This collection of essays illuminates the seasonality of war in Lebanon (its present and its longue durée), looking at how those who inhabit Lebanon’s many wars live with and through them and (continue to) resist them ordinarily. Written from the middle of the most recent maelstrom by a majority of authors who were in Lebanon for its duration, the essays touch on diverse aspects of being in war: childhood, kinship, care, shelter, solidarity, (histories of) struggle, planting, helping, learning, teaching, salvaging, surviving. This collection contends that although death and destruction may be the goal and the threat viciously wielded by the war-machine, those (humans and others) who live through war are defiantly concerned with life and with living. As scholars and humans grappling with displacement, loss, anguish, sorrow, steadfastness, strength, shatteredness, numbness, exhaustion, fear, terror, horror, rage, courage, hope and love, we write to bear witness to war from the belly of the beast. Anthropology has the tools to bring war into experiential purview, to show that war is not merely the exotic habitat of distant savages to be theorized (or theoretically resisted) from afar. Grasping war as an arena of recognizable, relatable life on this planet alongside (and not exceptional to) the violence of capitalism, nation-states, empire, is a necessary first step in resisting war broadly, effectively, collectively. Those who inhabit war know the great power of life as resistance. We should take note.
Posts in This Series
Introduction: Another Season of War in South Lebanon
Looking back, it feels like the war that slammed into Lebanon approached in slow motion. For almost a year for sure, since the beginning of the war on Gaza, but... More
Circle of War
We are two months into the war. Minds of my six-year-old twin daughters, Qamar and Leony, are abuzz with vocabulary no child should ponder: sonic boom (jidar il... More
Is the Cat in Exile?
Since September 25, 2024, a family of ten has been staying with me in the apartment where I usually live alone with my cat in Beirut. Staying with me are Yasser... More
The Lebanese Front of the War for Palestine
On October 8, 2023, Hizballah surprised many observers by launching its support front against Israel, targeting Israeli military positions in occupied Lebanese ... More
Autumn Shrapnel: A Fieldnote through Overbearing Times
It’s October 1, 2024. It’s war again, and this time right at the heel of a genocide that Israel has been perpetrating for nearly one year, and for over 75 years... More
Still No Innocent Victims
How do you convince people to shelter with you? Two days after the latest Israeli assault on Beirut, I had thought it would be as simple as announcing my apartm... More
Black Beirut in a Time of Genocide
In July 2024, a group of Ethiopian women in Beirut had their homes broken into and thousands of dollars of collective savings stolen. Because Ethiopians who hav... More
The Stable Elements: Notes on a Life Punctuated by War, Price, and Forced Migration
“Some elements, such as iron and copper, were easy and direct, incapable of concealment . . .” – Primo Levi, The Periodic TableDuring one of our first meeting... More
Revenants
On July 27th 2024, six months into the Israeli genocide in Gaza and military attacks on South Lebanon, my grandfather, Ahmad Mohammad Jaber, appeared to me in a... More
Terra Devastata: The Israeli Project for South Lebanon
Israel does not simply destroy—it invades, colonizes, and erases. It tears Indigenous people from their land, leaving scars that run deep and endure through gen... More
Dahiya Is Still Not a "Hizbullah Stronghold" and Other Temporal Loops
“Hizbullah strongholds” are places where people live and work […] one such area, the southern suburbs of Beirut, referred to as “al-Dahiya” (the suburb) […] is ... More
What Are We Learning in the Meantime?
We wrote the first version of this piece in late October 2024, during the war. We are two graduate students, Sami and Rawan, and their professor, Livia. We were... More
Reflections on UNIFIL’s “Impartiality” Amidst Israel’s Genocide
“Peace? What is peace?” Peace is . . . my life, I am supposed to decide about my life, without anybody violating my land. Peace gives no country the right to in... More
No Safe Distance
“Professor, you are living in hell, tell us how the Greeks in Beirut feel?” So asked the journalist on the other end of the phone, on the other side of the sea.... More