DOCSLIB.ORG

Introduction 1

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Introduction 1 Notes Introduction 1. Paramilitary militia headed by Pierre Gemayel. For further information, see William Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East (Oxford: Westview Press, 2000), 372–376. 2. Known also as the Tigers, Camille Chamoun’s own private Christian political party. 3. In the 1950s Camille Chamoun was committed to Lebanon’s Western orientation while an increasing number of Muslims were attracted to Nasser Pan-Arabism. See Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East, 326–327. 4. This term is controversial and evokes different meanings. I use it in the sense of gradual transformation/progress by women’s efforts to respond to the demand of contemporary times. Evolution is the development of men’s/women’s latent capa- bilities, which under the action of favorable circumstances are certain to occur at a certain time. This definition implies that development is a continuum and opens the terrain for the formation of subjectivities, particularly among women and activists. 5. Hizbullah, the Party of God, had formed in Lebanon following the Iranian revo- lution. Its motto was taken from the Qur’an (58:22) perceived as against the Party of Satan (Qur’an 58:19–20). For further information, see Chapter 5, Part II. 6. For more information, see Part III, Chapter 9. 7. Lara Deeb, An Enchanted Modern (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 20. 8. Amin Maalouf, In the Name of Identity (USA: Penguin Book, 2003), 146. In Lebanon, the quota system divides governmental and administrative power between the three main religious communities according to their numerical number. Though the quota system respects the law of numbers, it is carried to its extreme and does not provide safeguards for the minorities. Thus, each community feels inadequately represented and thus perceives the system to be unjust. 9. Nahda is the Arabic word for renaissance. Lebanon is known as the cradle of the Arab Renaissance and a center of dialogue of cultures and religions. Together the churches’ bell towers and the mosques’ minarets sounds resonate. 222 ● Notes 10. Joseph Maila, head of “Pole Religions” at the Quai d’Orsay (“Le Liban symbolise jusqu’à la déchirure les contradictions du monde arabe”), interviewed by Carole Dagher for L’Orient-Le Jour, October 21, 2009, Beirut. Lebanon represents a real synthesis of all questions related to the Arab contemporary reality as Arab countries struggle to embrace a necessary modernity. Lebanon symbolizes their contradictions at the expense of its own split. 11. For further information, see Chapter 6, Part II. 20 12. Kamala Visweswaran, Fictions of Feminist Ethnography (Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1994), 17–39. 13. Landers Spickard and McGuire, Personal Knowledge and Beyond, Reshaping the Ethnography of Religion (New York: New York University Press), 195–201. McGuire argues that “good” evidence should not distort the respondent’s experi- ences, beliefs, and feelings; he poses the question of how research can be grounded as truth while using interpersonal interactions and indicates that introspection as a strategy can be valuable. 14. Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interview and Other Writings, 1972– 1977, edited and translated by Colin Gordon et al. (New York: Pantheon, 1972). The reorganizing of knowledge means recreating an epistemological ensemble that defines the conditions and limits of the development of each field of knowl- edge. Truth becomes the creation of the process that discovers it, and in the modern world, power, and knowledge are inextricably linked. 15. Spickard and McGuire, Personal Knowledge, 239. 16. Ibid., 239. 17. National Pact of 1943. Maronite President Bechara el-Khuri and Sunni Prime Minister Riyadh el-Solh worked out a compromise solution to the problem of Lebanese sectarianism and regional identity: Christians accepted Lebanon’s Arab identity and Muslims renounced the merger with other Arab states. More importantly, the pact spells out a formula of sectarian representation in the parliament. 18. Authority given to the succession of the prophet, or an imam (descent of the imam Ali), to lead the Islamic nation. 19. For more information, see Chapter 10, Part III. Chapter 1 1. Toufic Touma, Un village de montagne au Liban (Paris: Mouton & Co. La Haye 1948), 10. 2. An administrative district. 3. A subnational administrative district. 