Phoenician or Arab? A never-ending debate in Lebanon FEATURE 06/10/2010

Phoenician or Arab? A never-ending debate in Lebanon

FEATURE 06/10/2010 BEIRUT — “I am a Phoenician, not an Arab,” asserts 20-year-old Lebanese student Rebecca Yazbeck when asked to define her identity, with nothing more than conviction to back her claim. But fellow Lebanese Shehade Seqlawi feels differently. “There is no question that we are Arabs,” says the 50-year-old chauffeur. “We live in an Arab environment.” A debate over national identity has raged in Lebanon since the start of the 20th century with many Maronites, the dominant Christian sect in the multi-confessional country, claiming direct ancestry from the Phoenicians in a bid to stand apart in the largely Muslim Middle East. The Phoenicians were an intrepid seafaring people and tradesmen largely credited with creating the first widely used alphabet. With the onset of the civil war in 1975, the debate over identity became more acute as the term Phoenician started being bandied about as an ideological weapon and a means to differentiate Christians from Muslims. But various scientific studies in recent years have served to debunk the idea that Phoenician ancestry is related in any way to religion or a specific nationality. “You can be Muslim or Christian and carry a Phoenician signature,” said Pierre Zalloua, a Lebanese scientist who has carried out research to trace the genetic origin of Middle Eastern peoples. He notes that populations across the eastern Mediterranean coastline — Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories — share much of the same genetic makeup.... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100610com7.html

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