war

Picture of Beirut city and Raoushe coastal line

A World Gone Cold, Un Coin de Paradis

~Zulfikar~

A world Gone Cold
By: -Reem Youssef-

In shadows deep where silence reigns,
The cries of many drown in chains,
What once was right now wears a mask,
As apathy becomes our daily task.

Evil walks with a casual grace,
While kindness fades without a trace,
We turn away, our hears grown numb,
As suffering echoes, a distant drum.

Children laugh in sheltered light,
Unaware of the endless night.
Yet guild creeps in like a thief at dawn,
For every joy, a sorrow drawn.

How can we feast while others starve?
Injustice thrives where we should carve
A path of hope, a hand to lend,
But instead, we watch as shadows blend., read more

One Year

~Zulfikar~

By -Sarah B-

Mornings become mournings,
witnessing new worst worsts.
Group chats flood with news
forwards and check-ins,
still alive,
for now.
I watch my neighbour pace,
el wad3 sa3b.
Fridge filled with Tupperware from
a coping mother cooking.
Every sentence ends with a prayer,
Hamdillah.
Another Halloween, I am haunted
by bones and blood, because in
Falastine,
there’s no pretend.

We watch our skies light up,
with weapons custom designed for
us.
People become landmines in
Lebanon.
Detonate. Decimate.
Desecrate. Des/create. create from
desecreation:
ovens out of oil cans,
wind powered electricity from
plastic fans,
sewing machines run by bicycle
wheels,
life from destruction,
hope from telling,
truth. read more

‘Martyr’ Doesn’t Really Capture it…

~Zulfikar~

For as long as I can remember, and back from when I was a young child still living in Lebanon, I would hear the word “Shaheed” and “Martyr”. And though I have not stopped hearing those words throughout my whole life, there have certainly been times where I’ve heard them used a lot more. Specifically, social media outlets in the West have a need to sensationalize the word “Martyr” and how it relates to Arabs, and specifically Muslims.

In this post I want to delve a little bit into both the meaning and the translation of the word “Shaheed”, most commonly used and understood in the West as “Martyr”. My hope is that critical analysis of these terms helps to expose the biases and discriminations that arise from misusing them. read more

Fight, Flight, or Freeze. What About Grief?

~Zulfikar~

It has been seven months since Israel and the United States have been massacring Palestinians in Gaza. At the same time Israel has been maintaining its occupation in the West Bank and expanding its settlements there. As a matter of fact on March 22, 2024 Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s current finance minister announced that they have seized about 3.8 square miles of Palestinian territory in the West Bank. This land seizure by Israel is the largest one since the 1993 Oslo accords, according to a settlement watchdog group called Peace Now. read more

Thoughts on the U.S. and Israel’s Settler Colonialist Project in the Levant

~Zulfikar~

I’m Lebanese-Syrian. I was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1980. My mother is Syrian and my father is Lebanese. My family and I have lived through and survived Israel’s war on Lebanon, and the Lebanese civil war, not to mention the wars on and in Syria. I would like to say that I’m no stranger to the politics in my two countries and that whole region, but with how much history there is I always felt like I didn’t know enough.

I grew up in Burj-al-Barajneh, a refugee camp that was set up for Palestinians who were driven out of Palestine by Israel. Palestinians are like family to me, there isn’t much distinction, we lived and grew up together. And though I have never been to Palestine, my love for it is born from the love for my Palestinian friends and family. I unequivocally stand in solidarity with them. read more