Thread by mayamikdashi: I may be wrong, but in addition to calls to just dismantle ’#sectarianism' [structurally, this would mean dismantling & replacing both c…
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The non-structural
part of sectarianism is many things, but one of the most difficult & necessary conversations needed is about lack of trust & resentment between communities of people in Lebanon. These feelings are usually channeled into sectarian discourse but are larger &more complicated & I
think more tender (bc of a confused feeling of betrayal]. For example, how can people from South #Lebanon trust #Lebanese politicians who CLAIM [this is important, sectarian discourse is an ATTEMPT to fold events into it & stake a claim over the affective registers it fosters] to represent “sunni” & “christian” Lebanese were in contact with the USA & by proxy Israel during the 2006 war? How can Beirutis trust anyone who voted for Aoun, after he bombed them using the Lebanese Army during the civil war? I won’t even broach the subject of Geagea
How can Palestinians in Lebanon ever look at anyone who has a picture of Bashir Gemeyel on their wall? what do the residents of Tal El Zaatar think & feel about Amal supporters? How can anyone from the north trust people who cheer for leaders who were only leaders because they
turned a blind eye to & got rich off the abuses & excesses of the Syrian army in Lebanon? How can we talk about the pain of 2008 without getting into a sectarian mudfight? How can someone from Souk El Gharb etc etc really the list is endless, which makes it more necessary imho
These are conversations we have been actively stopped from having, since the grand warlord bargain of the amnesty law thirty years ago. This is not an accident
Our so called sectarian leaders are more scared of us having these conversations than we are, because they know
A-these histories are larger than & cannot be contained by sectarian discourse [think class, nationality, region, sex]
B-they thrive on fostering base fears & know within communities & the whole country [including them] sectarianism can b a tactic more than a subjectivity
C-you can only feel betrayed by someone if you cared or expected otherwise from them in the first place