BEIRUT, Lebanon: As Hezbollah's leader threatened Israel with crushing retaliation for the killing of their top commander, thousands of people in Beirut flocked to a dance extravaganza, a stark illustration of Lebanon's deep divisions.
In the southern suburbs of the capital – a Hezbollah stronghold – tens of thousands of black-clad men and women in military uniform joined Thursday's funeral procession for slain commander Fuad Shukr.
Across the waterfront city of Beirut, nearly 8,000 people attended a spectacular dance performance that evening by Mayyas, who won the 2022 America's Got Talent television competition.
“I'm sad that people are dying in southern Lebanon and Gaza, but resistance is not just carrying a gun and fighting,” said Olga Farhat, 45.
“Joy, art and celebrating life is also a form of resistance,” the human rights activist told AFP.
Fireworks opened the dance performance, hours after Hezbollah buried Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the southern suburbs on Tuesday.
The show titled “Qumi” – rise up in Arabic – was an ode to the Lebanese capital which has suffered decades of conflict, riots and a years-long economic crisis.
“There is a division in the country between those who don't care about the war and feel that … Hezbollah wants 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 paid a moving tribute to war-torn southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with the Israeli army almost daily since the Gaza war began on October 7.
“I grew up during the civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990) and I was raised to believe in the Palestinian cause,” Farhat said.
“But today I say 'Lebanon first.'
The raid that killed Shukr and an Iranian military adviser also claimed the lives of three women and two young brothers, authorities said.
In a video circulating online, their grieving mother said their lives were a “sacrifice for you, Sayyed (Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah)”.
Speaking from the southern suburbs, Hussein Nasreddine, 36, said: “We love life like everyone else… but if Israel drags us into war, it is our duty to die as martyrs.”
Cross-border violence since October has killed at least 542 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters, but also including 114 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, the army reports 47 dead, including on the annexed Golan Heights.
In June, the head of the Hezbollah bloc in the Lebanese parliament, Mohammad Raad, who lost a son in border clashes, criticized Lebanese “who want to go to nightclubs … beaches and enjoy life.” as the war rages. the South.
This week, independent MP Mark Daou angered Hezbollah supporters by posting a photo of Thursday night's show with the comment: “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 “reduce Lebanon to a battlefield”.
Many politicians, particularly from Lebanon's Christian community, have criticized 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 along sectarian lines, with communities so divided over the country's past that events after 1943 are missing from the official history books.
Each side “wants the other to be an exact copy of them so they can coexist, while they are opposites in everything,” she said.
“The Lebanese have not yet given up violence against each other, no matter how great their disagreements,” she said.
Foreign airlines have suspended or canceled flights to Beirut, but many Lebanese expatriates continue to come, although some have cut their holidays short.
Rabab Abu Hamdan said she planned to return to the Gulf after feeling “very stressed the last few days”.
“Despite the difficult circumstances, Lebanon remains the best holiday destination,” she said.
