Concerned veteran Bert offers Lebanon a helping hand: 'Situation has only gotten worse'

Schalkhaar, 4 October 2024                            
© text Luuk ten Kleij / photos Ruben Meijerink

He served there as a soldier in 1980 and is still closely involved with the country.

Now Bert Kleine Schaars from Deventer is concerned about the situation in Lebanon. At the beginning of this week, the Israeli army invaded the country. Reason enough for Kleine Schaars to collect medical supplies. "This country does not deserve to be the plaything of other powers."
Little Schaars was deployed to Lebanon as a soldier 44 years ago - he was 19 years old. The country was in a civil war at the time. The Schalkhaarder was part of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission.
Since then, it hasn't really been quiet in the country. "Over the decades, the conflict has sometimes been almost repetitive," says Kleine Schaars. "The difference for me from then to now is that back then you had a function, a task, you were working on it. As a peacemaker, you tried to keep things apart. When I look at it now, we have been there so much with return trips and aid projects. Now a lot of people in the south have really been given a face.'' He knows "a lot of people" who are now on the run.

Uncertainty, fear and powerlessness
Kleine Schaars, who is active as a council member on behalf of Deventer Belang, still visits Lebanon about two to three times a year. He was last there in April 2023. A trip was also planned in October last year, but it was cancelled after the start of the war between Hamas and Israel.
"We would go as far as the Israeli border. That is the area where we were at the time. We cancelled and postponed both trips on 8 October. And I say that very optimistically: postponed. In the meantime, the situation has only gotten worse."
At the beginning of this week, the Israeli army began a ground offensive in Lebanon. Kleine Schaars is still in 'continuous' contact with people in the country. "They all fled." What do they feel? Fear. You don't actually sleep. You actually hear explosions and explosions all the time. And how close does it get? You just don't know. The uncertainty, the fear, the powerlessness."

To lend a helping hand, Kleine Schaars has started collecting medical supplies. "We know the Lebanese ambassador in The Hague very well. He came into contact with us last week.'' In particular, Lebanon is asking for medicines and medical supplies. "All hospitals are full. The need is great, the need is high.'' And then Klein Schaars thinks: I have to help.

Offering a future
Kleine Schaars set up the Veterans for Lebanon Foundation in 2020 after a warehouse exploded in the port of the capital Beirut on August 4 that year. Hundreds of people lost their lives in the process.
"That country has been grounded since 2020 and the corona crisis, also because it is very dependent on tourism and things like that. The older generation knows nothing but conflict. We believe that you should offer children the future and we try to invest in that."

There are now about eight pallets of medical materials ready in Amsterdam. "We are now trying, in consultation with the ambassador or with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to get them to Lebanon as soon as possible."

Insist
It is mainly logistics companies and wholesalers who donate items, from syringes to anaesthesia equipment and oxygen material. No medications. "I can go to a pharmacy and ask for a few pills, but you don't get that. You can only convey that message to the Dutch government. Guys, do something."
"If medicines in hospitals in the Netherlands have a shelf life of less than three months, they are destroyed," says Kleine Schaars. "I'd rather we collect them now and put them on a plane to Lebanon. But I can't do that, I can only say that the need is there. Insist on it."
In the meantime, Kleine Schaars is also looking ahead. "I'm optimistic by nature. And I always have hope. Here's to a good future. It's such an incredibly beautiful country, with beautiful people. And this country does not deserve to be the plaything of other powers, which means that the country itself cannot recover and rebuild."