“We are in the land of mafias. If you are not a wolf, the wolves will eat you,” she told Reuters, standing on a dirt track somewhere in Lebanon’s rugged eastern Bekaa Valley, where she has been hiding ever since. Hafiz held up a BLOM Bank branch in Beirut last week, forcibly taking about US$13,000 in savings in her sister’s account that were frozen by capital controls imposed overnight by commercial banks in 2019 but never legalized through legislation. Dramatic footage of the incident, in which she trips over what later turns out to be a toy gun and stands on top of a desk bossing around employees handing her cash rations, made her an instant folk hero in a country where hundreds of thousands of people are locked out from their savings. A woman, identified as Hafiz, is seen holding a gun at a BLOM Bank branch in Beirut in this script taken from Al Jadeed footage on September 14. (Al Jadeed/Reuters) A growing number are taking matters into their own hands, angered by a three-year economic meltdown that the authorities have allowed to fester – leading the World Bank to describe it as “orchestrated by the country’s elite”. Hafiz was the first of at least seven savers to hold up banks in the past week, prompting banks to close their doors citing security concerns and seek government security support. George Haj of the bank workers’ union said the suspensions were misplaced anger that should be directed at the Lebanese state, which bears most of the blame for the crisis, and noted that some 6,000 bank workers have lost their jobs since it began. Authorities have condemned the suspensions and say they are preparing a security plan for the banks. But depositors argue that bank owners and shareholders have gotten rich by charging high interest rates to lend the government depositors money and are putting banks ahead of people instead of enacting an IMF bailout. The government says it is working hard to implement IMF reforms and aims to secure a $3 billion US bailout this year.
“They’re all together”
The raids have received widespread support, including from crowds who gather outside banks when they hear a clash is taking place to cheer them on. “Maybe they saw me as a hero because I was the first woman to do this in a patriarchal society where a woman’s voice should not be heard,” Hafeez said, adding that she had not intended to harm anyone but was tired of government inaction. . . “They are all bent on stealing from us and leaving us to starve and die slowly.” When her sister began to lose hope that she could afford expensive treatment to help her regain mobility and speech with brain cancer, and the bank refused to provide the savings, Hafiz said she decided to act. BLOM Bank said in a statement that the branch was cooperative with its request for funds, but requested documentation as it does for all customers requesting humanitarian exemptions from informal checks. Hafiz then returned two days later with a toy gun she had seen her nephews playing with and a small amount of fuel which she mixed with water and poured on an employee. George Hadge, head of the bank workers’ union, gestures as he speaks during an interview in Beirut on Tuesday. (Emilie Madi/Reuters) She managed to get $13,000 of the $20,000 total — enough to cover her sister’s travel expenses and about a month of treatment — and made sure to sign a receipt to avoid being charged with theft.
Disguised
To help her escape, Hafiz posted on Facebook that he was already at the airport and on his way to Istanbul. She ran home and disguised herself in a robe and headscarf and put a bundle of clothes on her belly to make her look pregnant. A police officer who knocked on her door “must have been afraid I was going to give birth in front of him. I went downstairs in front of everyone, like 60 or 70 people … wishing me luck with the birth. It was … like the movies,” she said, since they failed to recognize her. Hafiz said she would surrender once judges end a strike that has slowed legal proceedings and left inmates languishing in jail.
