BEIRUT, LEBANON: As the leader of Hezbollah threatened to avenge Israel's killing of its top commander, thousands gathered in Beirut for a dance extravaganza in a stark illustration of Lebanon's deep divisions.
In the southern suburbs of the capital – a Hezbollah stronghold – thousands of black-clad women and men in military uniform joined Thursday's funeral procession for slain commander Fuad Shukra.
Across the city on the Beirut waterfront, nearly 8,000 people attended a spectacular dance performance that evening by the Mayyas group, which won the 2022 “America's Got Talent” television competition.
“I'm sad that people are dying in southern Lebanon and Gaza, but resistance is not just fighting with guns,” said 45-year-old Olga Farhat.
“Celebrating joy, art and life is also a form of resistance,” the human rights activist told AFP.
Fireworks opened the dance event hours after Hezbollah buried Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs on Tuesday.
The show, titled 'Qumi' – Wake up in Arabic – was an ode to the Lebanese capital which has endured decades of conflict, upheaval and a year-long economic crisis.
“There is a division in the country between those who don't care about the war and those who feel… Hezbollah wants to impose its collective identity on them, while the other group is fighting,” Farhat said.
“I understand both points of view, but we are tired of war and crisis, we want to enjoy life.”
In the southern suburbs, thousands of Hezbollah supporters chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”
Across the city, dozens of Mays dancers performed a moving tribute to war-torn south Lebanon, from where Hezbollah has exchanged daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces since the Gaza war began on October 7.
“I grew up during the (1975-1990) civil war in Lebanon and I grew up believing in the Palestinian cause,” Farhat said.
“But today I say 'Lebanon first'.”
Three women and two young siblings were killed in the attack, which killed Shukra and an Iranian military adviser, officials said.
In a video clip circulated online, their grieving mother said her life was “sacrificed for you, Sayyid (Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah)”.
Speaking from a southern suburb, Hussein Nasreddin, 36, said: “We like life like everyone else … but if Israel drags us into war, it is our duty to die as martyrs.”
Cross-border violence has killed at least 542 people in Lebanon since October, most of them militants but also 114 civilians, according to AFP figures.
On the Israeli side, the army reported 47 deaths, including in the occupied Golan Heights.
In June, Mohammed Raad, the head of the Hezbollah bloc in the Lebanese parliament, who lost a son in border clashes, criticized Lebanese for “wanting to go to nightclubs … to the beaches and enjoy their lives” as war rages. the south
This week, Independent MP Mark Dow posted a photo of Thursday night's event to Hezbollah supporters, commenting: “The strongest response to Israel is the culture of life and beauty.”
Dow, who was elected after widespread protests against the political leadership responsible for plunging the country into an economic crisis, told AFP he refused to “reduce Lebanon to a battlefield”.
Many politicians, particularly from Lebanon's Christian community, have criticized Hezbollah for risking war with Israel.
Peace-building expert Sonia Nakad called “the greater the tragedy, the greater the division” in Lebanon.
In Lebanon, where power is distributed according to communal quotas, communities are so divided about the country's past that events after 1943 are missing from official history books.
Each party “wants the other to be an exact copy of them to be able to co-exist, even though they are opposites in everything,” she said.
“The Lebanese have still not given up using violence against each other, no matter how great their disagreements,” she said.
Foreign airlines have suspended or canceled flights to Beirut but many Lebanese expatriates are still flying in, although some have cut their holidays short.
Rabab Abu Hamdan said she planned to return to the Gulf after feeling “a lot of stress in the past few days”.
“Despite the difficult situation, Lebanon remains the best holiday destination,” she said.
