Hazem al-Amin

YouTube has so far scored three achievements in Lebanon. Or at least that’s what observers note. The latest such achievement is the pictures published on the site, showing the attack on Lebanese youths on Hamra Street as they tried to hold a protest in front of the Syrian Embassy. The pictures revealed the faces of the attackers, thus allowing us to confirm what Lebanese parties allied with the Syrian regime had been denying about themselves, namely that those people are not members in them. Prior to this achievement, YouTube had done well by showing us a Baath Party official attacking a pharmacy in Saida, saying foul words to a lady in it and trashing its contents.

The first achievement was smarter than the previous ones, since its strength is not only derived from the scene displayed in the video, but also from the idea of adding an ordinary violation that could be filmed anywhere to a package of other violations. A local magazine (Shou’oun Janoubiyya) took pictures of building contraventions in the South at a time when the South was witnessing a building frenzy. These pictures were displayed on YouTube in order to portray these contraventions as violations that are secretly filmed and broadcast on the site. The person who did this job wanted to portray those who violate public spaces and domains as resembling those who violate human rights and attack protesters in other YouTube videos. They are similar as proven by their presence on the same website.

A new expression went along with YouTube’s few achievements in Lebanon, namely using the word “shabiha” (or thugs) to describe those who attacked the youths on Hamra Street and broke their ribs. These are truly thugs and now we truly understand what Syrians mean by describing their attackers as thugs. We now know who their thugs and ours are. They are cowardly human beings who do not reveal their identities and whose parties would not acknowledge them as members even though they sent them on their missions. The ambiguity shrouding this phenomenon has been suddenly revealed. Thugs actually live in the vicinity of power and defend it, but power later kills them. They are faceless individuals even though their faces appeared on YouTube. They defend a power they are ashamed of and that is ashamed of them, hence the fact that they appear with no faces and no names.
Something has started in Lebanon in this respect. Indeed, YouTube corrupts and ruins powers, and power in our country is more fragile than powers, which YouTube speedily brought down.

Let us imagine, for instance, that someone had took pictures of the Black Shirts who took to Beirut’s streets at dawn to change a political reality resulting from legislative elections that reflected the Lebanese people’s will as best as possible, and that these pictures had been displayed on YouTube.

Things would have been different had this happened. The Black Shirts’ strength is imaginary and lies in the mystery shrouding their deeds. Had this scene been filmed and displayed on YouTube, the violation would have been documented and brought closer to the Lebanese whose vote was targeted. The “Black Shirts” are no more immune than their fellows in other countries.

Following the “Baath in Saida” movie, security forces arrested the perpetrator, knowing that the film was aired about a week following the incident during which time he remained free. This would probably have still been the case had the movie not been displayed.
The embassy movie may not result in arresting the perpetrators, but it does reveal their faces.