LEBANON: Save your bullets for the enemy
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The Lebanese heard a shocking sound after a major televised political speech yesterday: Almost nothing.
Usually every time a political leader makes an appearance here, there is a spree of heavy celebratory gunfire that shakes the skies of Beirut.
This tradition results in frequent injuries and occasional deaths. But after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah finished a news conference lauding the prisoner swap with Israel as a great victory late Wednesday afternoon, it was unusually calm in the capital.
That’s because Nasrallah dedicated the last part of his talk to exhorting people not to fire in the air during ceremonies or after political speeches:
We cannot bear anymore that with every occasion or appearance of a political leader, there are victims and wounded. This is a very dangerous matter, very painful and catastrophic. ... I say openly to the people listening to me, ... every person who fires a bullet in the air at an occasion like this is really firing at my chest, my head and my turban. ... Firing is equivalent to firing at the resistance and our martyrs and achievements. ... I reiterate that this is dangerous and serves the enemy.
The Hezbollah leader added that his enforcers on the streets were cooperating with neighborhood residents to suppress the celebratory gunfire. Right before yesterday’s news conference, the Shiite militant group had issued a statement warning that legal action would be taken against every person who shot in the air during the occasion.
The gunfire is particularly provocative now because it exacerbates already volatile political tensions on the streets.
— Raed Rafei in Beirut