Three weeks after a catastrophic explosion ripped through Beirut, killing nearly 200 people and rendering thousands homeless, the change many hoped for is nowhere in sight. Instead, activists said they are back to square one.
The same politicians whose corruption and negligence the public blames for the disaster are negotiating among themselves over forming a new government. Calls for early elections have petered out. To devastated Beirutis, still sweeping shards of glass and fixing broken homes, the blast revealed the extent to which an entrenched system of patronage remains impervious to reform.
In fact, the tools that the ruling elite have used to ensure a lock on power the past 30 years are only more powerful.
Rising poverty amid a severe economic crisis gives them greater leverage, with more people desperate for the income their patronage provides. Their grip on electoral politics was made tighter by an election law they passed in 2017, making it harder for independents to win seats. And there are armed groups affiliated with political parties.
“Basically, we have no way to force them out,” said Nizar Hassan, a civil activist and an organizer with LiHaqqi, a political movement active in the October mass anti-government protests.
Lebanon’s political parties are strictly sectarian, each rooted in one of the country’s multiple religious or ethnic communities. Most are headed by sectarian warlords from Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war — or their families — who stand at the top of powerful local business holdings. The factions pass out positions in government ministries and public institutions to their followers or carve out business sectors for them, ensuring their backing.
Opposition parties that cross sectarian lines with a reform agenda struggle to break that barrier. They are divided and lack grassroots support. They have also increasingly been met with brute force by security agencies.
Street protests have been dramatic. But the array of anti-government movements were not sizable enough to push for sea-change reforms, Hassan said.
“To seize the moment, you need people on grassroots level that are ready to announce they support it, and this doesn’t really exist in Lebanon,” he said.
Civic movements like LiHaqqi are not well-financed, face intimidation and can hardly afford to book airtime on mainstream channels, where elites are regular talking heads.
A sliver of hope is found in growing support from businessmen who once financed elites but have become increasingly frustrated, Hassan and other activists said.
Business owners began having a change of heart around the beginning of the year, as the economy deteriorated, hyperinflation flared and many people fell into poverty, said Paul Abi Nasr, a member of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists.
“The business community used to stay out of this from fear of retribution on their businesses,” he said. “But with the situation so dire already, a lot are now much more forthcoming.”
That has translated into a small stream of money to civil groups, though limited to covering organization and lobbying.
Industrialists and businessmen have helped prop up the patronage system, but most “were forced to play along,” Abi Nasr said. Politicians helped businesses in return for kickbacks and political support when needed.
Those in government who have witnessed the system from the inside maintain it cannot reform itself.
“People like me, after years in the world of government, basically feel that the system is immune to reform,” said Khalil Gebara, who left his job as an adviser to the Interior Ministry.
“But at the same point, the total collapse of the system will unleash a Pandora’s box of all kinds of sectarian conflicts,” said Gebara, now a consultant to the World Bank. “I don’t know what I should hope for.”
The wake-up call for Lebanon’s activists came not during the October uprising, when tens of thousands took to the streets in protest against the corrupt political class, but four years ago when Beirut held municipal elections.
It was the first time that a candidate slate emerging from a protest movement, Beirut Madinati, won in an electoral district. The small victory emboldened activists to look to polls to bring change.
It also spooked elites. The following year, they passed a new electoral law. It created a proportional representation system that ostensibly aimed to address demands of civil society and improve representation for minority sects.
But they “gerrymandered every aspect of the law in order to ensure that all political parties in power will be re-elected and none of the voices in the opposition could be,” said elections expert Amal Hamdan.
Under the law, a special formula determines the minimum threshold of votes for candidates to win seats. The factions worked to ensure those thresholds were high — ranging from 8% to 20% — and difficult for independents to gain, lawmakers and advisers with knowledge of the drafting of the law said.
In the south, for example. Shiite Hezbollah rejected proposals for a 5% threshold and arranged one as high as 20%, said Chantal Sarkis, an expert in political affairs and former adviser to Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces throughout negotiations over the law.
Activists like Hassan said the core problem lies with lack of grassroots support to initiate real political change. “When it comes to actual political dominance over the social fabric — everything is really manifest on local level.”
In his home district in the Chouf, where former warlord and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is dominant, LiHaqqi supporters faced intimidation on the ground during the 2018 general election, Hassan said.
The father of one activist was sacked from his government job; mothers begged their activist children to stop canvassing in case powerful politicians got wind; others said they would vote for establishment parties because they wanted jobs. Not a single village allowed them to hold public events.
