Every single member of Panse Saleh’s extended family in Lebanon has been displaced from their home – some are sleeping in cars, others on the street or in temporary housing.
Some could have to move again as Israel continues to bombard parts of Lebanon. Sydney-based Saleh fears elderly members of her family could die – whether they stay or attempt to leave Lebanon’s south.
Much of the southern region is populated by the Shia community and relatives in Australia – like Saleh – have watched the events of the past weeks with horror.
“My uncle is sleeping in his car, fleeing from one spot to another because of how unsafe it is. Another uncle was missed by a rocket by 20 metres,” she says.
“My grandparents are staying in a home alongside five other families. My grandmother knew this war would be different and they left everything behind.
“I’ve aged 10 years in the past 10 days. We spend all day and night on the news, watching, hoping we don’t recognise a village or a suburb. We live in constant panic, constant dismay.”
Saleh rattles off story after story. A single mother running with her two sons through a village as it is bombed. Of a building full of people collapsing. Of people escaping with only US$20 in their pockets.
“I spend all night on the phone, I just remember someone and call them. And sometimes they don’t answer. We can only depend on the news. And everyone in my community here feels it.”
The Lebanese Shia community in Sydney is relatively close-knit. It’s smaller than their Sunni counterparts.
The closeness means people feel deeply connected to what happens in Lebanon. Now, they are reeling at what they see as an invasion of their ancestral home.
There are now 1.2 million people displaced by Israel’s military action in Lebanon, according to the country’s caretaker environment minister, Nasser Yassin.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon over the past fortnight, many of them women and children, according to the health ministry.
Daily funerals and vigils are held at the handful of Lebanese Shia mosques in Sydney so people in Australia can take part in rituals for loved ones. People mourn relatives, friends, teachers, doctors, imams – and strangers.
For a fortnight, a whole community has agonised over daily news from the other side of the world.
“I don’t sleep. There is a lot of frustration and disappointment, especially knowing that speaking out won’t change anything. Our anger always turns to helplessness,” Saleh says.
“All we have been able to do in this country is watch. We are standing still, watching.”
The hurt has mobilised many in the Lebanese Shia community who are now attending the weekly pro-Palestine marches in Melbourne and Sydney.
The marches are no longer just about Gaza, where Israeli strikes have killed more than 40,000 people since the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023 that killed 1,200 people in Israel.
Last weekend’s rallies were controversial because some protesters displayed Hezbollah flags. Under Australia’s anti-terror laws, it can be illegal to display prohibited symbols of a listed terrorist organisation.
Hezbollah garnered widespread domestic support for pushing out Israel in 2000 after almost two decades of occupation – even among Christian, Druze and Sunni Muslim sections of society outside its main Shia base in the south. It fought a five-week war with Israel in 2006.
Hezbollah was listed as a terrorist organisation in its entirety in Australia in 2021. Previously just the military wing of the broad organisation – that also provides education, health and financial services – was designated.
Hezbollah has conducted mass-casualty attacks on civilians but the group’s reach extends beyond militancy.
The Sydney Shia community leader Julie Karaki says the furore over displaying Hezbollah imagery has been a “distraction”.
“It is a lessening of the cause we are trying to stand for,” she says.
Karaki argues only a handful of flags were displayed. People carrying the image of the assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were doing that while mourning, she says.
“You have to understand that for the south Lebanese community Sayyid Hassan is like their father. Very few people from the south see them as a terrorist organisation and yet, over here, we can’t even question the listing.
“I am not questioning the law, what I am saying is that we need to have a nuanced conversation.”
Karaki says the “distracting” debate means her community’s pain has not been acknowledged.
“It feels like they [politicians] see us as second-class citizens and when they do say something it always feels superficial and dismissive. It never feels genuine.
“We are hurting and it is a collective hurt. It is school holidays and no one can bring themselves to do anything happy.”
Gamel Kheir is the secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association, a Sunni organisation that predominantly represents communities from north Lebanon.
He says the current conflict has brought about “unprecedented” unity within the communities in Australia.
“Nothing brings us together more than tragedy, and unfortunately this tragedy has been repeated many, many times before with the Lebanese.
“And the Lebanese have proven, again, how unified they are and how much solidarity they show in times of pressure. We stand by our Shia brothers and sisters.”
Kheir said the community was incensed by the political response in Australia to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
The history of Lebanese migration and social and cultural connections meant the community expected to “see and hear more” from politicians.
“They eat our food, they engage in our culture, but they don’t care about our lives?
“We are disappointed with all levels of government, state and federal. All we want to see is a government official, a politician, stand up and say Lebanon has a right to defend itself. Where has that discourse gone?”
Kheir says comments by the federal opposition leader, Peter Dutton, over the past week have been particularly infuriating.
Dutton wants visa holders caught holding Hezbollah imagery to be deported and has said pro-Palestine and Lebanon rallies planned for this weekend were a “celebration of death”.
“This is [a] classic dog whistle,” Kheir says.
“He has spent a lifetime sandbagging the Lebanese community into a corner.
“All he does is undermine social cohesion with such comments. He’s a wannabe prime minister and that’s all he’ll ever be.”
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, did meet this week with a group of leaders from the Lebanese community from different sects and religions. But the premier’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the outcome of those discussions.
Guardian Australia sought comment from Dutton’s office.
