War-weary Lebanon needs aid now

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This article was published 02/11/2024 (566 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“Another sleepless and terrifying night…” reads the social media post from a humanitarian colleague based in Beirut as she tries to navigate her daily life in the Lebanese capital.

She, like millions of others in southern Lebanon, is bearing the brunt of the latest round of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which worsened in late September. Air attacks have targeted numerous regions of the city and thus far, more than 2,000 people have been killed as of mid-October. Beirut has also been flooded with tens of thousands of refugees from southern Lebanon who were forced to evacuate, many with little more than the clothes on their backs.

A massive national and international aid response would already be underway if this same scenario were occurring in a major North American city. Instead, this emerges as just the latest chapter in Lebanon’s troubled history at the crossroads of the Middle East. Since the early 1980s, foreign interventions from Syria and Israel, coupled with internal disruptions from warring factions inside the country, have created generations of people who have known little but conflict and upheaval. Human-made disasters, such as the 2020 explosion in Beirut’s port area, severely damaged large parts of the city and left thousands of people homeless.

Yet, in spite of this turmoil, Beirut, and indeed Lebanon itself, continues to survive. Millions of people make their way to work or school each day past apartment blocks destroyed by bombardment. There are marriages, birthdays and other celebrations, although many of Beirut’s vibrant nightspots have either closed or been transformed into shelters for refugees.

The roots of Lebanon’s challenges can be debated almost endlessly. But one thing is very clear: the country needs help — now. In recent years, Lebanon has welcomed more than 1.5 million refugees from the conflict in Syria, a move that put immense strain on the country’s fragile social safety network. Official and unofficial refugee camps have sprung up throughout southern Lebanon, and international aid agencies and the United Nations face a daunting task to provide food, medicine and shelter.

Along with other Canadian organizations, the Humanitarian Coalition, which is made up of 12 of Canada’s leading international aid agencies, is responding with life-saving essentials — food, shelter, health care and necessities — for people who have been displaced by this conflict. Funds are used by trusted local partners and country offices for humanitarian purposes, and the money spent is carefully monitored to ensure this takes place. The Government of Canada has stepped up and is matching donations dollar for dollar, showing its long-standing commitment to Lebanon.

As Humanitarian Coalition members, our aid agencies involved are motivated by international humanitarian law, which forbids the collective punishment of civilians and calls for protection for the most vulnerable people in society — including women, children, the elderly and disabled people — during any conflict situation. Right now, these groups are most at risk, as hospitals in Lebanon battle severe supply shortages and shelters burst at the seams with refugees and Lebanese nationals displaced by the bombings.

For this reason, and to spare the needless suffering of those whose lives have been turned upside down by a conflict in which they have played no part, we call on the Government of Canada to continue to push for a ceasefire between the warring parties to allow unimpeded humanitarian efforts.

There are no easy answers to the problems that face the Middle East and the political turmoil that has unleashed this on millions of innocent people in Lebanon. Yet, our basic humanity calls on us to do what we can to respond, in the hope that present and future generations can find ways to work together and bring peace to a troubled land.

We urge all Canadians not to lose sight of our shared humanity in the midst of this conflict, and to think of the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians caught in its crosshairs.

Barbara Grantham is the president and CEO of CARE Canada.

Andy Harrington is the executive director of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.

Richard Morgan is the executive director of the Humanitarian Coalition.