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 News

Lebanon hostages prompt backlash against Syrian refugees

Part-NIC-Nic6359913-1-1-0(BAALBECK, LEBANON) — The kidnaping and murder of Lebanese security forces by jihadists from Syria has sparked new tensions in Lebanon, including a backlash against Syrian refugees and a string of sectarian kidnappings.

Relatives of the missing soldiers and policemen, who were kidnapped during fierce clashes in theLebanese border town of Arsal last month, have blocked roads in protest and even carried out counter-kidnaps.

On Monday, a security source said two people from majority Sunni Arsal had been kidnapped by the family of soldier Ali al-Masri.

One of the negotiators involved in the talks aimed at solving the hostage crisis confirmed the report: “The family is asking the people of Arsal to pressure the [jihadist] kidnappers to release their son, and it insists it will not release its hostages until [the soldiers] are free.”

Elsewhere in the majority Shiite Beqaa valley, tit-for-tat kidnappings took place on Monday, according to security sources, who said the army is trying to resolve the spiraling crisis.

The incidents follow confirmation that a second Lebanese soldier being held by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) has been beheaded.

The hostage crisis and beheadings have inflamed tensions in Lebanon, which is hosting more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees, and where tensions were already soaring over the four-year conflict in Syria.

The crisis has prompted a backlash against Syrian refugees in parts of Lebanon, with tents in informal camps being set alight and hundreds of Syrians sheltered in the Beqaa valley fleeing for fear of attack.

The Syrian conflict has exacerbated existing sectarian tensions in Lebanon, where most Sunni residents back the Syrian uprising and Shiites generally support Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

The August fighting in Arsal was the most serious border incident in Lebanon since the Syrian war began next door in March 2011.

With the ensuing hostage crisis unresolved to date despite ongoing Qatari mediation, reports of the soldier’s beheading first emerged on Saturday, prompting angry Lebanese to cut roads with burning tires in protest.

The official National News Agency meanwhile reported that refugees in several camps across the country – especially those in Shiite areas whose residents support Assad ally Hezbollah – had been told to evacuate their tents.

An AFP journalist in the eastern Beqaa valley saw Syrian refugees dismantle their tents and leave in their thousands for northern Lebanon, the west of the Beqaa and Beirut.

– Beatings –

Incidents of violence targeting Syrians have also been reported.

George Ghattas, a farmer from the village of Taybeh in the Beqaa valley, told AFP he saw a group of men attacking the Syrian guard of an unfinished construction site.

“The man then fled,” Ghattas said.

In southern Lebanon, Syrian refugees hosted in some 100 tents near the city of Tyre were given 48 hours to evacuate their camp.

“We don’t want to have terror cells developing in big camps,” Burj al-Shimali mayor Ali Deeb told AFP on Monday. “We have given the Syrians living in the camp 48 hours to leave.”

And in Beirut, a witness who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said he saw a group of some five young men surround and beat a Syrian man in his early twenties, after they discovered where he was from.

“They started shouting: ‘Are you Syrian or not?’” the witness said, adding that “five or six of the guys started beating him, taking turns to hit him.”

Amid the rise in tensions, the authorities have appealed for calm, calling on the Lebanese to refrain from revenge attacks.

“The Syrian refugees are our family, they asked for our help, so we assisted them,” said Prime Minister Tammam Salam in a televised speech.

Expressing “feelings of sadness and grief” for the suffering of the families of the kidnapped soldiers, Salam said that “what has been happening on the streets in the past few days damages the memory of the martyrs… while plunging the country into deep danger.”

But in spite of the appeal, there was little sign the tensions could be immediately dispelled.

Speaking to AFP, Human Rights Watch researcher Lama Fakih confirmed the spike in violence: “We have seen a string of retaliatory measures against Syrian refugees in Lebanon taken by individuals and municipalities.”

“This is happening countrywide,” Fakih said.

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 News

Islamic State beheads 2nd captive Lebanese soldier

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The mother of a Lebanese soldier held captive by the militant Islamic State group said photographs posted online Saturday purporting to show his beheading appeared to be real.

Zeinab Noun said her 20-year-old son, Abbas Medlej, was “sacrificed” after supporters of the militant Sunni group posted images appearing to show a captured Lebanese soldier before and after he was beheaded.

