He would have liked to be present during the demonstration against the war in Gaza and Lebanon which took place on Boulevard de France in Belfort, this Saturday April 19. Abdallah Ghaddar, 41, is a Belforan with many hats. He is the restaurant manager At the Lebanese in rue Proudhon, of an engineering company, and he also took on the roles of president of the merchants’ committee of Belfort and municipal elected official in Cravanche. Since the start of the March 2 bombings in Lebanon, he has taken on the role of the son worried about his family, helpless in the face of the situation in his country, even more than usual.
“We were never able to come back”
Originally from the Saida region in Lebanon, Abdallah Ghaddar came to study in France in 2003, when he was only 18 years old. “I had come to escape the political and economic context that existed at that time, but always with the aim of returning to Lebanon afterwards,” he recalls. “But unfortunately, we were never able to come back.”
Since the last bombings, he has managed to bring his mother-in-law and his sister-in-law to France. “Otherwise, I have everyone there. My parents, my cousins, my aunts and uncles. It was a disaster, it hit everywhere, and my family was forced to move to safer areas in the north of the country, taking refuge with other family members. »
The only possible support is financial
If no one has been injured so far, for the entrepreneur it’s just a matter of luck. “I had my cousin who lived in a hotel in Beirut, and there were strikes on a hotel right next door,” he gives as an example. From France, all they can do is send money, like what many Lebanese nationals are currently doing all over the world.
“My family there are mostly elderly people who have their habits, their roots and therefore who don’t want to leave. My father told me: ‘If I have to die in this war, then I will die here.’ In the meantime, they work as a family in the family restaurant, but there is no money coming in because there are no customers. »
Rare moments of respite
On a daily basis, despite the many professional occupations, his head and especially his heart are elsewhere. “We don’t live well here. We are on the news all the time, every morning when I wake up I check to see if there has been a disaster that affects me personally,” he says. One of his rare moments of respite is when he works in his restaurant. “It’s a very touching moment for me, because we often meet people who are interested in our culture, and if it doesn’t advance anything on the situation in Lebanon, it’s a moment of exchange that relieves us.”
With the recent announcement of a ceasefire on April 16, he has no illusions. “The conflict with Israel began in 1982, and since then it has never really stopped. A ceasefire will be punctual. Maybe it can last a year or two, but it will inevitably start again because nothing has been resolved.”
Leave a Reply