In a televised speech, the President of the Kataeb Party and resigned MP Samy Gemayel had some choice words in response to Hezbollah‘s Secretary-General.
On Thursday evening, Hassan Nasrallah went on TV for a speech during which he warned against the people’s protests that he deems being incited by some internal and external parties to provoke violence and civil war.
In his heated speech, Nasrallah mentioned the “civil war” around 10 times, Gemayel said in his not-less-heated response.
“What is this talk of civil war?” retorted Gemayel, addressing Hezbollah‘s leader. “There is no Lebanese person who wants a civil war, only you. The Lebanese people don’t like wars, they love peace. Stop talking to us about civil war!”
The country is still suffering at the hands of leaders who emerged since the bloody civil war during which Gemayel’s own uncle and 2-year old cousin were assassinated.
In recent times, there have been tweets here and there, in reply to the people’s protests, “foretelling” civil war with the aim to infuse fear and incite the public against the protesters.
“There is no civil war in Lebanon. But there is that you are controlling the country. That is the reality. That is the problem,” Gemayel blasted, pointing to Hezbollah’s control over the ruling “regime.”
“You think that this Lebanese revolution is directed against you, but it’s not. This revolution wants to build a state, build the country, and build the future,” he declared.
“But I understand when someone is controlling a hostage, they don’t want that hostage to fight for freedom. They would want us to stay quiet, and obedient, and suffer silently… No, we will not die silently. We’re going to keep raising our voice!”
“And you threaten us with civil war but we are peaceful people who refuse the mentality of violence and war,” he stated, adding that the Lebanese nation is trying to break free.
“And if you want to do a good thing, release [your hold on Lebanon], because your people are also hungry, and all the Lebanese people are suffering,” he said.
Gemayel resigned in the wake of the Beirut Port explosion and has been ever since standing openly, and sometimes fervently, against the state’s negligence leading the country to a dark unknown.
