Israeli media these days is filled with stories about the prisoner swap and in almost every one of these stories there is someone calling the Lebanese people disgusting or pathetic or monstrous because they are celebrating the return of a brutal child-killer who bashed the head of a 4-year-old with the butt of his rifle. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert himself said, “I pity the people who are celebrating at this time the release of an animal who crushed the skull of a little girl of four.” And I agree… Anyone who celebrates such a brutal man would likely be disgusting, pathetic or monstrous.For this argument to work, however, two conditions need to be met: (1) the Lebanese people should be aware of the details of the 1979 Naharia attack and (2) they should believe it. And here’s the catch: they don’t.
I don’t have any kind of statistics on the matter, so I might not be able to convince you, but believe me when I say that a lot (if not most) Lebanese have never heard the four-year-old child head-bashing story. I know this because, among the people I know (who are educated middle-class people with multiple university degrees, who live outside Lebanon), many were surprised to hear the story. I myself had not heard that story until after the July 2006 war when my sister (who was living in the US at that time) mentioned it to me to argue against the capture of the two Israeli soldiers.
For those who have heard that version of the story, many of them do not believe it. And why should they? It is important to note that Kuntar himself maintains a different story. His version, as told by his brother, claims that he was on a mission to capture Dan Harran, a nuclear scientist, and other hostages if possible, in order to exchange them in a prisoner swap. The operation went wrong and the policeman was killed in the ensuing gun battle and Harran and his daughter were killed in the crossfire. After his release he also described in more detail the events of that story, claiming he wouldn't have even kidnapped Haran's daughter if the latter hadn't insisted she stays with him. But regardless of which version of the story is true, it is easy to assume that on the Lebanese side, most people are going to believe Kuntar’s story.
The bottom line is that when passing moral judgment, we must look at how people behave given their own beliefs, not someone else’s. The Lebanese people aren’t a bunch of disgusting pathetic monsters. They believe they are celebrating the return of one of them who has spent 29 years in jail after being captured while on a mission to serve his cause. What the Israelis think of that person and what they believe he did is irrelevant.
Photo by Getty Images/AFP
5 comments:
I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that for two very strong reasons.
The first is this: The reason you don't have statistics on this issue is cause there aren't any and it's probably not true. I don't why you would even conclude that. For one, I am a middle class Lebanese with multiple degrees living abroad. I am a supporter of Hezbollah's role as a resistance and was behind them all the way throughout the war and even made some excuses for them during the opposition phase for two whole years. But I do believe the story and I see no reason why I shouldn't.
This brings me to my second point. I don't think there is a reasonable moral compass that would justify bashing a 4 year-old's head with rifle. I don't care who she is and what her grandparents and parents did. To that end, I think it is the duty of every Lebanese who celebrated Quntar's return to take a deep look inside themselves and then seriously research what really happened before making a judgment on this issue.
Unfortunately, I think not many people care about that. It's all about politics in the end and we support who we support regardless of what they do. This is the sad state of our nation.
Dear Khaled,
Regarding your first condition that needs to be met in order for the aforementioned argument to work - Ignorance is not an excuse. After all, let me remind you how we take pleasure bashing Americans for their ignorance repeatedly saying that "ignorance does not relieve them from responsibility".
As for the second condition - if people opt to not believe something, nothing would make them act to the contrary. If it wasn't Quntar, who did crush that girls skull? Please don't insult my intelligence and tell me it was the IDF soldiers at the scene.
Finally, I did not conduct a study to measure how many of the educated middle-class Lebanese don't believe the story. But I came across the following Lebanese blog post and commentary:
http://beirutspring.com/blog/2008/07/15/the-pr-battle-over-samir-kuntar/#comments
http://www.ouwet.com/n10452/lebanon/dont-free-the-monster-samir-kuntar/
http://mslevantine.blogspot.com/2008/07/filth-and-fury.html
http://lebop.blogspot.com/2008/07/qantar-is-criminal.html
http://lebanon.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2008/07/15/whats-there-to-celebrate/
Now you should have some data to start with :)
Ok, I'll try to be brief. The two comments made several points and I'll try to address as many of them as I can.
On the issue of the belief or non-belief, we have to distinguish between judging people as ignorant or closed-minded and judging them as immoral. If the people have not done the research and based their judgment solely on the Hezbollah propaganda, then they are guilty of ignorance. If the people decided not to believe the Israeli story simply because it's the Israeli story, we can say they are guilty of close-mindedness by choosing to believe only the facts that they feel comfortable with believing. But the point I am trying to make is that, given that there are people out there who indeed do not believe the story or are unaware of it, for whatever reason. Are they immoral for celebrating? Or are they simply ignorant and/or brainwashed?
Yes we bash Americans because they're ignorant of the world they rule, but not because they are immoral.
My final point concerning whether the Lebanese who celebrated Kuntar's release do in fact believe the Israeli story or not: when we look at these people who have glorified Kuntar in the way that they did and who obviously hate Israel's down to their last bone, is it so far-fetched to assume that these same people are more likely to believe his story than that of Israel?
When celebrations are based on such ignorance, then it gets to be bad.
To the issue of ignorance: These people are celebrating someone as a hero and never bother to ask what it is that he has done. It is not as though they simply allowed something to happen based on this ignorance, but based on this very ignorance, the whole country (including political leaders from every camp) hailed this man and celebrated him. Can't anyone in the whole country use the internet, google his name and recognize what he has (even only possibly) done? Isn't ignorance of one you are celebrating a pretty bad crime? Had the issue or question of what he had done been raised in the media, then the story would have been a little different, but in all Lebanese media, this was not even an issue.
And for those who end up believing his story and not the Israeli version, can't you blame them for that? They will argue in support of anyone on their side and refuse to believe that anyone from the other side. The fact that they refuse to believe the Israeli story is not based on past lies that Israelis have told them. It is not as though Israelis have always lied about what happened on their land. They may spin it any way they want, they may call a guy a terrorist only because he fought against the IDF, but they wouldn't make up such an intricate story. Anyone who is this suspicious of the Israeli version can ask himself this: Why did the Israelis keep a 17 year old boy in prison for around 30 years while letting his partner (the only other one of the four who survived) go only a few years later?
You know why people don't ask themselves this question? Because they don't care.
I don't know how I can make it clearer than I already have. I thought putting it in the title would have been enough, but apparently it isn't. This post presented a "Case for Lebanese Morality." Not a case for Lebanese political maturity. Not a case for Lebanese ability to think independently. Not even a case for Lebanese intelligence.
Yes, these people are likely brainwashed. Yes it's likely that the only reason these people are celebrating is that Nasrallah says Kuntar is a hero. Yes it is equally likely that these people are celebrating only because Israel says Kuntar is a criminal.
We are not talking here about people making rational decisions based on ignorance or lack of research resulting in a disaster. We are simply talking about people who are happy without really knowing why. And all I'm saying is: I understand how this is blind mass confusion, but how is it immoral?
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