By Nohad Topalian | 2023-12-01

BEIRUT -- Large billboards and banners bearing the slogan "So the past is not repeated -- Lebanon does not want war" have appeared on buildings and along streets in various parts of Lebanon, especially in the country's capital.

The message is part of a campaign, initially launched on social media in early November by a group of political and civil society activists, that seeks to prevent Lebanon from being dragged into the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Funding for the campaign has been provided by young people and entrepreneurs across the country who "want political, military, and security stability," Ghina al-Khazen, one of the campaign organizers, told Asharq al-Awsat.

The goal of the campaign is "to spare Lebanon and the Lebanese from a devastating war," she said.

Conflict has flared between Lebanon and Israel on previous occasions, including in July 1993, April 1996 and July 2006 -- the most devastating for Lebanon.

A new war with Israel provoked by Lebanese Hizbullah and allied groups, including Hamas, which have been firing rockets across the border, would have devastating consequences for Lebanon, which is already mired in crisis.

'We are peace seekers'

Father of three Cesar Geryes, who works as a parking attendant in the Beirut neighborhood of Achrafieh, told Al-Fassel he does not want his children, all under the age of 15, to experience the tragedies of wars that Lebanon has known.

"We have enough crises that won't be resolved for decades," said Geryes, who hails from the northern town of Deddeh in al-Koura region.

"We want to live in peace."

"We have not yet forgotten the July 2006 war (between Hizbullah and Israel), and the true horror that my four children and I experienced," said Iqbal Jalloul, who resides in Beirut's Tariq al-Jdideh neighborhood.

"All we want is peace, and Hizbullah must submit to the decision of the Lebanese," she said.

"Lebanon is exhausted, and the government is unable even to stand up against those who want to take us to war. We want safety and stability for our country and our children."

The majority of Lebanese do not want war, for many reasons, said Fouad Zmokhol, president of the Association of Lebanese Business People in the World and dean of the faculty of business administration at Saint Joseph University.

The Lebanese "have experienced war many times, for which innocent people have paid the price," he told Al-Fassel.

But the main reason for rejecting any potential war, he said, is related to Lebanon's loss of "all the elements of financial and monetary resilience" after the collapse of its banking sector and the "theft and squandering" of depositors' money.

Lebanon was counting on expatriates and tourists this holiday season to achieve a 3% growth in its economy, Zmokhol said.

But all these hopes are now dashed, he added, with movement to and from Lebanon and the region paralyzed since the start of the Gaza war.

"We all reject war because we are peace seekers and we want peace in the region," Zmokhol said. "We want to export our ideas and successes, not corpses, sadness and images of war."

Displacement from border area

The effects of the war have reached Lebanon already, with 23,000 people displaced from their homes near the border, political writer Ali al-Amin said.

Many have lost their homes and their crops.

"No one wishes to see the clashes develop into an open war," he told Al-Fassel, adding that the repercussions of such a war would lead to "huge human and material losses, and a massive migration of citizens."

The Lebanese "do not want war, because they have had enough of the woes of previous wars that Hizbullah dragged them into and that brought them nothing but death and destruction," said Rami Naim, editor-in-chief of El-Siyasa website.

Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah "does not have the right to make decisions on war without referring to the government, parliament, political officials or the people," Naim told Al-Fassel.

"[Nasrallah] made the wrong decision to escalate [tensions] in the south, because we, as Lebanese, are not interested in being drawn into his decision to go to war or fight against any entity," he said.

"Lebanon really does not want war, but would we [be able to] avoid it as long as Hizbullah threatens to drag us into it?"