Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Aghrab. This got my attention. The March 14th Movement yesterday issued a statement about the assassination of Pierre Gemayyel. It accused "al-aghrab"--foreigners of the assassination. This word was the standard word used in racist phalangist propaganda during the war to refer to "inferior" non-Lebanese Arabs, namely Palestinians and then Syrians. The word (and the ideology) is now internalized by the entire March 14th Movement. Pierre Gemayyel was himself born in Egypt.