4. Charki means “East” and Gharbi means “West.” 5. Anis Freiha, Mo’jam asma’ el-moudon wal koura el-loubnaniyya (Beirut: Maktabat Loubnan, 1972), 103. Afif B. Morhej, I’raf Loubnan (Beirut: n.p. 1965). 6. See annex photograph of the monastery. Notes ● 223 7. Antione Khoueiry, Zahle malhamat soumoud wa boutoula (Beirut: Markaz el-Ilham), 1982. 8. One dennum = 1,000 m2.Landusedtobemeasuredbyhowmuchofitcanbe worked in one day of labor. 9. “Finnage, or limits of a communal territory, creates a ‘space that is legally owned by a collectivity of people who manage it.’ ” Henri Mendras, Sociétés Paysannes (Paris: Armand Colin, 1976), 35. 10. The Chapel was abandoned in March 16, 1956, after an earthquake. 11. The Maronites are the most influential Christian community in Lebanon. They affirmed their communion with the Catholic church in the twelfth century, and in 1584 they founded the “Maronite college” in Rome. The Patriarch of Antioch and the Middle East Monsignor Nasrallah Sfeir is currently the head of the Maronite Church. His headquarters is in Bkerke on a mountaintop overlook- ing the Mediterranean. Maronites played an essential role in the creation of the “Great Lebanon” following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. 12. Jean Corbon, L’Eglise des Arabes (Paris: Edition Cerf, 1977), 29–33. 13. Ibid. 14. Known as Nahr el ‘Asl in Arabic, Oronte is a river located at the Syrian border with Turkey where the city of Antioch is located. Antioch, currently a Turkish city, occupied an important place in history as the center of the Hellenic Orient, then the third city in importance after Rome and Alexandria when conquered by the Romans in 64 b.c. Evangelized by Christians from Jerusalem, namely, Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas, Antioch became a religious metropolis with Saint Peter as its first bishop. The Persians conquered it in 540, Arabs in 636, Byzantines in 969, and the Seljoukides in 1084. The first Crusaders in 1098 conquered it and transformed it to a principal frank city, Mamlouks reconquered it in 1268, and the Ottomans in 1516. Placed under the French mandate in 1920, Antioch became Turkish territory again in 1939. 15. Religious affiliation. 16. Jamil M. Yazigi, “American Presbyterian Mission Schools in Lebanon” (Master’s thesis, Education Department of the A.U.B. Beirut, 1964), 69. 17. Yazigi, “American,” 91–92. 18. “The mountains of Epire and of Lebanon ...always lived because of Lebanon’s immigrants.” Henri Mendras, Sociétés Paysannes (Paris: Armand Colin, 1976), 146. 19. Ibid. Chapter 2 1. Courrier de l’Unesco, March 1975, Year XVIII. 2. Simone De Beauvoir, Le deuxième sexe (Paris: Gallimard coll. Idées, 1949), 1: 16–19. 3. Roger Garaudy, Pour l’avènement de la femme (Paris: Albin Michel, 1981), 18–38. 224 ● Notes 4. Alouche Richard, “L’image de la femme à travers le romain libanais,” Travaux et Jours, no. 47 (Beirut, 1973), 73–90. 5. Gaston Bouthoul, Les mentalités (Paris: P.U.F., 1971), 30–31. “La mentalité, du point de vue de la société, constitue la structure mentale spécifique de chaque civilisation; et du point de vue du sujet, elle est un ensemble d’idées et de dispo- sitions intellectuelles intégrées dans le même individu, reliées entre elles par des rapports logiques et des rapports de croyance.” 6. Hana Abi Rached, Mu’gam al-amtal (Beirut: Da’irat al-ma’rif, 1954), 73. 7. Selim Abou, Le bilinguisme arabe-français au Liban (Paris: Presse Universitaire de France, 1962), 101. Chapter 3 1. Henri Mendras, Sociétés Paysannes (Paris: Armand Colin, 1976), 79. 2. Claude Levi-Strauss, Les structures élémentaires de la parenté (Paris: Mouton & Co., 1967), 135. 3. Ibid., 136. 4. Germaine Tillion, Le harem et les cousins (Paris: éd. du Seuil, 1966), 8. 5. Ibid., 71. 6. Ibid., 120. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid. 10. Mounir Chamoun, “Problèmes de la famille au Liban,” Travaux et Jours,no.25 (Beyrouth 1967), 27–30. 11. Translation, Marie-Claude Thomas. 12. Claude Levi-Strauss, Les structures, 47. 13. University Saint Joseph, La génération désenchantée, L’ Or i e n t - L e Jo u r, 2002. 14. L’Orient Le Jour, “L’Appartenance communautaire dicte largement les mariages des Libanaises à des étrangers,” July 20, 2009. 15. A closer examination of these unions reveals that Lebanese Sunnis tended to choose foreign spouses that are Palestinian refugees, Syrian, or Egyptian; Shi’i women often married Iraqis, Syrians, or Egyptians; and Christian women most often chose Syrian, American, French, and to a lesser extent Palestinian or Egyptian husbands. 