Numbers Have Faces
The July-August 2006 war in Lebanon claimed the lives of over 1,300 people; the majority of which being children, women and elderly civilians. These people are still unknown and remain as numbers waiting to be stored away in history books; just as the nearly 30 massacres are only headlines in old newspaper articles from during the war. This project intends to raise awareness amongst Lebanese community as well the international community about the Lebanese civilians who have become victims of Israeli aggression, in order to understand the magnitude of the loss. Those that died are people and not numbers.
In order to do this, Nahwa al-Muwatiniya volunteers will travel to the South with a van having an enlarged map of Lebanon, where the families of victims will place a photo of their loved ones upon it. Volunteers will also share with them in their experiences during the war, their lives, and lives of the victims. A documentary along with a billboard containing the photos will come from this project. For us in Nahwa al-Muwatiniya, we want to show our compassion for those lost during the war and share their lives and experiences with the world.
The trip will take place from the 17-19th of November 2006 and will begin in Dahiyeh starting at 9am Friday and move at noon to the Bekaa for the rest of the day. Saturday and Sunday we will spend in the south.
We hope to see you there. For more information contact Nassim: 03492662, info [at] na-am.org
In order to do this, Nahwa al-Muwatiniya volunteers will travel to the South with a van having an enlarged map of Lebanon, where the families of victims will place a photo of their loved ones upon it. Volunteers will also share with them in their experiences during the war, their lives, and lives of the victims. A documentary along with a billboard containing the photos will come from this project. For us in Nahwa al-Muwatiniya, we want to show our compassion for those lost during the war and share their lives and experiences with the world.
The trip will take place from the 17-19th of November 2006 and will begin in Dahiyeh starting at 9am Friday and move at noon to the Bekaa for the rest of the day. Saturday and Sunday we will spend in the south.
We hope to see you there. For more information contact Nassim: 03492662, info [at] na-am.org
Labels: July War
Posted at 4:46 AM | link
2 Comments:
nice step; but what does it change in the reality of thigs? as it happened, those dead women and kids will remain numbers from the point of view of the western public opinion, even, i'm afraid, for the lebanese government, and the hezbollah. israel have committed massacres since the late thirties, and all the arab families that were killed in cold blood, lebanese and palestinian, are even not considered numbers, are not counted. if they were, the worldwide human population would have been horrified. as they are still horrified when they mention the holocaust. and it's not a picture on a printed map that will change this iniquity.
This little bit of national bonding is yet another pointless step of victim narrative PR, instead of using the tragedies to a movement that would advocate for national solidarity and responsibility and reject Hezbolluh's and Syria's unauthorized unilateral steps of aggression that cause this destruction. Israel has its own dead women and kids, whose picture it can put on houses, and so the pictures of the dead will wage battle for moral superiority. One may criticize Israel (although while some Israeli acts during the war were certainly excessive and problematic, Israel's military response to a blatant provocation is quite understandable), but its response was quite predictable, and portraying it as a mindless aggressor is using a red herring to mask the real problems in Lebanese society. As long as Israel can be the icon which allows Arab States to ignore the poverty of refugees under their jurisdiction while discriminating against them in employment, to ignore (or at least not hold accountable) paramilitary groups in their midst, to ignore xenophobia and racism in their midst, these problems will be ever present in Lebanon and the rest of the Arab world.
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