Naharnet, a pro-Western leaning Lebanese news site, is usually quite anxious in its condemnation of foreign forces exercising tutelage over Lebanon. Over the past few years, it has reported avidly on violations of Lebanese sovereignty, focusing largely on maneuvers by Syria and Iran and their local allies. (A headline on Naharnet once screamed “Hezbollahland” when describing the southern suburbs of Beirut.)
But in an article that appeared today, the editors of Naharnet appear to be abandoning their high horse of sovereignty by explicitly campaigning, it seems, for all-out French control over Lebanon. The article discusses French-Syrian-Lebanese relations, but instead of posting the contemporary Lebanese flag, the editors chose to dig up an image of the colonial flag used until the 1940s, when France ruled:
Or did they just think it was cute?
For those who would like to compare, here is an image of the flag that has been Lebanon’s for over 60 years:
2 comments
Good catch. I am not affiliated with Naharnet in any way, but I think it was probably an editor-in-chief lack of oversight to post a colonial flag of Lebanon. Similar to your point, someone who probably lacks Lebanese nationalism might wanted to show France and Lebanon in a single image associated to the article, so that person probably took the photo from Wikipedia on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Lebanon
or from the Wikipedia article on the early 20’s French mandate at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Lebanon
Nevertheless, your point is well valid and probably uncovers a serious issue in Lebanon. Take those photos for example: http://www.falangist.com/lebfor_flag.gif for the Lebanese Forces with a cedar in it, http://www.allstates-flag.com/fotw/images/l/lb%7Dlcp.gif for the Lebanese Communist Party, and http://www.falangist.com/kataeb-flag.gif for the Al Kataeb flag. All those include cedars and red colors and could easily be mistaken as the Lebanese National Flag when you post such flags in less-history-savvy areas of the world pr in the media. In many public events, many of such flags are raised to the same level including the Lebanese flag. With all the waiving that takes place, it would be hard to tell who favors his or her country at large or who favors his or her party (or France 😉 )
Thank you for your comment Tarek. I have always felt there were too many different flags being waved in Lebanon and too many ‘leaders’ posing in front of flags that are not the national one.