16. Gospel According to Matthew 10: 1–12. 17. Hanna Malek, Al-ahwal, Al-shakhsiyya wa-mahakimuha fil-tawa’if al masihiyya fi Suriyya wa Lubnan (Beirut: Dar el Nashr, 1972), 96. 18. Robert Clément, Le mariage chrétien au Liban (Paris: Etudes, 1981), 665–678. 19. Ibid., 674. 20. Mounir Chamoun, Problèmes, 39. 21. Alex and Magda are the given names for this case study. I have not disclosed their real names for privacy reasons. 22. Phares Zoghbi, “Le Mariage civil et la laïcité,” L’Orient Le Jour, August 12, 2009. Notes ● 225 23. Mounir Chamoun, Le Mariage, 39: “à côté du mariage religieux qui prendrait alors la valeur d’un signe d’engagement plus personnel dans la vie de l’Église et d’un désir de vie spirituelle plus profonde, le mariage civil permettrait la générali- sation du régime matrimonial monogamique et l’exogamie communautaire dont le Liban a besoin pour homogénéiser ses assises sociales.” Chapter 4 1. In the United States, each state provides licenses to citizens interested in becoming a notary public.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • H. Res. 1088 in the House of Representatives, U
    H. Res. 1088 In the House of Representatives, U. S., December 8, 2006. Whereas on November 21, 2006, Pierre Gemayel, a Member of the March 14 parliamentary coalition, was assas- sinated in New Jdeide´, north of Beirut, Lebanon; Whereas a series of targeted attacks and killings of public leaders working to promote democracy and autonomy in Lebanon has placed a heavy toll on Lebanon’s intellectual and democratic freedoms; Whereas the prosecution by the proposed International Inde- pendent Investigation Commission of persons accused in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri could deter future assassinations; Whereas Pierre Gemayel was born on September 24, 1972, into a prominent Lebanese family; Whereas Pierre Gemayel was first elected to the Lebanese Parliament in 2000; Whereas Pierre Gemayel was named Minister of Industry in the Lebanese Government in 2005; Whereas Amine Gemayel, the father of Pierre Gemayel and former President of Lebanon, has urged the Phalange party supporters and all Lebanese citizens to promote co- operation and solidarity and hamper attempts to instigate civil strife; 2 Whereas, on November 21, 2006, following Pierre Gemayel’s assassination, President George W. Bush stated that ‘‘the United States remains fully committed to sup- porting Lebanon’s independence and democracy in the face of attempts by Syria, Iran, and their allies within Lebanon to foment instability and violence’’; Whereas supporting the development of democratic institu- tions in Lebanon is critical to promoting the interests of the
    [Show full text]
  • The Mardinite Community in Lebanon: Migration of Mardin’S People
    Report No: 208, March 2017 THE MARDINITE COMMUNITY IN LEBANON: MIGRATION OF MARDIN’S PEOPLE ORTADOĞU STRATEJİK ARAŞTIRMALAR MERKEZİ CENTER FOR MIDDLE EASTERN STRATEGIC STUDIES ORSAM Süleyman Nazif Sokak No: 12-B Çankaya / Ankara Tel: 0 (312) 430 26 09 Fax: 0 (312) 430 39 48 www.orsam.org.tr, [email protected] THE MARDINITE COMMUNITY IN LEBANON: MIGRATION OF MARDIN’S PEOPLE ORSAM Report No: 208 March 2017 ISBN: 978-605-9157-17-9 Ankara - TURKEY ORSAM © 2017 Content of this report is copyrighted to ORSAM. Except reasonable and partial quotation and use under the Act No. 5846, Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works, via proper citation, the content may not be used or republished without prior permission by ORSAM. The views expressed in this report reflect only the opinions of its authors and do not represent the institutional opinion of ORSAM. By: Ayşe Selcan ÖZDEMİRCİ, Middle East Instutute Sakarya University ORSAM 2 Report No: 208, March 2017 İçindekiler Preface ................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 10 1. THE MARDINITES AS A SUBALTERN GROUP ..............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War and Hezbollah by Megan