In the wake of the Aug. 4 explosion, when nearly 3,000 tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate ignited at the Beirut port, political parties have set up field offices offering humanitarian and other assistance to victims.
Now with the falling Lebanese lira, Hassan fears establishment parties have more clout than before.
“It’s even cheaper for them to buy people.”
Weeks after blast, Lebanon patronage system immune to reform
https://arab.news/j2pw2
Weeks after blast, Lebanon patronage system immune to reform
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2020/08/25/2242811-555510708.jpg?itok=cpTYgx1U)
- The array of anti-government movements were not sizable enough to push for sea-change reforms, an activist said
Jordan and Qatar condemn burning of Gaza hospital by Israeli forces
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2024/12/27/4558457-2039343665.jpg?itok=uyUUE4gS)
- Actions of troops are a ‘heinous war crime’ and ‘blatant violation of international law and humanitarian law,’ Jordanian Foreign Ministry says
- Qatar calls it a ‘dangerous escalation’ with potentially ‘dire consequences for the security and stability of the region’
LONDON: Jordan has described the actions of Israeli forces in clearing and burning one of the last hospitals that was still operating in northern Gaza as a “heinous war crime.”
Troops stormed the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia on Friday, forcing staff and patients from the building and setting fire to it.
Sufian Al-Qudah, a spokesperson for Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the attack was a “blatant violation of international law and humanitarian law. Israel is also held accountable for the safety of the hospital’s patients and medical staff.”
Jordan categorically rejects the “systematic targeting of medical personnel and facilities,” he added, and this was an attempt to destroy facilities “essential to the survival of the people in the northern Gaza Strip.”
Al-Qudah urged the international community to put pressure on Israel to halt its attacks on civilians in Gaza.
Qatar also denounced “in the strongest terms” the attack on the hospital as a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.
The country’s Foreign Ministry said it represented a “dangerous escalation of the ongoing confrontations, which threatens dire consequences for the security and stability of the region,” and called for the protection of the “hundreds of patients, wounded individuals and medical staff” from the hospital.
UN worker seriously hurt in Israeli Yemen strike moved to Jordan, WHO says
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2024/12/27/4558451-1978357288.jpeg?itok=ENlRPj6E)
- WHO chief Tedros was at Sanaa airport with his team when Israel attacked
ZURICH: The UN worker hurt in an Israeli air strike on Yemen’s main international airport on Thursday suffered serious injuries and has been evacuated to Jordan for further treatment, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
Israel said it had struck multiple targets linked to the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport, and Houthi media said at least six people had been killed.
“Attacks on civilians and humanitarians must stop, everywhere. #NotATarget,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that showed him sitting in a plane looking across at what appeared to be the injured man.
Tedros was at the airport waiting to depart when the aerial bombardment took place that injured the man, who worked for the UN Humanitarian Air Service. A spokesperson for the WHO said the man had been seriously injured.
Tedros said he and the UN worker were now in Jordan.
The man underwent a successful surgical procedure prior to his evacuation for further treatment, Tedros said.
He had been in Yemen to negotiate the release of detained UN staff and to assess the humanitarian situation.
Jordan’s King Abdullah reaffirms support for Syria’s sovereignty, calls for Gaza ceasefire
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2024/12/27/4558449-1670559000.jpg?itok=U2JvyCGO)
- King in phone conversation with French president
AMMAN: King Abdullah II reaffirmed on Friday Jordan’s commitment to supporting Syria in building a free, independent, and fully sovereign state that reflected the aspirations of all its people.
In a phone conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron, the king emphasized the importance of Syria’s security, and stability for the Middle East region as a whole. He also reiterated Jordan’s firm stance against any violations of Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, Jordan News Agency reported.
Syria faced nearly 14 years of devastating civil war before the fall of President Bashar Assad’s regime earlier this month following a swift takeover by militants led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham.
The country remains fragmented, grappling with the challenges of rebuilding amid competing political and military influences.
The discussion between King Abdullah and Macron also addressed the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
The conflict, which erupted in the aftermath of a Hamas attack on Israeli territory on Oct. 7 last year, has led to a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave, with tens of thousands of lives lost and infrastructure heavily damaged.
King Abdullah called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and a strengthened humanitarian response to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians trapped there.
He also stressed the urgent need for progress toward a just and comprehensive peace in the region, underscoring the two-state solution as the basis for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
King Abdullah highlighted the importance of sustained efforts to ensure the success of the ceasefire in Lebanon.
