Hajj Reagan of Arsal
Whatever happens in Lebanon,
Arsal seems to always be caught in the middle, Hajj Reagan says. He sips
from his small and bitter Arabic coffee while sitting on his terrace
with a plate of grapes freshly picked from his garden. His real name is
Mahmoud Hojeiry, but people in the village call him Hajj Reagan. He got
his nickname after going on the pilgrimage to Mecca when Ronald Reagan
was president of the United States, he explains.
He might be a hajj – a name given to Muslims after they take the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca – but the 50-year-old man is not what you’d call a typical Muslim. Hajj Reagan has been a self-proclaimed communist since 1977, when he was 14 years old. And, his house is a statement of his political ideas. Che Guevara’s portrait sits atop the entrance to Hajj Reagan's house. He also owns a small bronze statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, and portraits of Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi, Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
“Arsal has a tradition of communism,” he says. “Communism reached our town in the 1940s. People used to go to Beirut to work and they were influenced by the doctrine. The process continued through the 1950s and 1960s. By then, people from Arsal had already moved to Beirut and the surrounding camps. When the civil war started in Lebanon, the main political faction in Arsal was the Communist party,” Hajj Reagan explains, adding that many people from Arsal died in the Tal el Zaatar massacre.
Hajj Reagan is most proud of the Lebanese National Resistance Front. He says Arsal gave dozens of young men to fight against the Israeli occupation in the 1980s and 1990s. “We have 7 martyrs of the National Resistance who were born in Arsal. They died in the south, were buried in Israel, and their bodies were returned later, after Hezbollah made an exchange with the Israeli army.”
“At that time, the Communist Party and the Resistance Front gave their full support to the Islamic Resistance. But we feel like something has been taken from us; the National Resistance Front was there fighting the occupation first. But we were happy with the victories of the Islamic Resistance,” he recalls. Hajj Reagan never fought in the south because of an illness that plagues him to this day. “I used to get angry when I was young. Now I am grateful,” he jokes.
Hajj Reagan says that in 2000, when the Israeli army withdrew from Lebanon, the people of Arsal and the people from the neighboring village of Labweh celebrated together. At the time, he says, it didn’t matter that Arsal was Sunni and Labweh was Shiite. The people of Labweh and Arsal built the Resistance Front monument together. But in 2005, when Rafiq Hariri was assassinated, the people were influenced by sectarian feelings. The Sunnis wanted revenge for their leader’s death, he says. “The split became very obvious during the 2006 July war. Ten years before, during the 1996 offensive, the people from the Shiite villages in the South took shelter in Arsal. In 2006, they preferred to go to Syria."
Syria is a whole different story for the people of Arsal. Although the Syrian Baath regime was socialist at its origin, the people of Arsal did not see anything friendly about the Syrian occupation. The Syrian soldiers were never friendly, says Hajj Reagan, they humiliated the farmers and “even opened the coffins of the dead at the checkpoints.” Ten people were shot over the years by the Syrian army. He says that the people of Arsal never liked the Syrian regime and Hajj Reagan remembers that after the assassination of Rafiq Hariri in Beirut on February 14, 2005, villagers took to the streets chanting slogans against Bashar al-Assad and Emil Lahoud, the pro-Syrian Lebanese president at the time.
That is when Hajj Reagan thinks that sectarianism took its toll on the people of Arsal, and when the leadership of the Communist Party lost its appeal in these parts of the country. “After 2005, they sided with March 8 and the party has been taken over by sectarianism. I am no longer a member now, but I am a communist at heart,” he explains, adding that he even owns a liquor store in the town’s central square. It was only burnt down twice, Hajj Reagan jokes.
During the past two and a half years, after the Syrian uprising started, Hajj Reagan’s town was again at the core of events in Lebanon. “The people here support the revolution in Syria,” he insists. Arsal hosts 40,000 Syrian refugees, and its farms have been used by the Syrian rebels as a safe haven. Since the conflict in Syria first broke out, the Syrian army bombed the village several times, people were shot, and relations with the neighboring Shiite villages have intensified. Since February, the village has been under the Lebanese Army’s watch after soldiers were attacked by an angry mob during an unclear operation to apprehend a terrorism suspect on his way to mosque.
”We know Arsal is pro-revolution, and it is surrounded by villages where people are against the revolution. But this town is not Islamist and has never been; we count the Islamists on the fingers of one hand. There is a sheikh who preaches Islamic radicalism. A lot of trouble happened because of him. But people reject his harsh sectarian ideas. In reality, people in this area can’t really live without each other,” Hajj Reagan concludes.
