Adonis Diaries

Testimonials of a civil war

The issue of daily Al Balad, May 1, 2005

Hajj Mahmoud Kaleet is 71 years old from Bent Jbile in the South.  He has 10 children. Mahmoud had relocated to Nabaa in East Beirut before 1975 because of the Israeli retaliations against the Palestinian resistance in the Southern borders sent the Lebanese fleeing toward Beirut.

When the Phalangist militias devastated Nabaa and destroyed his house and all his belonging, he headed toward Soufar in the Aley disctrict.  He then worked as a taxi driver in Syria for a while and settled in Dahieh-Bear Abed (currently a stronghold of Hezbollah).

An Israeli shell destroyed his house in April 1982 and killed two of his children: a son and a daughters.  A second daughter suffered permanent disfiguration.  The family relocated again in Aley until Beshir Gemmayel was elected President of the Republic with Israel backing.

The fifth relocation took the family back to Ghazieh and then to Bear Abed.   Hajj Mahmoud never took arm or any of his children: they were busy surviving and staying away from any kind of militias.  He nevertheless participated in Mosques sit-in against the attempted peace treaty with Israel.

Once, his car was hit by shrapnel during his trip to Hay Selum and thus he fled to Burj Barajneh before reaching his home.