Lebanon’s displaced find solidarity and community in an empty hotel

By the time the displaced families had fixed up the Hamra Star, police arrived with several buses to evict them on October 19.

Najah Itani, a Lebanese judge whose family owns Hamra Star, had filed a court order to have her family’s property vacated.

But the people sheltering there did not want to leave, not knowing for sure where they would be taken and fearing they would end up in shelters in areas under Israeli bombardment.

Some people said the police told them they would be taken to Sabra, a slum in south Beirut where the sound of Israeli warplanes and bombing are too close for comfort.

Others were told they might be taken to Sidon, a coastal city about 38km (24 miles) south of Beirut, where eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on October 27. Just two days later, several more people were killed in the city by another Israeli bomb.

After pushback from the displaced families and activists, the police gave the occupants 48 hours to leave the building.

Itani did not disclose why she wanted the displaced families to leave.

“I am noticing that everyone is forgetting that other shelters were provided and that this is my family’s property,” she told Al Jazeera. “Why do I need to provide any other explanations is beyond my understanding.”

Speculation was rife in Hamra, however, that the reason was the increasingly common fear in Lebanon that Israel is deliberately bombing the places that the majority-Shia displaced people are escaping to.

A woman who lives down the street from the hotel, but who did not disclose her name, said some neighbours, and possibly Itani, fear that a Hezbollah operative may visit the hotel, giving Israel a pretext to attack it.

Israel has frequently claimed that a Hezbollah member was present in displacement centres that it bombs.

The strikes inflame sectarian tensions by making communities fearful of welcoming displaced Shia civilians, who are the main constituents of Hezbollah.

Lebanon runs on a confessional system where political posts are allocated proportionally based on the country’s sectarian makeup.

The president is always a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.

Since the end of the civil war, Hezbollah has consolidated control over Shia politics in Lebanon by blending identity, resistance to Israel’s occupation, and religion into a political movement that has resonated with many.

Several families staying in Hamra Star said nobody from any political faction is staying in the hotel, pointing to the complete lack of support they are receiving from political factions as proof.

“People around here are so scared that Israel will bomb the building because Shia are here,” the woman told Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera asked Itani if this was why she wanted the hotel vacated, but she said she was “unable to answer”.

“I was advised for my own security not to issue any press release at this time,” she told Al Jazeera over the phone. “I’m still waiting for the place to be evacuated and I was promised it would happen in an amicable way.”