Medlej’s maternal uncle, Abu Ali Noun, also said the photographs appeared to be of his nephew. A spokesman for Lebanon’s military said it was still investigating the incident.

Medlej would be the second captive Lebanese soldier killed by the Islamic State group, underscoring the grave challenges that face the ill-equipped Lebanese military as it fends off an unprecedented jihadi threat from Syria-based militants.

About two dozen more members of the country’s security forces remain held captive by the militants. They were seized in August when several Syrian rebel factions, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida linked Nusra Front, overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal, killing and kidnapping soldiers and policemen in the most serious spillover yet of the neighboring civil war.

The Syrian civil war has inflamed sectarian tensions between Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites — with Sunnis generally backing the rebel groups and Shiites supporting the government of President Bashar Assad. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah has actively fought on the Syrian government side.

Local media had reported that negotiations were underway, with the militants demanding cash and the release of Islamists being held in Lebanese detention. A statement posted by supporters of the Islamic State said Medlej was killed after he tried to escape.

Medlej hailed from a large Shiite clan from the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbak.

His mother vowed revenge on rival Sunnis.

“We have to take our revenge from those apostates,” she said.

The captured soldiers and police are from Lebanon’s many religious sects: the first soldier beheaded by the group, Ali Sayid, was a Sunni Muslim. The militants are also holding Christian soldiers and other Sunni Muslims.

Families of the captive soldiers have blocked highways and held demonstrations to pressure the Lebanese government to push harder for the release of the men. There are also fears for the safety of the more than 1 million Syrian refugees who are now in Lebanon as rage grows over the beheadings.

Medlej’s uncle vowed that “every Syrian in Lebanon is a target” after hearing of his nephew’s death.

The Islamic State group has drawn global attention particularly since June, when it swept through northern and western Iraq from its stronghold in neighboring Syria.

They reached Lebanon in August when they overran Arsal, and operate just across the border in the nearby hills of Syria.

On Saturday, Lebanon’s state-run news agency reported heavy fighting in the barren hills between Arsal and the border with Syria. It came hours after militants on a motorbike opened fire on Lebanese soldiers patrolling in a vehicle in the nearby town of Qaa. The soldiers killed one of the attackers, state media reported.

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 Uncategorized

Israeli spy device blast kills Hezbollah member in Lebanon

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A member of Lebanon’s Hezbollah was killed when an Israeli listening device exploded in the south of the country, the Shiite group said on Saturday.

On Friday, the army said that a “suspicious device” had been found near the town of Adlun, and that “the Israeli enemy blew it up remotely, killing a civilian who was in the area.”

Hezbollah confirmed that the man killed was in fact one of its own.

“With pride, the Islamic Resistance announces the death of the hero Hassan Haidar Ali, a native of the town of Ansariyeh in southern Lebanon,” the group said in a statement.

It added that Haidar had discovered the device “placed in the communications network of the Resistance” and had been working to dismantle it.

Lebanon has frequently reported Israeli espionage devices being destroyed in the south of the country since Hezbollah and the Jewish state fought a devastating war in 2006.

More than 100 people accused of spying for Israel have been arrested in Lebanon since April 2009, most of them army members or telecommunications employees.

[youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEkzA6aKrD8″ width=”500″ height=”300″]

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 Business, News

Car sales in Lebanon up 7% since 2013

car-sales-lebanon(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Figures released by the Association of Automobile Importers in Lebanon (AIA) indicate that 22,004 new passenger cars were sold in the first seven months of 2014, constituting an increase of 7.2% from 20,521 cars sold in the same period last year, Byblos Bank ‘Lebanon This Week’ reported.

Korean cars accounted for 43.1% of total sales, followed by Japanese cars with a 33% share, European automobiles with 17.8%, American vehicles with 4.6%, and Chinese cars with 1.5%.

The number of Japanese cars sold rose by 38.1% year-on-year, constituting the highest rise in new car sales; while the number of new Chinese cars sold declined by 19% from the same period last year, followed by American vehicles with a 12.8% fall, European automobiles with a 4.1% decrease and Korean cars with a 1.3% drop in sales.

