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Lebanon Still Overshadowed by Oblivion As Port Blast Aftermath Enters Fourth Year

Art has played an influential role in making sense of the loss felt after the August 4 explosion. Tom Young’s “Strong Angels” and other paintings show a human dimension of the tragedy and its civilian heroes, who “join forces to lift the city’s grief,” writes Darine Houmani of Diffah Three (The New Arab). “Despite all its devastation, the August 4 explosion brought greater impetus to preserve our heritage and brought about a database of our historical buildings that hadn’t been done before,” states Mona Hallak, an architect, heritage activist, and director of the American University of Beirut’s Neighborhood Initiative, as cited in The New Arab. Several weighed in on the rebuilding efforts, including Lebanese architect Jad Tabet, who proposed “rehabilitation” rather than “reconstruction,” focusing on preserving the city’s existing social fabric and inhabitants alongside the architecture (for further reading on Jad Tabet and architectural heritage, see Al Jadid, Vol. 4, No, 25, Fall 1998; Vol. 5, No. 26, Winter 1999; and Vol. 24, No. 79, 2020). As art historian and gallery owner Andrée Sfeir-Semler says, “You need to nourish people with art and culture because that is what feeds their souls.”

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Three Lives, One Melody

Two Refugees Build a Rhapsodic Connection Despite Oceans of Difference and Time
By Lynne Rogers
 
Pauls Toutonghi dedicates his thoughtful novel “The Refugee Ocean” to his cousin Marguerite, one of three main characters whose life Toutonghi skillfully interweaves with the story of Naim, a young Syrian boy. Confronted by the loss of several members of his family and his fingers in a bombing, Naim experiences the war with his mother and an elderly American model who faces her death with benevolent grace. Artfully crafted, Toutonghi twines these disparate three lives under the universal reaffirmation of music and the disastrous global ramifications of the tobacco industry.
Books

An Algerian Intellectual on Once-‘Arab Leftist Radicals’!

The Modern Arab Intellectual Forsakes Ideological Integrity, Following the Footsteps of Previous Enemies Who Accuse Him of Takfir and Treason
By Elie Chalala
 
Were I to sum up Amin Zaoui’s position on the Arab leftist intellectuals, who nowadays are considered part of the mumanah alliance — that is, Arab intellectuals who support the positions of Iran, Hezbollah, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen — a word of caution about the terminology used must be clarified: a distinction exists between today’s leftists and those of the 1960s, 1970s, and even part of the 1980s. Today’s leftists tend to be vulgar and lack the theoretical sophistication of their previous iterations. These critiques by Amin Zaoui, an Algerian novelist and essayist whose commentaries appear weekly in Independent Arabia, analyze the two mumanah generations, particularly emphasizing the contemporary generation of leftists who grew up in the new millennium and its current trends.
Essays and Features

Lebanon’s Civilian ‘Veterans’ Cope Differently Than Younger Generations in the Current Conflict!

By Elie Chalala


Lebanon has been no stranger to war and its memory, steeped in countless wars internally and externally throughout the past century. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza and southern Lebanon in October 2023, tensions have teetered a fragile line, a constant wave of insurmountable anxiety and fear — of the war’s escalation, dwindling comforts of security, and the country’s uncertain future. Despite efforts to keep panic at bay, the state of anxiety has skyrocketed amid foreign embassies’ calls for their citizens to leave Lebanon for security reasons.

Essays and Features

The Late Khaled Khalifa Hoped for Remedy and Redemption of the Arab Literary Prize Through Transparency

By Elie Chalala
 
Syrian novelist Khaled Khalifa’s sudden death last year in his Damascus home shocked the Arab literary world. The novelist, screenwriter, and poet has enraptured critics through his works, especially with his 2006 novel “In Praise of Hatred,” which was banned by the Syrian government. Khalifa’s passing at 59 leaves friends and acquaintances mourning the many words the writer left unsaid. At the same time, it becomes ever more prudent to heed his words, especially regarding the Arab literary prizes.
 
