in Hezbollah's accusations that the government failed to adequately
support them during the July war with Israel.
"During the Israeli invasion,
the government stood on the sides if not against the resistance!'
cried the Druz opposition party leader Talal Erslan. "Maybe
the execution of the resistance to Israel was executed by the
Shiites, but I Talal Erslan, I am one of you!"
It had been a long day and
it was growing cold, but the crowd responded enthusiastically
to his calls. "We are ready to give our blood to this resistance,
" he declared to a cheering crowd. " And we're proud
not to be called the allies of Israel*this government just follows
the American and Zionist rule!"
The speeches end and the crowds
slowly disperse, while those who are sleeping here dig in for
another night. "Hezbollah are the best thing that happened
to Lebanon," 24-year-old Maurice, a Christian, tells me.
"They are real Lebanese. Israel is our enemy too and we
are with Hezbollah against Israel."
Sophie McNeill is a reporter with SBS Television Australia,
her blog from Lebanon can be found at http://www9.sbs.com.au/
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