The Raouche Rock crisis has no real bearing on Lebanon’s political life. Yet, it does reveal the deep divide in how political figures are perceived: either as sacred icons or as demons. Hezbollah’s fabricated controversy over projecting the images of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine on the rock to mark their assassination is nothing more than a blatant act of provocation.
Hezbollah could have placed their portraits on the ruins of the building where they were killed. It could have chosen to treat the commemoration with reverence and dignity, instead of turning it into provocation. It could have used the anniversary to put forward ideas of national unity rather than cling to sectarianism.
Instead, Hezbollah insisted on provoking the people of Beirut in particular, those whose homes it stormed on May 7, and who have been forced to live under the shadow of its weapons ever since, now seeing their security and stability threatened once again.
What will be achieved by illuminating Raouche Rock with the faces of Nasrallah and Safieddine? Even more, what kind of celebration can take place under the watchful eye of Israeli drones circling overhead, and against the backdrop of daily strikes shaking the South?
Hezbollah cannot respond to Israeli military operations with so much as a single rocket, having signed with its own hand the humiliating agreement that binds it. Instead, it defends its arsenal only through statements and rhetoric, nothing more. Unable to alter reality, pressured on the security front, squeezed along the border and weakened by Assad’s collapse, Hezbollah now seeks symbolic gestures to salvage its base and cling to relevance, such as projecting its leaders’ portraits onto Raouche Rock.
If this is truly the pinnacle of Hezbollah’s ambitions, to reduce its political power to an image cast on a landmark, then the real problem lies in the party’s capacity to endure. Far from demonstrating strength, it is evidence that the era of dominance has passed, and that what Hezbollah lives on today are only the remnants of its fading role.
Take the rock and whatever you like. The state has indeed taken everything from you.
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