    Momentary Memorials: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War and Hezbollah By Megan Elizabeth Miller Department of Art and Art History, University of Colorado Boulder Defended on 4 November, 2014 Thesis Advisor: Dr. Kira van Lil Defense Committee: Dr. Kira van Lil, Department of Art and Art History Dr. Robert Nauman, Department of Art and Art History Frances Charteris, Program for Writing and Rhetoric Miller 2 Abstract The Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) is a product of its diverse participating factions. With more than a dozen political, religious, and social parties, the streets of Lebanon became flooded with contradicting political imageries, influencing public perception of the ‘other’ and inciting military action. Their unique role in Lebanon’s political atmosphere allows such graphics to transcend mere propaganda to become physical sites of memorialization, despite their ephemerality. Posters exhibiting martyrs, political icons, and spiritual references control viewers’ field of vision and prompt their physical accumulation around the images, much like one would see at a funeral or sculptural memorial. These images give cause for public commemoration. Though several militias are disbanded at the end of the civil war, Hezbollah gains notoriety for its rapid advancement, made possible, in part, by the party’s media strategies. Once dominated by images of martyrs, Hezbollah posters begin to memorialize moments in time – their subject matter as ephemeral as their medium. This thesis is an examination of political poster aesthetics and how such is situated within the larger discourses of art history and graphic design, ultimately arguing for Lebanon’s prominent role as an artistic hub in the Middle East.
    [Show full text]
  • Lebanon's Political Dynamics
    Lebanon’s political dynamics: population, religion and the region Salma Mahmood * As the Lebanese political crisis deepens, it becomes imperative to examine its roots and find out if there is a pattern to the present predicament, in examination of the past. Upon tracing the historical background, it becomes evident that the Lebanese socio-political system has been influenced by three major factors: the population demographic, regional atmosphere and sub-national identity politics. Though not an anomaly, Lebanon is one of the few remaining consociational democracies1 in the world. However, with the current political deadlock in the country, it is questionable how long this system will sustain. This article will take a thematic approach and begin with the historical precedent in each context linking it to the current situation for a better comprehension of the multifaceted nuclei shaping the country‟s turbulent course. Population Demographics Majority of the causal explanations cited to comprehend the contemporary religio-political problems confronting the Middle East have their roots in the imperialist games. Hence, it is in the post First World War French mandate that we find the foundations of the Lebanese paradigm. In 1919, the French decision was taken to concede the Maronite demands and grant the state of a Greater Lebanon. Previously, under the Ottoman rule, there existed an autonomous district of Lebanon consisting solely of Mount Lebanon and a 1914 population of about 400,000; four-fifth Christian and one-fifth Muslim. Amongst
    [Show full text]
  • CITY in SCENES Beirut City Center S C C S O L M E I P D O I E E B M I O R E I E E R P U N
    r e t 2011 n e C y t i C t u r i e B MOMENTUM OF PLACE, PEOPLE IN MOTION: S E N CITY E C S N I IN Y T I C SCEN ES Beirut City Center T R O P E R L A U N N A E R E D I L O S 1 1 0 2 SOLIDERE ANNUAL REPORT Cities are made of scenes. Scenes that reflect how people move, congregate, pause, and adopt behaviors in the urban environment. These are the patterns that inspire our cityscapes. *** MOMENTUM OF PLACE, PEOPLE IN MOTION: CITY IN SCENES * SOLIDERE ANNUAL REPORT 2 0 1 1 * Foreword Characters make entrances and exits from the stage of reality just as cities trace the contours of civilizations through time. The currents of trade, conquest, and knowledge have, for millennia, propelled the history of the Mediterranean Basin. The people, architecture, and urban landscapes of its eastern port Beirut refract, like a prism, the stories that have accrued on this land throughout the centuries. Meditative and introspective, the Solidere Annual Report 2011 observes how people inhabit the spaces of Beirut city center. Just as the photography and text shed light on the trajectory of the built environment – its recon- struction, development, and future, so too does the Annual Report contemplate character and how individuals con- stitute architecture and place. Seasoned photojournalist Ziyah Gafic captures the latent dialogue between people and architecture. His camera turns quietly around the corner to eavesdrop on soft chatter in a garden. He peers up an outdoor staircase to follow the clacking of heels.
