Drawing skulls on Christian homes is reminiscent of the Mount Lebanon War

Christmas day was disturbed by the population of the town of Brih in the Chouf region (Mount Lebanon): drawings and images of skulls were placed by unknown persons on the houses of the town’s Christians. These images, transmitted by activists on social media, have unleashed a wave of political and popular resentment, and the positions of political parties and forces have crossed over in rejecting them and calling on the security services to unmask their perpetrators, so that they do not invest in sectarianism and lead to tensions in the atmosphere in the mountain, who turned the page on the war.

The municipality of Brih hastened to try to contain the incident. And he indicated in a statement: “Since 2014, the date of the return to the city of Brih and the national reconciliation that took place towards him, and our city has enjoyed stability and coexistence among all its people”. And the municipality confirmed that the matter is “under close monitoring with the rest of the security forces to clarify the truth, whether what happened was an individual or with the aim of fomenting conflict and holding the perpetrator accountable, whoever it was and to whatever party he belonged.

As for the Progressive Socialist Party official in and around Brih, Suhail Abu Saleh, he saw that the incident “re-established the pattern of coexistence in this city, with evidence that people have left the incident behind” . He noted to Asharq Al-Awsat that people “are confident that whoever is behind these cartoons is trying to harm the Christian and Druze people of Brih, who have not and will not be affected by what happened, but are calling for justice to be done justice its course and punish the offender, whoever he is.” “The atmosphere in the city was and still is calm, and everyone is enjoying the joy of Christmas and New Year with festivities and an atmosphere that united and still unites the people of Brih for better or for worse,” he said.

The political parties, with an active political presence in the mountain, sensed the seriousness and scale of this message, and unanimously agreed to entrust the matter to the judiciary and the security, and a member of the “Lebanese Forces” bloc, Representative Pierre Bou Asi, called on the security services to “accelerate the identification and arrest of the perpetrators”. In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said, “This act is meant to sabotage, create tension and create an atmosphere of conflict from which the mountain departed and to which it will not return.” Bu Assi stressed that “the operation will not lead to tensions, and the people in Brih interact positively with each other, but at the same time we insist that the law take its course because what happened is a direct threat to the safety of Brih and the mountain .” The mixed Christian and Druze town of Brih is located in the Chouf region, and is the only town where the return of Christians has been delayed until May 17, 2014, through reconciliation between citizens, sponsored by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Boutros Al -Rahi and the head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt.

The general secretary of the Progressive Socialist Party, Zafer Nasser, confirmed that the party “asked all security services to move quickly and not to tolerate this condemned act”. He indicated, in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, that “the communication took place between the party official on the mountain, Omar Ghannam, with a member of the ‘Strong Republic’ bloc, Representative George Adwan, and a member of the ‘Strong Republic Lebanon” (faithful to former president Michel Aoun), representative Ghassan Atallah, to surround what happened and not give it partisan or sectarian dimensions that would undermine the reconciliation of the mountain.

This process takes place in the wake of the political differences existing between the Socialist Party on the one hand and Aoun’s movement, above all as regards the presidential election dossier, and Dhafer Nasser has asked to “take into consideration all these possibilities so that those lurking certainties of the mountain are many, whether they want to strike reconciliation or strike stability in the mountain or play on the contradictions between the parties. And while preferring not to anticipate the investigations, he believed that “the basis is to protect the essence of the mountain’s reconciliation with all the political parties and not allow anyone to hit this strategic option”.

A member of the “Strong Lebanon” bloc, MP Farid Al-Bustani, preferred not to release positions and conclusions before the end of the investigation. He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “This action is unacceptable, and anyone who does it endangers civil peace in the mountains and in the country”, underlining that “no one has the desire or interest to foment conflicts and damage coexistence ; Therefore, security services must quickly identify the perpetrators and the people behind them.

For his part, a member of the “Democratic Meeting” (socialist) bloc, Representative Bilal Abdullah, confirmed, in a tweet on his Twitter account, that “true reconciliation in the mountain and coexistence in it will not be disturbed by childish practices , and the evocation of slogans foreign to our environment.”

As for the deputy head of the “Lebanese Forces” party, MP George Adwan, he believed that “what happened in Brih does not reflect the general atmosphere that reigns on the mountain, where security, stability and tranquility prevail”. And he underlined that “the incident came out of the general context, and was fabricated by ill-intentioned people who will not be able to disturb the peace of life in Brih and on the mountain”.