Fr. Dan Corrou, SJ, regional director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in the Middle East and North Africa (JRS MENA) has urged Canadians and people around the world to advocate for peace and reconciliation in the Middle East, saying that although it is a long and hard process, it is the only way to move forward.
“We need a safe, sane, responsible, peaceful movement forward that would take the rights of all people involved in the conflict seriously and do the very real work of long-term reconciliation…The continued violence here is only working against us long-term,” said Fr. Corrou. Fr. Corrou gave a live update from Beirut about the ongoing conflict in Lebanon during a webinar organized by Canadian Jesuits International on October 22.
People, especially those living in democratic, rights-based societies need to hold their governments to account with regards to their policy on the Middle East, he said. “There are very real issues that need to be addressed in terms of the structures of the modern Middle East, and how we are going to be able to live in societies where people are really respected, and their rights are treated seriously.”
He said, “We’re very aware of the travesty of the Hamas assault on Southern Israel (on October 7), and the continued travesty in the last year of 40,000 Gazans killed as a result of that. We stand very much in solidarity with all victims of violence in Israel and Palestine. But we do stand in particular solidarity against the sin of unbalanced violence there.”
Fr. Dan explained that while JRS responds to emergencies and provides services to people in need, working for peace, justice and reconciliation is an “absolutely essential part” of its mission. “Yes, the Gospel calls us to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and welcome to stranger. But we also do need to do the very real work of changing the structures that allow for some of our neighbors to remain homeless and unfed and unclothed.”
As part of the Lebanese Humanitarian International NGO Forum, an independent coordinating body of 65 international NGOs, JRS has called for an immediate ceasefire, and respect for the principles of International Humanitarian Law, which include the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure, among other things.
In his update about the Hezbollah-Israel conflict in Lebanon, Fr. Corrou reported that about 1.2 million people have been displaced, 2,412 have been killed and 11,285 injured. About 405,000 people (75% Syrians) have crossed the border to Syria. JRS MENA has also responded to the needs there.
In the last three weeks JRS has been able to directly serve nearly 11,000 people displaced in Lebanon by providing them with food, hygiene kits, mattresses, blankets, psychosocial support, and in some cases, shelter. Many displaced migrants – from the Philippines, Syria, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – have been turned away in government-run shelters because they are not Lebanese, he said. The Jesuit-run Arrupe Migrant Centre now hosts 75 of them, and others are taking temporary shelter in Jesuit monasteries in the mountains.
JRS was one of the first international NGOs to respond on the ground to the humanitarian needs of those displaced by the conflict, and this was largely due to the dedication and generosity of its staff, most of them Lebanese, who were themselves displaced. “They could have easily said, we are displaced and can’t do anything. But they came out immediately.” JRS teachers and social workers went out to streets to welcome people who had fled the airstrikes in Southern Lebanon and Southern Beirut. And because JRS has had a long and deep connection with local communities, it has been able to distribute food and run activities for children and provide psychosocial support for people in 31 government-run shelters, said Fr. Corrou.
Fr. Corrou underscored the need for long-term support, especially for those who were forcibly displaced and now living in shelters. He cited the impact of the recent conflict on children’s education, which had already been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lebanese blast, and the economic crisis.
“I know myself [when I visit)]the shelter that we have here, it’s overwhelming. If you get people talking, they are carrying an awful lot,” said Fr. Corrou. He recounted the story of one Sri Lankan woman who was wondering about what the future would look like for her. “She’s not sure if her house was badly damaged (by the airstrikes) or what the situation is, but she said, ‘I’m not sure that I could go back to my house because the last time I was there, I saw body parts of my neighbours strewn across the street, and I can’t ever not see that.’ The question, said Fr. Corrou, is, “How do you do the very real work of living through repairing the healing of memories like that? And so, this is an incredibly important part of our work. It’s not just [handing out] baskets of food and blankets. It’s really working with people as sister, brother, neighbour, companion on the journey.”
Fr. Corrou noted that Beirut today looks like what it did in 2013, when 1.5 million Syrian refugees fleeing the war in Syria arrived and took shelter under bridges, abandoned buildings, and the streets. The streets in Beirut’s downtown square are now lined deep with cars, and displaced people have camped out and are living under the skies, he said.
The people in Lebanon – displaced or not – are very tired because they are “seeing their country fall apart in a very real way,” he added.
Asked by a webinar participant about what he thinks people are being asked to learn together by all the “human madness” that’s happening in today’s world, Fr. Corrou said that while there’s a lot that could lead people to despair, “our job is to start with reality and respond with love.” This means asking, “how do we strip away our own biases and get to a real interaction with our neighbour?” He added: “When we’re in those moments of desolation, we have to focus on the radical present. And how do we focus on the radical present with our neighbor right here, right now and say, okay, how are we going to do this together?”
One needs to acknowledge that “the work of peace, the work of love, it always takes more work,” he added, but “the question is leaning into that sense of, okay, the response has to be love.”
CJI Executive Director Jenny Cafiso, who hosted the webinar, encouraged participants to learn more about the work of JRS and to support its work through various appeals launched by members of the Xavier Network, of which CJI is a member.
Please donate now to CJI’s humanitarian appeal for Lebanon: https://bit.ly/LebanonEmergency2024