Syrian equestrian champ reveals 21 years of torture at hands of Assad regime
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2024/12/27/4558447-1786260810.png?itok=WuYUqiLO)
- Adnan Kassar was friends with Bassel Assad until overshadowing him at a championship event in 1993
- Kassar was detained, and his treatment worsened after Bassel’s death a year later
LONDON: A former champion equestrian has revealed the torture he suffered when he was detained by the Syrian regime after besting the older brother of former ruler Bashar Assad.
Adnan Kassar told Sky News he endured 21 years of imprisonment, during which he was physically and mentally abused, after Bassel Assad, his teammate at the 1993 International Equestrian Championship, became irritated at his performances.
The two had been good friends, but Kassar’s showing won his team the gold medal at the event on home soil in the port city of Latakia, after Bassel had produced a poor display.
“The crowd lifted me on their shoulders. It was a moment of pure joy, but for Bassel, it wasn’t the same. That day marked the beginning of my nightmare,” Kassar told Sky.
He was later arrested over what he called “fabricated” accusations and subjected to severe physical and psychological abuse.
“I was kept underground for six months, beaten constantly, and interrogated without end,” he said.
Bassel had originally been tipped to succeed his father, Hafez Assad, as Syria’s ruler. However, Bassel died in a car crash in 1994, propelling the younger Bashar to power.
For Kassar, though, Bassel’s death only made his situation more dire, as he was transferred to Sednaya Prison, where “the torture only got worse.”
Kassar said: “They blamed me for his death. Every year on the anniversary of his passing, the torture intensified.”
He was later sent to Tadmur Prison for seven-and-a-half years.
“They pierced my ear one morning and broke my jaw in the evening,” Kassar said. “For praying, they lashed me 1,000 times. My feet were torn apart, my bones exposed.”
Kassar was released in 2014 after a campaign of appeals by international human rights groups. For years, he resisted discussing his time in captivity for fear of reprisals but felt ready to speak after the fall of the Assad family.
“After years of imprisonment, torture, and injustice, the revolution finally toppled the dictatorial regime,” he said.
Iran FM warns against ‘destructive interference’ in Syria’s future
![](https://www.arabnews.pk/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2024/12/27/4558423-1836023604.jpg?itok=xg4IcOfz)
- Abbas Araghchi: Iran ‘considers the decision-making about the future of Syria to be the sole responsibility of the people... without destructive interference or foreign imposition’
BEIJING: Iran’s top diplomat warned Friday against “destructive interference” in Syria’s future and said decisions should lie solely with the country’s people, writing in Chinese state media as he visited Beijing.
Abbas Araghchi touched down in the Chinese capital on Friday afternoon, Iranian state media reported, to begin his first official visit to the country since being appointed foreign minister.
China and Iran were both supporters of ousted Syrian president Bashar Assad.
Assad fled Syria this month after an Islamist-led offensive wrested city after city from his control, with the capital Damascus falling on December 8.
Iran “considers the decision-making about the future of Syria to be the sole responsibility of the people... without destructive interference or foreign imposition,” Araghchi wrote in a Chinese-language article in People’s Daily published on Friday.
He also emphasized Iran’s respect for Syria’s “unity, national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Iran’s supreme leader – a key backer of Assad’s administration – predicted on Sunday “the emergence of a strong, honorable group” that would stand against “insecurity” in Syria.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Syria’s young men would “stand with strength and determination against those who have designed this insecurity and those who have implemented it, and God willing, he will overcome them.”
In People’s Daily, Araghchi said supporting the Syrian people was a “definite principle (that) should be taken into consideration by all the actors.”
Beijing had also built strong ties with Assad – he met President Xi Jinping in China last year, where the two leaders announced a “strategic partnership.”
China has affirmed its support for the Syrian people and has said it opposes terrorist forces taking advantage of the situation to create chaos.
Araghchi’s two-day visit will include talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, according to Iran’s foreign ministry.
China is Iran’s largest trade partner, and a top buyer of its sanctioned oil.
Xi pledged in October to increase ties with Iran during talks with his counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian in Russia on the sidelines of a BRICS summit.
Araghchi told reporters in a video published by Iranian state media as he arrived in Beijing that the visit was taking place “at a very suitable time.”
“Now it is natural that there are sensitive situations, both the region has various tensions, and there are various issues at the international level, also our nuclear issue in the new year will face a situation that needs more consultations,” he said.
“The invitation of our Chinese friends was for this reason, that at the beginning of the new year... we should think together, consult and be ready for the challenges that will come.”
He wrote in his editorial that Iran and China shared the “common view” that calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza was the biggest priority in the Middle East.