Essays and Features

Grand Prix de la Francophonie Marks Pinnacle of Abdelfattah Kilito’s Profound Impact on Ancient Arabic Literary Traditions

By Al Jadid Staff
 
Moroccan literary scholar and writer Abdelfattah Kilito’s efforts in spreading recognition for Arabic literature have been honored again in the form of the Grand Prix de la Francophonie, one of two prestigious prizes awarded annually by the French Academy. The award, which marks Kilito’s second prize from the French Academy since he received the French Academy Award in 1996, celebrates the author for his contributions to developing the French language worldwide. A renowned Arabic literary critic, Kilito has authored several books in Arabic and French, devoting himself to safeguarding ancient Arabic literature. His book “Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language” (2002) remains a valuable resource for scholars on the Arabic literary tradition, establishing him as one of the greatest Arab and Francophone writers.
Essays and Features

Important, Sometimes Controversial Iraqi Poet Saadi Youssef (1934 - 2021) Requests a ‘Funeral Without Mourners’

By 
Elie Chalala
 
The legendary and controversial Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef died at 87 in his Harefield home outside of London on June 12 from lung cancer. The poet, whose multitude of works encompassed poetry, prose, literary criticism, translation, and memoir, leaves decades’ worth of work penned in exile and translated into several languages, among them English, French, German, and Italian.

Controversy Over Mohammad Shukri’s Literary Legacy Outlives the Author

By 
Al Jadid Staff
Many students and scholars of Arabic literature would recall the debates on the books of Mohammad Shukri (1935-2003) late last century and a part of the early 21st century. The debates centered primarily on Shukri’s picaresque approach, which included harsh depictions of repression, marginalization, deprivation, morality, breaching taboos and censorship, and of course, the banning of his books in most Arab countries. We can categorize many of his books as autobiographical, and the opposition was not to this type of literature but to the language and details he used. His spontaneity violated all technical and artistic norms in both Moroccan and Arab literature, especially in “The Bare Bread,” “Age of Mistakes,” and “Faces,” his autobiographical trilogy.
 

The Judiciary, Latest Indicator of Lebanon’s Impending Collapse:

A Judge Runs Amok
By 
Elie Chalala
The collapse of the Lebanese state grows imminent as news of different sectors unraveling emerges every day. The latest crisis reached the judiciary, which — though already known for its politicization and sectarianism — currently deals with a judge whose erratic, politicized personality violates all the norms of judicial behaviors and traditions. This controversial judge is Mount Lebanon state prosecutor, Ghada Aoun.
 

In a Statistical Vacuum, Speculating on the Arab-American Vote, 2016 vs. 2020

By 
Elie Chalala
 
While much of the country — and even the world — focused on the last U.S. election and remained engrossed even after its results and consequences, the picture of this historic event in the Arab world was unlike anything that was happening here. Regrettably, the distorted analysis and coverage by Arab media influenced to some extent the attitudes and electoral choices of many Arab immigrants in the U.S.

Beirut’s People Still Waiting: The Government That Left a Bomb on Their Doorstep Now Leaves Them Out in the Cold

By 
Al Jadid Staff
 
The never-ending reports from Lebanon on its social and economic crises are perplexing. Despite the gravity of the situation, officials sitting at the top refuse to relinquish or even reform the system. Recent news reports reveal a collapsing banking sector, a threatened educational system, and an impoverished and broken health system, all while the country watches a judiciary circus played daily on TV and social media, demolishing whatever legitimacy the courts still hold.

German Reinvention: Do a Million Syrian Refugees Bring Down the Curtain on WWII Legacy?

The devastating combination of the Syrian war, the failure of the Arab Spring, and the worsening state of refugee camps in the Middle East culminated in an influx of migrants across Europe. Between 2015-2016, two million migrants fled Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, and Eritrea to European countries. This mass migration produced a crisis across the continent, as several countries refused to undertake the moral and economic responsibilities of housing and feeding newcomers. According to the Pew Research Center, 45% of refugees came to Germany, among whom over 1.2 million were Syrians.

 
The devastating combination of the Syrian war, the failure of the Arab Spring, and the worsening state of refugee camps in the Middle East culminated in an influx of migrant

The Golden Notebooks

By 
Angele Ellis

Zed Books has chosen interesting times in which to re-release the English translation of the two-part autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi, “A Daughter of Isis” and “Walking Through Fire.” One of the most important and distinctive voices of her generation, not only in the Arabic-speaking world, but across the globe, El Saadawi has served as a physician, writer, rebel, and revolutionary. Born in 1931, she explores in these two interwoven volumes her personal struggles for autonomy – for the survival of body, mind, and spirit – as both girl and woman in an Egyptian society warped by patriarchal religion, as well as repressive social traditions and laws. She states in “A Daughter of Isis” that at the age of six, she learned “these three words by heart and they were like one sentence: ‘God, calamity, marriage.’”As I write this review, similar women’s words echo in the halls of the U.S. Capitol and throughout America.

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