Webinar explains the effects of war with Iran on Lebanon and the West Bank
Three PC(USA) global partners are centered during a presentation by people serving in a vulnerable part of the world
LOUISVILLE — Global Ecumenical Liaisons with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) gathered three partners from Lebanon and the West Bank for a webinar this week to speak about the impacts of the war with Iran and the continuing harm being done by walls of separation and by violence, especially in Gaza.
Luciano Kovacs, the PC(USA)’s Global Ecumenical Liaison for the Middle East and Europe, hosted the webinar, which featured these guests:
- Melissa Bridi, regional executive secretary for the World Student Christian Federation-Middle East. Bridi is based in Beirut, Lebanon
- The Rev. Ashraf Tannous, the pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Beit Sahour, east of Bethlehem
- Areej Masoud, the founding executive director of Khayari in Bethlehem, a Palestinian organization working on women’s leadership and economic empowerment.
Wednesday’s webinar is the first of several planned to give the opportunity for “partners to share about their life, their struggle and their work,” Kovacs said.
Lebanon faces “multiple overlapping crises,” Bridi pointed out, including “ongoing military escalation, economic collapse and instability.” The war has displaced about 700,000 residents, with 400,000 of them fleeing in just one day last week.
The economic collapse began in 2019 and was made worse by the port explosion in Beirut in 2020. “Lebanon used to have a big middle class,” Bridi said. “Now 80% of the population is in poverty.”
“And now war,” Bridi said, “which has deeply affected the future prospects of young people.”
For people in Lebanon, “the most dangerous thing in my opinion is not just the bombing, but the way Israel is … trying to create a civil war inside Lebanon,” she said. “We already had a civil war, for 20 years. We already know how bad the suffering was.”
Municipalities in Lebanon are being told they will be bombed if they host displaced people. “Not everyone is Hezbollah,” Bridi said. “Humanitarian aid is very limited.”
This week, her organization received what she quickly determined were phony phone calls telling them to flee, “which is strange for us, because we’ve never had to evacuate.”
Chaos, she said, is beginning to take hold in Lebanon.
Born and raised in Ramallah in the central part of the West Bank, Tannous said his heart is with Lebanon. “Four beautiful years of my life I spent in Lebanon,” he said. “It means a lot to me, the peace of Lebanon.”
Because he lives in Jerusalem, Tannous must frequently travel to the parishes he serves in Bethlehem and Beit Sahour. “It’s risky sometimes,” he said. “We never know what the coming hours and even seconds will bring us. We never know when the sirens will go off and we will have to go to shelters. It’s causing trauma for people here.” Some are considering leaving “because they seek freedom, peace and security,” he said.
Bethlehem in particular depends on tourism, but “there is no tourism” currently, he said. “The streets are empty,” as they are in Jerusalem.
“People are asking for help in different kinds of ways — with rent or with their electrical or water bills,” he said. “Thanks be to God there are lots of responses from friends who are sending help. … It doesn’t make people rich, but it does ‘give us this day our daily bread.’”
The West Bank “is under a huge blockage,” he said. The gates in walls that separate neighbors are now more frequently under enforcement. “They close the gate and they separate cities and villages,” Tannous said. “It’s inhuman and very strange.”
His “deep disappointment” is with the international community, “basically governments. They see. They know,” he said. “They have facts in front of them, but they are staying silent and are complicit with what’s happening in Lebanon and the West Bank, and in Gaza. It’s not acceptable.”
“There are countries that [see themselves as] above the law, and the international community is staying silent,” Tannous said. “We are living it every day. May God help us.”
Tannous concluded his talk with something he frequently says: “No matter how dark and how long the night is, the sun will rise for sure the next morning.”
“Hope was born here in Bethlehem, in the city of peace, and peace was born here in the Church of the Nativity. Love was born here, and that’s what we’re fighting for — hope, peace and love. I hope we will teach the whole world how to have hope, how to be peacemakers and how to love our neighbors.”
Masoud noted that Khayari began its work with young women in Bethlehem in June 2023, just four months before the beginning of Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Gaza. “We jumped into serving the community and the needs that were emerging,” she said. “It is life coaching with a community that’s often forgotten, young adults. They need more support than we think.”
Khayari found it difficult to celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday with missiles being fired in the regions and no shelters to offer protection. “This war is not ours, specifically,” she said. “How can you take a breath and recognize what you’re feeling?”
Trauma, she said, “is showing up in physical ways” in the young women Khayari serves. “They share with me they feel as if there’s nothing to do on a justice level. They feel helpless,” Masoud said. “We are grateful to the PC(USA) for holding this [webinar] space. It can’t be Palestinians alone working to dismantle such a system of apartheid and genocide.”
She said she sees any partner’s involvement “as a piece of art, a mosaic. Each one is a piece of the mosaic, each with different skills. We mobilize, and we uplift marginalized voices. We work to foster understanding and advocate for a just peace.”
During a question-and-answer session, Masoud said she and her colleagues “make every effort to create hope. We can’t take hope for granted as Palestinians. We have to create it and work for it, and that’s why I work alongside these women.”
Kovacs said that “those of us who are committed to justice and peace in your region continue to work on advocacy and be in solidarity with all of you.”
Catherine Gordon, Representative for International Issues in the Office of Public Witness, said that while she’s frequently asked what the PC(USA) is doing to work for peace and justice in the region, “it’s important for everyone in the PC(USA) to do something,” asking those on the call to determine “how are you actively mobilizing your community” to stop “these horrible situations.”
Follow the links here, here and here for actions Presbyterians can take to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill.
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