THE CANADIAN   LEBANESE COORDINATING (LCCC) COUNCIL MEDIA CHAIRMAN
INTERVIEW WITH THE HUMAN RIGHTS' AND AMERICAN-LEBANESE ACTIVIST PRESIDENT OF THE NEW ENGLAND AMERICANS FOR LEBANON (NEAL)
DR. JOSEPH HITTI

The interview was conducted on 17/7/03

LCCC: Could you please introduce yourself politically, socially, and academically ?
Dr. Hitti: My name is Joseph Hitti. I live in the United States since 1982 when I came as a student to complete my graduate work in biology. I am originally from Damour, but grew up in Beirut. I went to AUB in the 1970s and earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in biology. In the US I completed a PhD in molecular biology, then worked in academic research for several years before moving to industry. As a senior scientist in a biotechnology company in Massachusetts, I worked on the Human Genome project which was completed in 2000. At present I am a Technology Manager for a major global company that serves the biomedical industry. Politically, I work locally as the President of a small organization called the New England Americans for Lebanon, and we coordinate nationally across the US with other Lebanese-American groups, as well as globally with the Diaspora all over the world.  We do local lobbying in favor of Lebanese causes to try and influence the decision-making centers that determine the future of Lebanon.  

LCCC:  How do you view the current situation in Lebanon?
Dr. Hitti: Over the past two years, Lebanon has underwent a major upheaval in terms of its presence and importance to the American political landscape. After 30 years in which the pro-Syrian elements of the US government - mostly State Department officials - have managed to convince US public opinion, and successive administrations and congresses that Syria was a "factor of stability" in Lebanon (when the reality was that Syria had used those 30 years to destroy Lebanon's foundations, institutions, civil society, and all the components of a prosperous and liberal country), Syria is today on the defensive as a supporter of terrorism and a major obstacle to the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Instead of the cesspool where all regional conflicts were fought at the expense of its people, Lebanon stands today to reap the benefits of its long history as a former ally of the West, a former liberal and prosperous democracy, and sadly the victim of state-sponsored terrorism. We are witnessing the last gasps of the Syrian regime as it suffocates under its own decrepit system, which should translate soon into relief for the Lebanese people from the 30-year Syrian occupation.

LCCC: Do you consider Lebanon an occupied coutry, and if yes why?
Dr. Hitti: Yes, Lebanon is an occupied country. Irrespective of how one calls it, the Syrian "presence" in Lebanon has all the hallmarks of an unwanted military occupation that has caused harm to the country, dictates policy, appoints governments, manages the judiciary system, arbitrarily arrests, detains, murders, abducts Lebanese nationals at will from their country in contravention of international law. This occupation shows no signs of ending, unless heavy pressure is exerted as we witness the Syrian regime make these furtive "withdrawals" under American pressure. Again, irrespective of which story one chooses to believe concerning the entry of the Syrian army in Lebanon, the facts today have obsolesced those reasons. Syria is in violation of UN resolution 520. Syria continues today - 60 years after Lebanon's independence - to refuse to exchange ambassadors between Damascus and Beirut, a clear sign that Syria is a more dangerous enemy of Lebanon than any other country in the region. Syria does not recognize Lebanon's right to exist as an independent nation. That is, in my mind, the underlying problem of the Syrian presence in Lebanon. Since their entry into Lebanon, the Syrians have been asked by successive Lebanese governments to leave, but they refuse to do so. In 1983, on a visit to the United Nations, President Amine Gemayel issued a major call to all the foreign armies to withdraw from Lebanon. In 1988, Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun again demanded the end of the Syrian military occupation of the country. Again, Syria refused, and even as the Taif agreement was shoved down the throat of the Lebanese people, the Syrians refused to commit to a schedule for its withdrawal from its neighbor's territory, as any civilized nation would do. There is a fundamental anomaly in the relations between Syria and Lebanon, and that is that the Syrian regime rejects Lebanon's right to exist, and as long as that position holds, I consider Syria to be the most dangerous enemy that Lebanon ever had in its modern history.