Kia is the leading brand in the Lebanese market with 5,177 cars sold in the first seven months of 2014, followed by Hyundai with 4,310, Nissan with 2,913 cars sold, Toyota (2,555), Renault (769), Mitsubishi (627) and Chevrolet (511).

In parallel, 1,333 new commercial vehicles were sold in the first seven months of 2014, constituting a drop of 3.5% from 1,381 vehicles sold in the same period of last year and a decrease of 3.3% from 1,379 vehicles sold in the first seven months of 2012.

The number of new vehicles sold by the country’s top five distributors reached 17,244 in the first seven months of 2014 and accounted for 74% of new vehicles sold. NATCO sal sold 5,177 vehicles in the covered period, equivalent to 22.2% of the total, followed by Century Motor Co. sal with 4,409 (18.9%), Rasamny Younis Motor Co. sal with 3,180 (13.6%), Boustany United Machineries sal with 2,796 (12%), and Bassoul Heneine sal with 1,682 (7.2%).

The AIA indicated that the combined number of registered new and imported used cars stagnated in the first seven months of 2014 compared to the same period of 2013, while it decreased by 8.2% from the first seven months of 2012. It said that the luxury car segment accounted for only 3.5% of total new registered cars. It reiterated that about 90% of new cars sold were small automobiles that cost on average about $11,000 each.

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 Lifestyle

CNN in Lebanon: ‘How to make the “sexiest wine on the planet”

lebanon-wine(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — CNN recently visited the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon to feature winemaking described as the “sexiest wine on the planet.”

“We [Lebanon] produce eight million bottles of wine a year which may sound like a lot but if we compare that to Turkey, which produces 70 million, Cypriots around 35 to 40 million. Israelis produce about 50 million — so even on a regional scale we’re tiny. Global scale? We’re a dot,” wine writer Michael Karam told CNN.

But the rarity of Lebanese wine, he says, is a distinguishing factor that businesses can capitalize on to help their product stand out.

The CNN crew visited Chateau Ksara and Domaine Des Tourelles.

Watch the report:

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 Lifestyle

Ambassador David Hale: Bridging cultures brings stability

ambassador-david-hale-speaking(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — On September 4, American Ambassador David Hale inaugurated the Art in Embassies exhibit in his residence at the U.S. Embassy. Speaking to a diverse audience that included cultural, political, educational and economic leaders, Ambassador Hale underscored the power of art in strengthening cultural understanding, and highlighted the Embassy’s cultural exchange work.

“In this exhibit we see common themes and revelations in the works of the Lebanese and the Americans. But we also see how the artists themselves can be the bridge of mutual understanding. By having a foot – or paint brush – in both worlds, they become the bridge that we use to understand and accept each other,” Hale said. “Generations of Lebanese immigrants and their children have influenced America. In the art world, two of the most well-known are Nabil Kanso and Sam Maloof.”

The Art in Embassies program encourages cross-cultural dialogue through the visual arts and artist exchanges. The residence currently hosts eleven pieces of art from Lebanese, American, and Lebanese-American artists, and emphasizes bridging culture as its theme.

“(The exhibit) is a metaphor for the bridging of cultures that promote mutual understanding,” Hale said. “And from that understanding comes acceptance, and from acceptance, tolerance. And from tolerance, stability.”

Art in Embassies is a public-private partnership provided by the U.S. Department of State engaging more than 20,000 participants globally, including artists, museums, galleries, universities, and private collectors, and encompasses more than 200 venues in 189 countries. Professional curators and registrars create and ship about 60 exhibitions per year, and since 2000, more than 58 permanent collections have been installed in the Department’s diplomatic facilities throughout the world.

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 Business

Nadine Mneimneh — a Lebanese fashion success story

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Having grown up in Paris, Nadine Mneimneh returned to Lebanon in 2001 and subsequently obtained her BBA from the American University of Beirut.

Interested in fashion, she attended a fashion and design course at Instituto Marangoni and then pursued a BA in fashion design and pattern making at École Superieure des Arts et Technique de Mode (ESMOD). With six years’ work experience in the fashion industry, she launched her own ready-to-wear label in 2010.

Nadine met the program manager of AMIDEAST’s Cisco Entrepreneur Institute during Global Entrepreneurship Week Lebanon 2011 and decided to enroll in its “Starting a Business” workshop. With plans to open her own atelier, she wanted to make sure she had the knowledge and tools needed to run a successful business.

