LEBANON: Catholic schools in the hands of Shiite militias
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers
HRWF (21.10.2024) -Since 8 October 2023, the date of the first Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel in support of Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon has recorded more than 2,000 deaths in these Israeli raids, including 1,110 since the shift into open war on 23 September. “One hundred and twenty-seven children were killed, including 100 in recent days. Of the 890 children injured, 700 were also injured in two weeks,” specified Christophe Boulierac, spokesperson for Unicef in Lebanon in an article of the daily “La Croix”.
Catholic schools occupied
Willy-nilly, many Catholic schools in Lebanon opened their doors to displaced people from areas bombed by the Israeli army, but militias from Hezbollah and Amal quickly took possession of certain buildings and were sometimes violent in their relations with the Catholic authorities.
“It was on 23 September, the day before the start of the school year, everything was ready to receive our students,” testified André, an executive at a Catholic school in southern Lebanon. “They knocked on our door, they asked us to open the school to them. Without long discussions, the sisters and the management agreed to welcome them in a part of the premises. But on the next day, they wanted to occupy the entire school. The sisters were not in favor of it and so they did it by force. »
They occupied all the classrooms and laboratories. They intimidated and threatened staff who opposed them and even targeted recalcitrants. Hundreds of families rushed into the breach opened by these men, among them Shiites from Amal and Hezbollah. The nuns no longer have any authority over their school. They even gave up the entrance key to one of their new guards.
“We are happy to welcome all those who come to find refuge with us,” one of them told to a French press correspondent, “but it is difficult, because our school is not adapted for this and they were very violent at first. » An occupation that does not speak its name, with worrying consequences for the school. “We can no longer teach and this firstly penalizes our students. Economically, we are deprived of tuition fees and so we are unable to pay the salaries of teachers, there are still around a hundred of them. Nor can we cover all operating expenses. »
“We try not to think too much about them in order to continue our life. As we do not want to think that we could become a target for Israel because of their presence,” explains another nun to the French journalist.
Welcome or unwelcome?
In the Saint-Sauveur monastery southeast of Beirut, founded in 1683, more than 90 families found refuge in its adjoining school, the Saint-Sauveur college.
“We had to improvise, but I think the displaced people are safe within our walls,” said Father Superior Antoine Dip. “They come from Tire but also from the surrounding areas, such as the village of Joun, targeted by Israel.”
“We know them, we make sure that there are no militiamen among them,” explained the father superior. “During the Lebanese War in 1985, armed men occupied our buildings, they ransacked the convent and looted our liturgical treasures, our library and our icons. It took us years to get some of them back. We wouldn’t want to go through that ordeal again. »
A few kilometers from Saida, a convent run by nuns refused to welcome displaced people into its school, for fear of Shiite militiamen: “We are, in fact, afraid that people who are dangerous to us will slip in or hide among them.»
In 2006, they welcomed displaced people fleeing the Israeli offensive in southern Lebanon.
“It was a disaster for us. They ended up pillaging the convent, stealing our most precious possessions and our icons,” a sister told. This is why they have decided, for the moment, not to open their school to them.
“Religiously, morally, this poses a big problem for us but how can we avoid being infiltrated by militiamen? Our school, our convent would become a target for Israel, which continuously strikes all around us, on the hills and in the valley which surrounds us.”
A few days later, they ended up welcoming displaced families into their school…
Evacuation of Christian villages
On 4 October, 27 villages in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel received orders from the Israeli army to evacuate their populations. Among them, Rmeich, Klayaa and Marjeyoun, three villages which had remained essentially away from artillery fire between Hezbollah and Israel for a year. Only Marjeyoun had an extremely minimal Hezbollah presence.
Rmeich, a Christian village next to the border with Israel, ordered to evacuate its population