Lebanon on the Brink

Directed by Oleg Nekishev and Mikhail Burov (2024)

Film Review

(link to film: https://en.rtdoc.tv/films/1493-lebanon-on-the-brink)

Founded by the Phoenicians, Lebanon has been ruled by the Persians, by Alexander the Great, Selucid Kingdom, Rome, the Ottoman Empire and the French.

After becoming independence in 1943, it was known as the Switzerland of the Middle East, with numerous vibrant cultures and religions living harmoniously in a vibrant economy .

Subsequently its location between two extremely unstable countries (Israel and Syria) made it subject to massive refugee inflows from both countries. The French mandate system (following independence, the French continued to rule Lebanon for three year under a UN mandate) also created a legacy of instability, with its constitutional stipulation that only a Maronite Christian could be president and only a Suni Muslim prime minister. It led to increasing unrest as the Shia Lebanese population increased, the number of Maronite Christians declined and hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees flooded into southern Lebanon. Their descendants (along with Syrian, Bangladeshi and Ethiopian refugees) continue to live in 11 overcrowded refugee camps to the present day.

The filmmakers visit four of them Sabia, Shetila and Bourj El-Barajnen and Bequaa Valley. Officially the Lebanese civil war started in 1975, but the groundwork was laid is 1970, when when the Jordanian government expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and they relocated to southern Lebanon. With the Beirut government unable to extend its authority in the south, the area became lawless.

In response to recurrent PLO rocket attacks on northern Israel, in 1978 the Israeli Defense Force invaded and occupied southern Lebanon until 2000. Following their withdrawal Hezbollah, an Islamist based paramilitary group has occupied the region.* t

Although Israel has continued routine shelling of southern Lebanon with rockets and white phosphorous (destroying numerous homes and crops), Lebanon experienced a major economy recovery between 2008-201. Following Lebanon’s Arab Spring protests in 2011, it’s been on a continual downward trajectory, which the filmmakers blame on the influx of over 2 million Syrian refugees,

At present, Syrian refugees comprise one-third of Lebanon’s 5.8 million population. This is in addition to 489,000 registered and 100,000 – 200,000 unregistered Palestine refugees.

Unable to cope with this massive population influx, Lebanon verges on failed statehood. Providing basic services (water, electricity, schools) to millions of indigent refugees cots their economy approximately $50-60 billion annually. Forced to borrow the funds, the government has viiolated the Basel Accords,** and banks have responded by illegally imposing currency controls and freezing depositors’ funds.

As a result of a currency devaluation and wage reforms in 2019, 82% of Lebanese residents live below the poverty line.

*Except for a 2006 Israeli invasion followed by a 33-day IDF-Hezbollah war.

**See https://www.bis.org/bcbs/basel3.htm