    [Show full text]
  • An-Nahar, One of Lebanon's Most Influential Daily Newspapers
    Four Generations of Tuenis at the Helm • Gebran Tueni founded An-Nahar in 1933. An-Nahar • Ghassan Tueni took over in 1947, when his father died. An-Nahar became the most authoritative and credible paper in the Arab region. Where History Lives • Gebran Tueni served as editor-in-chief from 2003 to 2005, when his life was cut short. His father Ghassan took over again until his death in 2012. n-Nahar, one of Lebanon’s most influential daily newspapers, • Nayla Tueni is the current deputy general manager of An-Nahar. Nayla A is 85 years old. It is considered Lebanon’s “paper of record.” American- is a journalist and a member of the Lebanese Parliament, like her late British author and journalist Charles Glass, who specializes in the Middle father Gebran had been. East, called An-Nahar “Lebanon’s New York Times.” Its archives’ tagline is: “The memory of Lebanon and the Arab world since 1933. What many don’t know is that the newspaper's offices themselves are a living memorial to its martyrs and a museum of its history. At the same time, it is still an active newsroom, where journalists report both for the paper and for annahar.com, the online version launched in 2012. Inside the tall glass tower at the northwest corner of Beirut’s Downtown, known as the An-Nahar building, Gebran Tueni’s On the desk is frozen morning in time. A slip of Dec. 12, of paper with Ghassan Tueni handwritten received the notes, a news that his business card only surviving and a small son was stack of books murdered.
    [Show full text]
  • Minority Rights Group International : Lebanon : Maronites
    Minority Rights Group International : Lebanon : Maronites World Directory of Minorities Middle East MRG Directory –> Lebanon –> Maronites Maronites Profile An estimated 860,000 Maronites are in Lebanon, home of the Maronite Church. Originally Aramaic speakers, today Maronites speak Arabic, but use Syriac as a liturgical language. Historical context The Maronite Church traces its origins to Mar Marun, a fourth century hermit. Byzantine persecution on doctrinal grounds and conflict between Muslim and Byzantine forces drove the Maronites from the Syrian plain to the safety of the Qadisha Gorge of northern Lebanon. The Maronite Church was the only Eastern Church to cooperate fully with the Latin Crusaders, seeking union with Rome in 1182. Union was formalized circa 1584, when a Maronite college was established in Rome, the result of increasing contact between the two churches in the intervening period. Rome recognized the Patriarch of the Maronite Church and the Patriarch recognized papal supremacy. The Maronites traditionally inhabited the northern reaches of Mount Lebanon and also the south, from Jezzine down to the present Israeli border, but began to spread into Druze areas, providing their services to Druze landlords in the Matn and Shuf. During the nineteenth century, they eclipsed the Druze economically and then politically, the middle years punctuated by major confrontations culminating in Druze massacres of Christians in 1860. Thereafter, France oversaw the protected status of Mount Lebanon (until 1943) in close consultation with the Maronite Patriarch, who remained a key determinant of political authority until the civil war in 1975. When it was clear that the demographic balance was changing in the early 1970s, the Maronite leadership opposed constitutional compromise and tried to preserve its effective hegemony over a pro-Western republic.