LCCC: How do you comprehend the case of the Lebanese detainees in the Syrian prisons? What is true and what is false in the whole matter, and what do think the Beirut's government role should be?
Dr. Hitti: I have no doubt that thousands of Lebanese national were seized illegally in Lebanon by Syria's army, intelligence services, or allied militias, and were then illegally transferred to Syrian territory.  My certainty on this fact comes from three sources:   
1- Testimonies made by Syrian human rights activists who themselves suffered from the abuses of the Syrian regime,
2- Personal experience: I have a younger cousin who left home one evening when he was 16 to drive around in his father's car with a friend of his age, like all teenagers do. He was arrested at a Syrian army checkpoint in Lebanon, and ended up spending 12 years in Syrian jails without any single charge being brought against him. His parents used to go to visit him and their visits were possible only in exchange of bribes and paybacks. Then one day, without any reason and in the most vulgar manner that only a tyranny is capable of, he was released and appeared at his parents' door.
3- There are several independent human rights organizations and NGOs that have been looking closely at the Syrian record in Lebanon and they now confirm the existence of Lebanese detainees in Syria. It is feared that many of them perished in Syria's chemical weapons testing camps, or that those who are still alive might suffer the same fate - execution - as the prisoners of the Iraqi Baath regime when the regime in Syria faces collapse like the Iraqi regime.
The Lebanese government is a government of shadows and stooges. It is made up of corrupt spineless men who dare not defend and protect their own people against their tormentors. They are collaborators who keep their lucrative and powerful positions in the Lebanese government against serving the interests of Syria instead of the people they represent. So they will never side against Syria on this matter. The Lebanese people know the truth and they will not forget, nor should they forgive.

LCCC: What in your opinion led to the current deteriorating situation in Lebanon?
Dr. Hitti: I do not see the current situation as deteriorating. It has deteriorated. It has hit rock bottom. The country cannot sink any deeper. Even after Hariri went begging at Paris II, Lebanon's deficit continues to grow, the national debt remains unchanged, and the Lebanese people are on the verge of an Intifada. Hunger, unemployment, occupation, humiliation, deprivation of basic freedoms,...how long can a people go on like this? Even animals in a zoo are likely to stage a revolution under conditions like this. Which is why I trust that the end is near. There is nowhere to go but up from the Syrian cesspool. Lebanon has crossed the threshold, and now it is a matter of time. Every indicator points to the end of the backroom deals between the US and Syria over Lebanon. Those deals used to be mediated by the moribund bureaucrats of State Department whose intellectual horizons are still in the stone age of colonialism and orientalism. They are people who cannot conceive of a "colonized" people suddenly making its own decisions or fighting its own wars. These bureaucrats, also known as Arabists, have made their careers catering to the corrupt business, political, and religious elites in Lebanon, with whom they make deals over the backs of ordinary Lebanese people. So any genuine solution to Lebanon's problems means the end of their careers and of their Lawrence of Arabia and Gertrude Bell dreams. In the grand scheme of things, Lebanon's enemy is Syria as we said, but it is also the State Department Arabists who would continue to sell Lebanon to Syria for as long as they can get away with it.

LCCC: What role is Hizbollah currently playing in Lebanon?
Dr. Hitti: Hezbollah is an artificial creation of Iran and Syria who use is as an instrument of their foreign policy against Israel. Hezbollah was created when Nabih Berri's Amal militia refused to be the terrorist radical organization that was needed by Iran and Syria. All the hullabaloo that is made of Hezbollah's social services and it being a respectable political party is just bunk. Hezbollah can pretend to be a socially responsible terrorist organization only because it prevents the Lebanese government from sending its troops to the south and providing those same services. It pretends to defend Lebanon against a non-existent Israeli occupation when in fact Hezbollah serves the Israelis by giving them a pretext to intervene in south Lebanon. If Lebanon genuinely believes that Israel posed a threat to it, why doesn't the Lebanese government send its army to the south to defend against the Israeli aggression? If Syria believed that armed resistance, a la Hezbollah, is indeed the right mechanism to liberate occupied land, why doesn't the Syrian regime send Hezbollah militants to shell Israelis settlements in the Golan Heights? After all, the Golan Heights are not only occupied, they are ANNEXED by Israel. Aren't there any valiant and courageous young Syrian men to blow themselves up to fight the ISraeli annexation of the Golan?  The facade of Hezbollah as a political party is maintained to mask the Islamic fundamentalist ideology that motivates it and which calls for transforming Lebanon into an Iranian-style Islamic republic. That is Hezbollah: One big lie and a fabrication of Iran and Syria to fight Israel with cheap Lebanese Shiite blood! Unfortunately, all of Lebanon has suffered from the consequences of this 30-year old charade.