Upon completion of the workshop, Nadine opened an atelier on Beirut’s Hamra Street. Her line is being sold in Europe and the Middle East.

Nadine’s last collection was showcased during the Ecoluxe fashion show, an event that gathered international designers with an ethos of sustainability, as part of London Fashion Week. Her work continues to receive international press coverage, both on television and in printed press and fashion blogs.

Nadine’s design philosophy follows some principles the slow fashion movement, which includes keeping traditional methods of producing garments, favoring quality over quantity with utmost attention to finishing and minimizing fabric waste. Her style is defined by a loose and minimal silhouette hinting at femininity, with the lines and volumes sharpened by the use of refined menswear fabrics.

Nadine credits the course she attended with helping her to consider every aspect of running a small business, teaching her to focus on a niche market and providing her with valuable information on leasing a location. She also valued the guest speakers and many opportunities for networking that were built into the program.

“One guest speaker, a real estate agent who advised us on leasing versus buying a location, supported me outside of the workshop. Both her presentation and her additional feedback left me confident and fully prepared to negotiate the rental contract for my atelier. Maya Nohra (a photographer who attended the same workshop) supported me by taking photos for my press kit at no charge; in turn, the mention of her name on my press materials helps to build her reputation.”

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 News

Lebanese teens launch ‘Burn ISIS Flag Challenge’

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Teens in Lebanon have reportedly kicked off a new campaign aimed at countering the Islamic State — with the Burn ISIS Flag Challenge.

Mediaite reported that one commenter on a YouTube video showing the burning of the widely recognized symbol reads: “I nominate the whole world to #Burn_ISIS_Flag_Challenge. You have 24 hours. GO!!”

The Lebanese justice minister, meanwhile, says the action isn’t acceptable.

He said that anyone caught buying the Islamic State flags would face the “sternest punishments” possible, Mediaite reported. He said the flag represents Muslims’ declaration of faith and those who burn anything with the flag’s text on it are being purposely provocative, the news outlet reported.

Aat least one member of the country’s parliament has offered to serve as the boys’ lawyer should the case go to court.

Desecrating religious symbols and inciting sectarian strife are both punishable under Lebanese law.

The #BurnISISFlagChallenge was inspired by this summer’s viral ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a fundraising effort for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

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 News

Lebanon struggles to address captive troops crisis

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Lebanon’s government is forming a crisis committee to handle the case of some two dozen members of the security forces held captive by Syrian militants amid escalating criticism over its response to the hostage affair.

Information Minister Ramzi Jreij said Thursday that Prime Minister Tammam Salam will head the committee, which will also include the defense, finance, interior, foreign and justice ministers.

Militants, including from the Islamic State extremist group, seized around 30 soldiers and policemen after overrunning a Lebanese border town in early August.

Some have since been released. Human Rights Watch says an estimated 14 policemen and 12 soldiers are still being held.

Relatives of the missing have rallied outside the government building in Beirut to demand action to secure the captives’ release.

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 News

Rai to attend Christian safety conference in DC

rai(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Patriarch Beshara Rai will head to Washington, DC on Monday to lead a delegation of Eastern church patriarchs at a conference on protecting the Christian presence in the Levant.

The conference will draw senior Middle Eastern Christian and American figures in Washington D.C., according to sources.

Rai returned to Beirut on Tuesday following a visit to the Vatican, where he met with Pope Francis to brief him on the results of last month’s conference of the heads of Eastern churches held at the Maronite patriarch’s summer seat in Diman, to discuss threats facing the Christian presence in the Levant by Al-Qaeda-linked groups.

Rai did not speak to reporters at Beirut airport and headed straight to Bkirki, north of Beirut.

While in Washington, the conference’s sponsors may arrange meetings with senior U.S. officials, source say. If he meets U.S. officials, Rai will discuss issues that serve the Christian presence in the Levant.

The first day of the conference will take place at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in D.C., followed by two days at the Capitol building, where Rai and his colleagues will hold talks with U.S. senators and attend lectures on human rights and freedom of belief.

Rai will also visit Cleveland, Ohio. Click here for more information about the Ohio visit.

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