BEIRUT, Lebanon: As the leader of Hezbollah threatened Israel with devastating retaliation for the killing of its top commander, thousands flocked to Beirut for a dance spectacle that highlighted Lebanon's deep divisions.
In the southern suburbs of the capital – a Hezbollah stronghold – tens of thousands of women and men dressed in black and wearing military uniforms took part in the funeral procession for the slain commander Fuad Shukr on Thursday.
On the other side of the city, on Beirut's waterfront, nearly 8,000 people attended a spectacular dance show by the Mayyas troupe, which won the 2022 television competition “America's Got Talent.”
“It makes me sad that people are dying in southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, but resistance does not just mean carrying a weapon and fighting,” said 45-year-old Olga Farhat.
“Joy, art and celebrating life are also a form of resistance,” the human rights activist told AFP.
The dance show opened with fireworks, just hours after Hezbollah buried Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs on Tuesday.
The show, titled “Qumi” (“Rise” in Arabic), was an ode to the Lebanese capital, which has endured decades of conflict, turmoil and a years-long economic crisis.
“There is a divide in the country between those who are not in favor of the war and feel that Hezbollah is trying 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 wars and crises, 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 Mayyas dancers performed a moving tribute to war-torn southern Lebanon, from where Hezbollah has been engaged in almost daily cross-border shelling with the Israeli army since the Gaza war began on October 7.
“I grew up during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) and was raised to believe in the Palestinian cause,” Farhat said.
“But today I say: 'Lebanon first.'”
According to authorities, three women and two young siblings were also killed in the attack in which Shukr and an Iranian military adviser were killed.
In a video clip circulating on the Internet, the grieving mother said her life was a “sacrifice for you, Sayyed (Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah).”
Hussein Nasreddine, 36, said from the southern suburbs: “We love life like everyone else… but if Israel drags us into war, it is our duty to die as martyrs.”
According to an AFP count, at least 542 people have been killed in cross-border violence in Lebanon since October, most of them fighters, but also 114 civilians.
On the Israeli side, the army reports 47 deaths, including in the annexed Golan Heights.
In June, Mohammad Raad, the leader of the Hezbollah bloc in the Lebanese parliament, who lost a son in the border clashes, sharply criticized the Lebanese “who want to go to nightclubs and the beach and enjoy their lives” while war rages in the south.
This week, independent MP Mark Daou angered Hezbollah supporters by posting a photo of Thursday night's show and captioning it: “The strongest response to Israel is the culture of life and beauty.”
Daou, who was elected after mass protests against the political leadership responsible for the country's slide into economic crisis, told AFP he refused to “turn Lebanon into a battlefield”.
Many politicians, especially from Lebanon's Christian community, criticize Hezbollah for risking war with Israel.
Peacebuilding expert Sonia Nakad said: “The greater the tragedy, the greater the division” in Lebanon.
In Lebanon, power is divided according to religious quotas. The population groups are so divided over the country's past that events after 1943 do not appear in the official history books.
Each party “wants the other to be an exact copy of them so they can coexist, even though they are opposites in everything,” she said.
“The Lebanese have not yet renounced the use of violence against each other, no matter how great their differences,” she said.
Foreign airlines have suspended or cancelled their flights to Beirut, but many Lebanese continue to flock to the country, even if some have cut their holidays short.
Rabab Abu Hamdan said she planned to return to the Gulf after feeling “very stressed over the past few days.”
“Despite the difficult circumstances, Lebanon remains the best holiday destination,” she said.