LCCC: Is there any truth in the claims that Hizbollah have liberated south Lebanon from the Israeli occupation?
Dr. Hitti: That's what they would like to believe. They probably precipitated an expected Israeli withdrawal from the south. Remember, Israel always stated that it does not seek to annex or take Lebanese territory as it did in the Golan or the West Bank. It always claimed that its presence in South Lebanon is directly related to the threat posed by uncontrolled militias to its northern villages. From 1965 to 1982, it was the PLO that wrecked havoc in south Lebanon without liberating an inch of Palestine. Then when the PLO was evicted from Lebanon in 1982, Syria and the new Iranian Islamic Republic lost a major card. So they invented Hezbollah and the cat-and-mouse game continued. A silly rocket attack against northern Israeli villages was always answered by Israel with devastating consequences on the Lebanese of the south. In the end, all territory seized by Israel was returned to Lebanon in 2000. Also remember that the nucleus of the Israeli security zone in south Lebanon was created by legitimate divisions of regular Lebanese troops who were fighting for their lives and who were cut off from the central government in Beirut by a Syrian-led mutiny. The people of South Lebanon opened their side of the border with Israel for medical help, jobs, schools, etc. So when Hezbollah says it has liberated the south, we need to remember that it was Hezbollah and the PLO who caused the Israeli occupation in the first place. So they have no merit to claim here.

LCCC: Are the Christians in Lebanon in any kind of danger, and what is their stand in regards to the current status quo?
Dr. Hitti: No, the Christians in Lebanon are in no greater danger than any ordinary Lebanese citizen or Syrian citizen for that matter. This question of minorities is absurd. Before we worry about the Christians as a community, we have to ensure that every Lebanese regains his or her rights. The only genuine solution to all perceived "minority" issues in the Middle East is to allow the rule of law to govern the relation between the government and the governed. By protecting everyone's human rights, you de facto protect all minorities.
I also consider that the Lebanese system of democracy - which served Lebanon well in the aftermath of colonialism - has to grow and evolve. That system was based on an agreement between the Lebanese communities to protect their rights to self-governance and to give each a piece of government. The problem is that the rights of the individual Lebanese were subsumed under the rights of the community to which they belonged. Which, in turn, made the Lebanese individual a prisoner of his own community. If you were a Christian Maronite, you could not breathe, have children, marry, divorce, manage your inheritance, and even vote, without the hierarchy of the Maronite Church having a say in every detail of your life. Same thin for every other community. So, if you agree to this premise with me, then I really do not see a specific problem for the Christians in Lebanon. We must work to redefine the Lebanese political and civil status systems to provide guarantees and protections to the Lebanese as individual citizens of the Republic of Lebanon, and not as members of this or that community or religious sect. If we do that, there will be no specific threat to the Christians. If you look at the historical record, you will see that the Christians of Lebanon have generally been doing well over the centuries. From their retreats in the northern mountains they have come to inhabit most of the Lebanese mountain. They may appear to be losing the battles, but they are winning the war.

