Lebanon’s Two Different Time Zones: the Country Continues to Divide
Yesterday, most of the world set their clocks back one hour to mark the start of daylight saving, except for part of Lebanon, where people live in two separate time zones. This came as a result of an announcement from Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who announced the delay to the start of daylight saving last week. The shock announcement came with an almost month delay to daylight saving, with the new start date being April 20th. The decision behind the last-minute announcement was to give Muslims in Lebanon more time for their eating window as the majority Muslim population embarked on the holy month of Ramadan. The decision was met with nationwide criticism, and many have decided to ignore the announcement. The largest and most influential Eastern Rite Church in Lebanon, the Maronite Church, will disregard the announcement as they found it "surprising" and found there had been no acknowledgement of international standards. Other Christian organizations, along with businesses and schools, have followed the Maronite Church, while Muslim organizations, institutions and parties have decided to follow the announcement by Prime Minister Mikati.
As Lebanese people pick a side regarding this announcement, it has become symbolic of the divide between the Christian and Muslim populations in Lebanon, which experienced a civil war between these two religious factions from 1975 to 1990. Prime Minister Mikati's decision has continued to spark chaos in the country, with businesses criticizing the short notice affecting their regular business activity as their technology automatically adjusts to daylight saving. The backlash of the decision echoes the ongoing 2019 nationwide financial crisis in Lebanon; it continues to represent the failure of Lebanese leadership, as the Lebanese parliament has failed to install a new President since former President Michel Aoun finished his last term in October 2022. The reasoning behind this delay is now speculated to be a way to drive media attention from the worst financial crisis in modern history and from the political issues the country sustains.
This decision was implemented knowing that the Prime Minister would gain sympathy from the Muslim population while distracting from the protests that are taking over the country. As the country faces major shortages, four out of five people are living in poverty, and people are fighting over fuel. While many dispute the sectarian framing of the decision, it clearly represents the lack of Christian representation in Lebanese politics. The time-zone delay only adds to the country's list of problems and forces a deepening of the divide between the Muslim and Christian populations.