Seeking an independent Mount Lebanon
World Tour
Post Date:
August 28, 2026
Seeking an independent Mount Lebanon
A diaspora-led movement advocates for a safe haven for Christians in the region
Lebanese Maronite Christians worship at the Saint Antoine Church in Beirut on April 5. Getty Images / Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP
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More than 12,000 people, including Christians, Druze, and Israelis, got on X earlier this year for an online discussion titled “The Cedar Accords.” On the live audio feed, attendees discussed what a peaceful Lebanon with ties to Israel could look like.
“Lebanese Christians have never been historic enemies of the Jewish people and Israel. In times of shared dangers, we have stood as allies,” the meeting host said during the introduction. She and other online attendees hid their identities due to concerns of Lebanese government reprisal.
Similar sessions have continued throughout the year. Some attendees are members or supporters of a newly formed advocacy group called Mount Lebanon Transitional Council, which promotes a long-term vision to restore Mount Lebanon as a safe haven for indigenous Christians while advocating for a peaceful coexistence with Israel. Led largely by members of the Lebanese diaspora, the movement hopes to revive Mount Lebanon’s historic Christian heartland and encourage Maronites, an Eastern Catholic community historically centered in Lebanon, to return from exile. But some critics say the group’s efforts are getting ahead of the political reality in Lebanon.
After decades of the country’s civil conflict and enmity with Israel, which the Transitional Council says outside actors forced on Lebanese Christians, the group believes it is time to separate from the Shia and Sunni factions inside Lebanon. Lebanon’s sectarian political system divides power among the country’s religious groups. With Shiite Hezbollah’s grip on the country significantly weakened, the Council sees an opportunity to pursue an independent future for Mount Lebanon.
Mount Lebanon, a mountain range parallel to the eastern Mediterranean coast, was historically a center of Maronite life and existed as a semi-autonomous region within the Ottoman Empire. Maronites have been indigenous to the region for centuries, tracing their history back to a fourth-century monk named Maron. Today, the 77th patriarch leads a worldwide Maronite community that remains in communion with the pope and whose followers number in the millions, most of whom live outside Lebanon, including large communities in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Mount Lebanon is now also a governorate of Lebanon, enveloping its capital, Beirut.
The idea of encouraging Christians to remain in Lebanon—or to return to it—has historical precedent. After the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, France established Greater Lebanon in 1920. In a 1926 letter to French Prime Minister Aristide Briand, Maronite Patriarch Elias Hoayek lamented the emigration of Christians from southern Lebanon and described the founding vision of the Lebanese state as providing “a refuge for all the Christians of the Orient.”
Clay Hanna, 48, a U.S.-born founding member of the Transitional Council, said he feels a responsibility to carry forward older advocates’ vision for a free, autonomous, and independent Mount Lebanon. He believes Lebanon is at a crossroads. “We see the necessity for a separate, independent, self-governing Mount Lebanon,” he said. “Many Lebanese people want peace.”
A May 2026 poll from the Beirut-based International Information Co. found strong support among the country’s Christian and Druze communities for ending the Israeli-Lebanese conflict but less support for developing normal diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties. The poll showed that 77% of Maronites and 72% of Orthodox Christians backed a peace agreement, compared with 58% and 49%, respectively, who supported normalization. Among Druze, 84% supported peace and 79% approved of normalization.
Hanna argued that, in order to create a prosperous, secure, and peaceful country, leaders cannot partner with groups holding to totalitarian ideologies committed to the destruction of Israel. He wants to see Lebanon free of foreign-linked actors like the Iran-backed Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, among others. These groups have violated Lebanon’s sovereignty, using it as a staging ground for attacks on Israel.
The council intends for Mount Lebanon to build a positive relationship with Israel that could include security coordination and economic ties. The Maronites, like the Jews, are indigenous to the region, Hanna explained, and they have traditionally acknowledged Israel’s right to exist and flourish. “We want to counter the invasion and colonization from the Muslim world,” he said.
Henri Zakaria, 44, leads the Maalto project, which promotes Maronites returning to their ancestral homeland and reviving their liturgical, Syriac-Aramaic language. “I want to bring my people back to Mount Lebanon,” he explained. The project operates an online program and a language center in Lebanon, but the work poses risks. Zakaria said Lebanese authorities arrested one of the project’s workers in Lebanon multiple times after the worker met with Maronite Christians from Israel at a 2018 language convention in New York. Zakaria mistrusts the Lebanese government, arguing it caters to Hezbollah’s wishes.
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