April 13 – Eye on the East

April 12, 2025April 12, 2025

“Between Amnesty and Amnesia”: Remembering the 50th Anniversary of Lebanon’s Civil War

How much more is there left for us, not the history books, to say about the Lebanese civil war? Quite a lot, apparently.

Earlier this year, Lebanon-based “Agenda Culturel” launched its “Between Amnesty and Amnesia, where is the Memory of the Civil War?” series, gathering testimonies through seven questions centered on personal experiences and how memories of the war are still reflected in our lives, identity, traumas and aspirations for this country’s future. I really did not think I had more to say about the war, any more than I already have, nor even wanted to. But these questions made me realize that there were still things I wanted to share. So long as we, as a country – as we are far from being a nation – fail to remember in order to ensure that it doesn’t happen again, we will all still have much to say about what erupted on April 13, 1975.

April 13, 2016April 13, 2016

April 13: The War isn’t Over

Whether you believe it should be called the Lebanese War or the Lebanese Civil War. Whether you believe it was fundamentally a confessional conflict or a proxy war fought on Lebanese soil. Whether you were in East Beirut or West Beirut. Whether you refused to leave during the country’s darkest hours or regret not having immigrated sooner than you did. Whether you believe the country has learned its lessons the hard way and will never let it happen again or believe war is just around the corner, waiting for the right spark to tear the country apart once and for all…there is one fact that remains:

Continue reading “April 13: The War isn’t Over”

April 13, 2015April 13, 2015

40 Years Later…

Today is the day we remember our war (1975-1990), the one we swore not to forget so that it would never happen again (تنذكر وما تنعاد). But just like everything else in Lebanon, the more things change the more they stay the same. Whatever we said about the war, the lessons learned and chances of it happening again, still stand today, as they stood yesterday and will stand for the decade to come. I read through what I wrote last year – April 13: How can we not forget? – (which you are welcome to read today too) and I would not change a single word of it now. Continue reading “40 Years Later…”

April 13, 2014April 13, 2014

April 13: How can we not forget?

Today is the day we commemorate the war. We reflect on the fact that 39 years ago, the life of a country and that of its people would change and never be the same again. We reminisce on what was and what could have been. We believe, or would like to believe, that things have changed, but in fact they have never been more the same… Continue reading “April 13: How can we not forget?”