Current Analysis

Times of Struggle and Cultural Liberation—A Conversation with Elias Khoury

An Excerpt from 'Palestine in a World on Fire' in light of Elias Khoury's passing.

Elias Khoury, Ilan Pappe • 20 min read

MER Article

It Was Beirut, All Over Again…Again

One night in August 2021, I fell through a portal. It was hot, and there was no electricity. I had already missed the de facto bedtime of 1am set by our generator’s regimen. My portable fluorescent lantern was fully charged. The stale, heavy air of a cooled-down, closed room

Maya Mikdashi • 8 min read

MER Article

Capturing the Complexity of Lebanon’s Civil War and Its Legacies

The current political and economic crises in Lebanon reveal the myriad ways that the Lebanese continue to deal with the aftereffects of the 1975–1990 civil war. The roots of many of today’s crises—a collapsing currency, shortages of basic goods like medicine, fuel and electricity, rising poverty and

Najib Hourani • 9 min read

Current Analysis

Capturing the Complexity of Lebanon’s Civil War and Its Legacies

The current political and economic crises in Lebanon reveal the myriad ways that the Lebanese continue to deal with the effects of the 1975–1990 civil war. Najib Hourani explores MERIP's deep coverage of Lebanon since the early 1970s. He finds that "MERIP’s commitment to foregrounding local social s

Najib Hourani • 9 min read

MER Article

Ziad Doueiri's The Insult and the Return of the Lebanese Civil War

A minor incident between a Lebanese Christian and a Palestinian refugee brings up issues at the heart of the Lebanese conflict.

Max Weiss • 15 min read

MER Article

The Local Politics of the Lebanese Disappeared

The Syrian presence in Lebanon was visible and audible to all, from the large numbers of Syrian construction workers to the peddlers selling the latest music CDs on the sidewalks to the military checkpoints in the mountains. In shared taxis there was often talk about which Lebanese politician had ju

Roschanack Shaery • 9 min read

Current Analysis

Shooting Film and Crying

Waltz with Bashir (2008) opens with a strange and powerful image: a pack of ferocious dogs running headlong through the streets of Tel Aviv, overturning tables and terrifying pedestrians, converging beneath a building’s window to growl at a man standing there. It turns out that this man, Boaz, is an

Ursula Lindsey • 12 min read

Current Analysis

Commemorating Lebanon’s War Amid Continued Crisis

At midnight on April 13, ringing church bells and the call to prayer echoed across Beirut. These haunting sounds intermingled over Martyrs’ Square, the unfinished main plaza of old Beirut where thousands of Lebanese have been mixing, day and night, since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in

Laurie King-Irani • 14 min read

MER Article

Does International Justice Have a Local Address?

The principle of universal jurisdiction, if realized in practice, can play a crucial role in the international campaign against impunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Encoded in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the 1984 Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,

Laurie King-Irani • 14 min read

MER Article

The Sneer of Memory

Last February 10, readers of Lebanon’s leading Arabic daily, al-Nahar, awoke to find a strange apparition on an inner page of their morning paper. Slotted in the top lefthand corner of page five was an open letter written by one As‘ad Shaftari, a former attendant to Elie Hobeika,

Michael Young • 8 min read

MER Article

Cooke, War's Other Voices

Miriam Cooke, War’s Other Voices: Women Writers on the Lebanese Civil War (Cambridge, 1988).

Barbara Harlow • 4 min read

MER Article

"We Discovered Our Nation When It Was Nearly No More"

Elias Khoury is a Lebanese novelist, writer and critic. A lecturer at the American University of Beirut and the cultural editor of the Beirut daily al-Safir, Khoury is also a frequent contributor to literary and cultural journals throughout the Arab world. An English translation of his second novel,

Barbara Harlow • 6 min read