The above image comes from my installation "No Truce in Beirut, Only Virgins" (here). Has Lebanon had a checkered history with the Palestinians? Indeed we have. Have we paid an exorbitant price in the process? We have, indeed. Does this deter us from being human? Judging by how the Lebanese (well, most of them I think though no statistics are available) no, it does not. I will still let you ponder about that campaign on the streets about Lebanon not wanting war (here and here) and I ask again who placed them and with what money and who is funding this.
However this does not deter us from easy talk and empty gestures and useless political discourse. The two images above come from an manifestation that happened in Beirut. The story was told to us (as a class) by our Arabic teacher. Therefore I have no specific dates for it. But the gist of the story is that the beginning of the manifestation the slogan being shouted was "fal yaskot wa3d Belfour" (may the Belfour promise be annulled) and at the end of the manifestation? "fal yaskot wa7ad min fow2" (may someone from above be toppled). If you say these two sentences aloud, they sort of rhyme, especially through an Indian telephone that a manifestation becomes. The point is, people just wanted to join the action, not caring what the message was.
And yet these are "malayeen" (the millions) that singer Julia Boutros deplored in her song (here). And again, Lebanon and Beirut were the hub of the pro-Palestinian movement. So if this was the hub, what to say of the Others? Those who, not only did not do anything, but were in tacit support.