    [Show full text]
  • WARS and WOES a Chronicle of Lebanese Violence1
    The Levantine Review Volume 1 Number 1 (Spring 2012) OF WARS AND WOES A Chronicle of Lebanese Violence1 Mordechai Nisan* In the subconscious of most Lebanese is the prevalent notion—and the common acceptance of it—that the Maronites are the “head” of the country. ‘Head’ carries here a double meaning: the conscious thinking faculty to animate and guide affairs, and the locus of power at the summit of political office. While this statement might seem outrageous to those unversed in the intricacies of Lebanese history and its recent political transformations, its veracity is confirmed by Lebanon’s spiritual mysteries, the political snarls and brinkmanship that have defined its modern existence, and the pluralistic ethno-religious tapestry that still dominates its demographic makeup. Lebanon’s politics are a clear representation of, and a response to, this seminal truth. The establishment of modern Lebanon in 1920 was the political handiwork of Maronites—perhaps most notable among them the community’s Patriarch, Elias Peter Hoyek (1843-1931), and public intellectual and founder of the Alliance Libanaise, Daoud Amoun (1867-1922).2 In recognition of this debt, the President of the Lebanese Republic has by tradition been always a Maronite; the country’s intellectual, cultural, and political elites have hailed largely from the ranks of the Maronite community; and the Patriarch of the Maronite Church in Bkirke has traditionally held sway as chief spiritual and moral figure in the ceremonial and public conduct of state affairs. In the unicameral Lebanese legislature, the population decline of the Christians as a whole— Maronites, Greek Orthodox, Catholics, and Armenians alike—has not altered the reality of the Maronites’ pre-eminence; equal confessional parliamentary representation, granting Lebanon’s Christians numerical parity with Muslims, still defines the country’s political conventions.
    [Show full text]
  • Fares Bozeid Moujaes
    1 Fares Bozeid Moujaes At the time of the emara lfred woke up in the early hours of the day, as was customary for him. He Awore his dark gray striped suit and white shirt that bore his initials, and he sat on the porch on his caned wooden seat. He faced the garden and the Mamluk- style fountain, his back to the household through the entrance door, open as always. He sat there, as did the farm owners in his dear Louisiana on their rocking chairs on a hot day, passing the time and talking to the passersby. His wife, Najibeh, prepared coffee for him, a whole pot, which she placed in front of him with the small, cone-shaped cup that held small measures, enough for just one sip, or shaffeh as it is called. Of shaffehs he will have many, whether freshly brewed or cold, as he will sit there all day only moving to the dining table, the sufra, when called for lunch, which Najibeh dexterously prepares for her large family. Alfred never set foot in Najibeh’s kitchen, not that he couldn’t brew his own coffee, but she wouldn’t allow it. “Men should be served,” she would say and motion him off to his throne whenever he came close to suggesting he help himself. In the house, she laid down the law, to the extent that Alfred more than once suggested, “She should wear the pants.” Strong she was, yet she never deviated from the age-old social intricacies that reflected the conservative and patriarchal tendencies so prevalent in the Middle East.