LCCC: We hear a great deal about the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, what is exactly their status and who controls them?
Dr. Hitti: They are de facto, not de jure, sovereign Palestinian territories inside Lebanon. No Lebanese government was ever allowed by Syria to enter the camps or quell their threats and challenges to the Lebanese state. In contrast, in Jordan the late King Hussein crushed the Palestinians and they came to Lebanon in 1970. In Syria they live like the rest of the Syrian people under the brutal rule of the Syrian dictatorship. The Palestinians in the camps in Syria need a laissez-passer merely to be able to leave the camps.
Back to Lebanon, the Palestinian camps are heavily armed fortified barracks and there is nothing short of military action that would return the authority of the Lebanese state to the camps. I do not believe for one moment that there is a "plot" to settle the Palestinian refugees permanently in Lebanon. This is a red herring that Syria keeps waving at the Lebanese to scare them into thinking that without Syria Lebanon would end up with the Palestinian refugees. I believe the solution to the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon will be something like this: Whatever final agreement is signed will include a clause for the return of some of the refugees to Israel proper. Others will be given the option of settling in the West Bank and Gaza. Yet others will be offered the option of emigrating to traditional countries of immigration like the US, Canada, Latin America, and Australia. We certainly encourage other Arab countries, since they say they are bonded as "Arabs" to each other, to take many of the refugees in proportion to their population sizes and densities. So in the end, Lebanon may really end up with a very small fraction of the refugees who I think would not want to stay anyway.
Finally, why is it that only Lebanon seems to have this problem of the Palestinian refugees? How about the refugees camps of Syria? Isn't Syrian worried about settling its own 500,000 refugees? What about the camps that are still extant inside Palestine? Why haven't these people been given the option of moving out of the camps and building their own villages on the barren hills of the West Bank?

LCCC: How would you describe the US role in Iraq, and how does the new situation in Iraq affects Lebanon?
Dr. Hitti: The US in Iraq has created a new set of conditions for the whole region. It has, however, to start dealing with the situation according to its long term interests. If the US thinks it is in Iraq for the long haul, then it must deal with Iraq in such a way that the long haul is safe, bearable, and can deliver on the promises made prior to the invasion. As to how it affects Lebanon, the war has, in my opinion, cast a very long shadow on the Syrian orgy in Lebanon. The Lebanese leadership must assume its historic responsibilities by preparing today for the post-Syria era.
The rise of democracy in the Middle East, if and when it happens must be prepared today. I call on the Lebanese people to reject their traditional family-based political affiliations and their blind subservience to the clergy and the churches. Forget the Gemayels, the Frangiehs, the Jumblatts, and all the other little lords who became politicians simply because their dads were politicians. Forget all the Ottoman-era entitlements that these families were given over political life in Lebanon, together with the Churches. Time has come for the Lebanese people to choose its leaders from its own ranks and throw in the dustbin of history the feudal families that have governed Lebanon and brought it to its demise. Lebanon needs a social-political revolution that frees the Lebanese people from the families and the religious elites.

LCCC: Where do you see the Syrian Accountability Act going? Is it going to become a bill?
Dr. Hitti: It will be voted by Congress and the President will sign it before the end of 2003.

LCCC: Will you ever consider returning back to live and settle in Lebanon?
Dr. Hitti: Of course. I can't wait to go to my own "marqad 3anzé" which I actually have nestled up in the mountains between the sky and the pine trees. Who can ask for more? I frequently go to Lebanon but for short periods of time. I have been all over the world, and I know I'll tell you a cliché, but there is nothing more beautiful than that country. We need to take our institutions away from the thieves, the merchants, and the traitors, and give them back to the people. We need to take back our beaches and our forests from the wheelers-dealers who care for nothing but the money in their pockets. We need to preserve the environment and conserve the few pristine areas of Lebanon that have not yet been raped for a quick buck. The Lebanese people need to take one good look at their country and realize that at the rate we are going, Lebanon will soon turn into a dry desert of barren mountains.  Tourism was Lebanon's number one resource, and in one or two generations, that resource will be forever gone.

LCCC: What message would you like to send out to the oppressed Lebanese and the Lebanese in exile?
Dr. Hitti: Keep the faith and work for Lebanon. Don't be paralyzed by inaction. Do anything that is in your capability of doing - from joining your voice to other Lebanese who speak up on Lebanon to giving money to those groups that ask for your support. The Syria Accountability Act will pass. If you are a resident of the US, be on the side of the winners and join in the final campaign for the bill. Call your representatives.