Why Lebanese Shia hate us? An alternative explanation

Israelis have a tendency to think of Arabs as creatures with very short memory, almost a goldfish expected to forget in seconds what has just happened to him, in contrast with Jews who are entitled to recall in details for ages each and every minor detail from every small pogrom. While we keep an open book of every blow – we expect Arabs to forget and erase from their inventory details about confiscated land and abducted property that they used to own in Israel and accept their loss with seeming grace. Obviously, we do not exhibit similar grace, when it comes to our property that was lost in Europe at the Holocaust or confiscated afterward. We reclaim it without further thinking and often resort to accusations about antisemitism when we do not get everything back with a high interest rate.

This tendency explains our failure to understand why Lebanese Shia hate us. We think of Shiites as primitive creatures brainwashed by the Iranian devil. Without undermining Iranian efforts, Shia Muslims of southern Lebanon have a very good reason to hate us – regardless of Iran. Seven Shia villages existed in the Upper Galilee for hundreds of years until 1948 – Qadas, Nabi Yusha, al-Malikiyya, Hunin, Tarbikha, Abil al-Qamh, and Saliha. They maintained good connections with the Jewish neighbors and did not take part in the civil war of 1948 (“independence war” – by Zionist terms). They even asked to become part of the new Jewish state. This did not help them avoid the expulsion, since Ben Gurion’s ideology was to leave the border with Lebanon “Arab-free” (this is also the reason why the Christian villagers from Iqrit and Biram were expelled). In order to clarify that Israel walks the walk and not only talks the talk, the village of Hunin experienced a particularly harsh (even by the standards of those times) war crime wherein four Shia women were raped and brutally murdered while 20 men where “only” executed by Israeli soldiers in the summer of 1948. The Shiites learned the lesson. They quickly fled to Lebanon, leaving all their property, behind, and settled in the south. Four thousand villagers that never did any harm became refugees overnight.

Without the interference of Iran, Hezbollah would possibly not have its intimidating presence and the up and coming third Lebanon War would likely be a not more than science fiction, but the Iranian influence found the right surface since we have prepared that surface. You cannot displace, disown, rape, and kill masses and expect the victims to forget. We do not forget our Holocaust. The Shia Muslims of southern Lebanon do not forget their Nakba. We turned them from neighbors into enemies.