    [Show full text]
  • Beirut 1 Electoral District
    The 2018 Lebanese Parliamentary Elections: What Do the Numbers Say? Beirut 1 Electoral Report District Georgia Dagher +"/ Beirut 1 Founded in 1989, the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies is a Beirut-based independent, non-partisan think tank whose mission is to produce and advocate policies that improve good governance in fields such as oil and gas, economic development, public finance, and decentralization. This report is published in partnership with HIVOS through the Women Empowered for Leadership (WE4L) programme, funded by the Netherlands Foreign Ministry FLOW fund. Copyright© 2021 The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies Designed by Polypod Executed by Dolly Harouny Sadat Tower, Tenth Floor P.O.B 55-215, Leon Street, Ras Beirut, Lebanon T: + 961 1 79 93 01 F: + 961 1 79 93 02 [email protected] www.lcps-lebanon.org The 2018 Lebanese Parliamentary Elections: What Do the Numbers Say? Beirut 1 Electoral District Georgia Dagher Georgia Dagher is a researcher at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies. Her research focuses on parliamentary representation, namely electoral behavior and electoral reform. She has also previously contributed to LCPS’s work on international donors conferences and reform programs. She holds a degree in Politics and Quantitative Methods from the University of Edinburgh. The author would like to thank Sami Atallah, Daniel Garrote Sanchez, Ayman Makarem, and Micheline Tobia for their contribution to this report. 2 LCPS Report Executive Summary Lebanese citizens were finally given the opportunity to renew their political representation in 2018—nine years after the previous parliamentary elections. Despite this, voters in Beirut 1 were weakly mobilized, and the district had the lowest turnout rate across the country.
    [Show full text]
  • The Case of Hezbollah in Lebanon by Mohamad Ibrahim BA, Lebanese
    Survival through restrained institutionalization: The case of Hezbollah in Lebanon by Mohamad Ibrahim B.A., Lebanese American University, 2017 A THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS Department of Security Studies College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2019 Approved by: Major Professor Dr. Carla Martinez-Machain Copyright © Mohamad Ibrahim 2019. Abstract This thesis is an in-depth exploration of the evolving nature of domestic strategies adopted by Lebanon’s Hezbollah since its foundation in 1985 until the contemporary time. Based on Joel Migdal’s contributions to the literature on state-society relations, and Samuel Huntington’s understanding of institutionalization, it seeks to highlight and explain important transformations in Hezbollah’s political program, its sustained acquisition of arms, its social mobilization strategy, and its sensitive relationship with a de jure sovereign yet de facto weak Lebanese consociational system. The study proposes an explanation that combines Hezbollah’s ability to take advantage of the segmental autonomy that characterizes the power-sharing arrangements governing the Lebanese political system, and the overall existing political opportunity structure. The core argument is that Hezbollah has been able to become a powerful non-state actor through a process of restrained institutionalization which takes into consideration the need to sustain popular support on one hand, and the sensitive intricacies of Lebanon’s consociational system on the other hand. In other words, Hezbollah has invested its capacities in a way that maximizes its power in the existing political system, while remaining institutionally autonomous to a relative extent from it, and therefore becoming able to pursue its independent interests.
    [Show full text]
  • Remaking Beirut: Contesting Memory, Space, and the Urban Imaginary of Lebanese Youth
    Remaking Beirut: Contesting Memory, Space, and the Urban Imaginary of Lebanese Youth Craig Larkin∗ University of Exeter Throughout the centuries Beirut has had an endless capacity for reinvention and transformation, a consequence of migration, conquest, trade, and internal conflict. The last three decades have witnessed the city center’s violent self-destruction, its commercial resurrection, and most recently its national contestation, as opposi- tional political forces have sought to mobilize mass demonstrations and occupy strategic space. While research has been directed to the transformative processes and the principal actors involved, little attention has been given to how the next generation of Lebanese are negotiating Beirut’s rehabilitation. This article seeks to address this lacuna, by exploring how postwar youth remember, imagine, and spatially encounter their city. How does Beirut’s rebuilt urban landscape, with its remnants of war, sites of displacement, and transformed environs, affect and in- form identity, social interaction, and perceptions of the past? Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s analysis of the social construction of space (perceived, conceived, and lived) and probing the inherent tensions within postwar youths’ encounters with history, memory, and heritage, the article presents a dynamic and complex urban imaginary of Beirut. An examination of key urban sites (Solidere’s` Down Town) and significant temporal moments (Independence Intifada) reveals three recur- ring tensions evident in Lebanese youth’s engagement with their city: dislocation and liberation, spectacle and participant, pluralism and fracture. This article seeks to encourage wider discussion on the nature of postwar recovery and the construc- tion of rehabilitated public space, amidst the backdrop of global consumerism and heritage campaigns.
    [Show full text]