Follow Ana Maria Luca and Luna Safwan on Twitter @aml1609 and @LunaSafwan.
He might be a hajj – a name given to Muslims after they take the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca – but the 50-year-old man is not what you’d call a typical Muslim. Hajj Reagan has been a self-proclaimed communist since 1977, when he was 14 years old. And, his house is a statement of his political ideas. Che Guevara’s portrait sits atop the entrance to Hajj Reagan's house. He also owns a small bronze statue of Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, and portraits of Lebanese Communist Party leader George Hawi, Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
“Arsal has a tradition of communism,” he says. “Communism reached our town in the 1940s. People used to go to Beirut to work and they were influenced by the doctrine. The process continued through the 1950s and 1960s. By then, people from Arsal had already moved to Beirut and the surrounding camps. When the civil war started in Lebanon, the main political faction in Arsal was the Communist party,” Hajj Reagan explains, adding that many people from Arsal died in the Tal el Zaatar massacre.
Hajj Reagan is most proud of the Lebanese National Resistance Front. He says Arsal gave dozens of young men to fight against the Israeli occupation in the 1980s and 1990s. “We have 7 martyrs of the National Resistance who were born in Arsal. They died in the south, were buried in Israel, and their bodies were returned later, after Hezbollah made an exchange with the Israeli army.”
“At that time, the Communist Party and the Resistance Front gave their full support to the Islamic Resistance. But we feel like something has been taken from us; the National Resistance Front was there fighting the occupation first. But we were happy with the victories of the Islamic Resistance,” he recalls. Hajj Reagan never fought in the south because of an illness that plagues him to this day. “I used to get angry when I was young. Now I am grateful,” he jokes.
Hajj Reagan says that in 2000, when the Israeli army withdrew from Lebanon, the people of Arsal and the people from the neighboring village of Labweh celebrated together. At the time, he says, it didn’t matter that Arsal was Sunni and Labweh was Shiite. The people of Labweh and Arsal built the Resistance Front monument together. But in 2005, when Rafiq Hariri was assassinated, the people were influenced by sectarian feelings. The Sunnis wanted revenge for their leader’s death, he says. “The split became very obvious during the 2006 July war. Ten years before, during the 1996 offensive, the people from the Shiite villages in the South took shelter in Arsal. In 2006, they preferred to go to Syria."
Syria is a whole different story for the people of Arsal. Although the Syrian Baath regime was socialist at its origin, the people of Arsal did not see anything friendly about the Syrian occupation. The Syrian soldiers were never friendly, says Hajj Reagan, they humiliated the farmers and “even opened the coffins of the dead at the checkpoints.” Ten people were shot over the years by the Syrian army. He says that the people of Arsal never liked the Syrian regime and Hajj Reagan remembers that after the assassination of Rafiq Hariri in Beirut on February 14, 2005, villagers took to the streets chanting slogans against Bashar al-Assad and Emil Lahoud, the pro-Syrian Lebanese president at the time.
That is when Hajj Reagan thinks that sectarianism took its toll on the people of Arsal, and when the leadership of the Communist Party lost its appeal in these parts of the country. “After 2005, they sided with March 8 and the party has been taken over by sectarianism. I am no longer a member now, but I am a communist at heart,” he explains, adding that he even owns a liquor store in the town’s central square. It was only burnt down twice, Hajj Reagan jokes.
During the past two and a half years, after the Syrian uprising started, Hajj Reagan’s town was again at the core of events in Lebanon. “The people here support the revolution in Syria,” he insists. Arsal hosts 40,000 Syrian refugees, and its farms have been used by the Syrian rebels as a safe haven. Since the conflict in Syria first broke out, the Syrian army bombed the village several times, people were shot, and relations with the neighboring Shiite villages have intensified. Since February, the village has been under the Lebanese Army’s watch after soldiers were attacked by an angry mob during an unclear operation to apprehend a terrorism suspect on his way to mosque.
”We know Arsal is pro-revolution, and it is surrounded by villages where people are against the revolution. But this town is not Islamist and has never been; we count the Islamists on the fingers of one hand. There is a sheikh who preaches Islamic radicalism. A lot of trouble happened because of him. But people reject his harsh sectarian ideas. In reality, people in this area can’t really live without each other,” Hajj Reagan concludes.
Follow Ana Maria Luca and Luna Safwan on Twitter @aml1609 and @LunaSafwan.
ليست هناك تعليقات:
إرسال تعليق