King's College London
The Idea of Lebanon
Rights, Violent Caesuras, and Sequels of Injury
The present in Lebanon retains the imprint of a past which is not yet past, but rather one which is lived, reproduced, and recalibrated on a daily basis. Authored and curated by Madonna Kalousian, this section of the exhibition captures the ramifications of this pervasive embeddedness of multiple layers of meaning from the past and the present as these manifest in modern-day Lebanon. It paints a picture in which the administrative, juridical, geographical, and demographic contours of what becomes Lebanon, particularly as undefined and redefined by colonial rule, continue today to plunge the country into a succession of episodes of harm, injury, and injustice.
It does so by building on an understanding of the idea of Lebanon at various stages of its history, from the late Ottoman times and the French Mandate to the post-independence era and the present-day regional escalation of violence inflicting further harm onto the post-civil war reality of a population whose injuries are not only yet to heal, but also continue to multiply.
The Lebanese Civil War: Political Erasure and the Afterlives of Injury
Video from Lebanese NGO Act for the Disappeared which was founded in 2010 following the failure of the Lebanese Parliament to ratify a law for establishing the fate of 17000 people who disappeared during the Lebanese Civil War. The video includes a series of interviews conducted with residents and business owners in the area of the former ‘Green Line’. The residents describe kidnappings and identity card killings which took place at the Barbir and Matḥaf checkpoints by armed members of Amal and the Lebanese Forces.
For further information about the work of Act for the Disappeared, see: https://www.actforthedisappeared.com/
Sabra and Shatila Massacres
In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and besieged Beirut with the declared intention of eliminating the PLO. Following the assassination of Bashir al-Gemmayel, leader of the Lebanese Forces who had just been elected president, the Lebanese Forces colluded with Israeli occupation forces, stormed Sabra Refugee Camp, and executed 3500 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians with knives and axes in just three days: September 16th to the 18th, 1982. Today, a stone memorial stands at Sabra’s graveyard where makeshift graves, more than 40 years on, still bear no tombstones.
Sabra and Shatila: September 1982 by Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout is one of the most extensive ethnographic studies of the massacres. Today, it remains a significant political document preserving, in 500-pages, maps, photographs, testimonies of survivors, and names of victims.
Title: ‘Security forces inside Shatila Refugee Camp, 1985-86,’
Occupation, Blockade, and Legacies of Injury at Al-Khiam
In 1985, Israel imposed a blockade against the south of Lebanon and, until 2000, continued to occupy Lebanese territory extending all the way from the southern border to Jezzine. In May 1992, Amnesty international published a report in which it condemned Israel’s violation of human rights, as evident in its torture and ill-treatment of the detainees of Al-Khiam held, as described in the report, outside any legal framework.
The pages available here provide only a few of the testimonies given by former Al-Khiam detainees to Amnesty International.
The July War and the ‘Dahiya Doctrine’
During its 2006 July War against Lebanon, Israel completely destroyed the Dahiya District of Beirut, following a heavy bombardment campaign in which Israel killed and displaced thousands of people and obliterated the whole of Dahiya’s infrastructure.
This widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure later became known as ‘the Dahiya Doctrine’ which describes what is now a long-established military strategy implemented by the Israeli army in order to “wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction,” a frequently quoted explanation by Gadi Eisenkot, former Israeli army Chief of Staff, as shown in this article by Rami Ruhayem.
Primarily premised on the Dahiya Doctrine, the ‘Israel Defense Forces Strategy Document’ was later authored and published by Eisenkot.
A summary of some key excerpts from the English translation has been published by the Journal of Palestine Studies.
Toxic Entanglements: Oil Spills and Al-Jiyeh Power Station
During the July War, Israel bombed the Jiyeh thermal power station, located less than 20 miles away from Beirut. According to a report by Mira Husseini for Global Atlas of Environmental Justice,
out of the 75,000 tons stored, 12 to 15 tons of fuel were spilled and 55,000 tons of burnt […]. A 10 km wide oil slick covered 170 km of coastline, and threatened Turkey and Cyprus. The oil slick killed fish, threatened the habitat of endangered green sea turtles, and potentially increased the risk of cancer. More than 70 sites were affected, from private to public beaches as well as historical and cultural touristic sites.
Following the bombing, the Israeli army imposed a four-week naval blockade on Lebanon and prevented Lebanese firemen from putting out the fires at the station, which meant that “two months after the oil spill, only %3 of the oil had been removed,” as shown in Husseini’s report.
Mapping the Ongoing Escalation Along Lebanon’s Southern Border
The Beirut Urban Lab at the American University of Beirut is producing a series of interactive maps which document the escalation of military activity along Lebanon’s southern border, the number of daily Israeli airstrikes, and the average distance of strikes from the border. The platform is updated on a weekly basis, with a particular focus on the number of strikes in which Israel used white phosphorous against Lebanon. Between October 2023 and August 2024, Israel used white phosphorous ammunitions against Lebanon 354 times.
Toxic Entanglements: White Phosphorous and Injury to Land
Israel’s use of white phosphorous against Lebanon, and particularly against the south, dates back to 1982 as shown in a policy brief published by Antoine Kallab and Leila Mouawad from the American University of Beirut.
Since October 7 and the ensuing escalation of regional violence, Lebanon has been subjected to increased Israeli airstrikes, including white phosphorus attacks. Dana Hourany and Yara el-Murr investigate the multiple long term environmental and socio-economic injuries brought about by Israel’s continued use of white phosphorous. In an article published recently by the Public Source, Hourany and el-Murr conclude that,
Israeli attacks have burnt 7.95 million square meters of land since October 8 […], destroyed more than 47,000 olive trees and damaged at least 60 greenhouses and water irrigation infrastructure causing huge economic losses for farmers with repercussions lasting beyond the current harvest season.