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Panama News Briefs

Scenes from an antiwar protest

photos by Eric Jackson

On August 3 several hundred people, mainly from Panama's Lebanese community but also including Palestinians and members of several of this country's leftist groups gathered at the El Carmen Church parking lot and marched to the Banco General building, which houses the Israeli Embassy. Though the rhetoric was sometimes strident and various effigies were burned, the protest was peaceful.

By and large the protesters blamed the United States for supporting, or in some cases accused them of inciting, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Here in Panama, Shiites represent substantially less of the Lebanese community than the 40 percent of Lebanon's population that they comprise. However, here as in Lebanon, Lebanese-Panamanian Shiites, Sunnis and Christians all joined in the protest against the Israeli actions. It seems that even Lebanese who fought against Hezbollah in the civil war and disagreed with them over Syria's role in their country are tending to blame Israel and the United States more than Hezbollah for the destruction that has rained down on their country, and that trend appears to be reflected among Lebanese-Panamanians as well.

In past political crises when Arab-Panamanian protesters have converged on Israeli diplomatic missions, there have usually been a few pro-Israeli counter-protesters. We didn't see any of them this time.