Tag: conflict

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War is not a soccer game

Graphic by Carleen Loney @shloneys

When it comes to war, we should not be divided.

Almost two weeks ago, I woke up to my phone flooded with news, messages and post notifications about the Israeli airstrike in Palestine. Later, pro-Palestine marches were held in downtown Montreal. On the other side, Israel’s supporters also organized a rally in front of the Israeli Consulate in Westmount. Both groups want to end the war. Both are against killing innocent souls. 

Before expressing my own view on the Israel-Hamas war, let me tell you my own war story. In the summer of 2006, I went to Lebanon for vacation. Two weeks in, Israel started throwing bombs on South Lebanon, which was where I was staying at the time. My mom received phone calls from several family members urging her to find shelter because a war was about to begin. 

We quickly packed up and went to my aunt’s house. That night was the beginning of a living hell. All we would hear was a helicopter, followed by a loud explosion. Both felt like thunder and an earthquake at the same time. Every second felt like playing Russian roulette. Is our building next? Am I next? Will my family and I be alive tomorrow? 

Our nights were dark. A light turned on at night would signify the presence of civilians in that building. I remember being afraid of lighting a candle to find my way to the bathroom.

We spent the rest of the war at my grandparent’s house on the sixth floor. I clearly remember how I would see the bomb dropping and a building collapsing before my eyes. My heart used to beat so fast that I felt it was physically going to burst out of my chest. No one and nothing can erase those memories that I will always fall short of describing.

During the period when I used to live in Lebanon, I learned to think of Israelis as our enemies. I also learned to look down on people with different religious beliefs and sexual orientations. As I grew up and eventually moved to Canada, I un-learned everything that I know now is wrong. I started loving people for who they are, regardless of our differences. The world is already full of hatred, so why can’t we be the ones spreading love and acceptance?

For this war, I will not support one country over the other. What I choose to support is ending violence against the unarmed population. I believe innocent souls do not deserve to be taken because of a war between governments. It is crucial to remember that they are all humans in the end and it is our responsibility to show each other solidarity. To me, anything that does not support peacemaking for both countries is simply unethical.

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Open letter to my Jewish community

Graphic by Avery Monette

In the midst of the Israel-Hamas war*, it is more important than ever to educate ourselves on the full scope of the conflict* and perspectives beyond our own.

This is a difficult letter to write. Not only is the subject matter so complex, but the delicacy it takes to address an entire group of individuals—especially a group that I belong to—is immense. My intention is not to instigate, rather to share my thoughts and remark on what I’ve noticed in the wake of recent events. 

Following the break-out of war in Israel, people have taken adamant and fervent stances. I have seen many members of my Jewish community sharing Zionist views—that is to say, standing firmly with Israel and advocating for the nation’s protection at all costs. In the process, this rhetoric fails to acknowledge Palestinian experiences and the full scope of the war. Though distress at the Hamas killings is more than understandable, failing to acknowledge the immense Palestinian death toll and the inhumane conditions for civilians in Gaza is not. As Jewish people, and within the context of our complex relationship with Israel, we have a responsibility to educate ourselves on the issue from an unbiased perspective. We cannot use our own suffering to justify violence. 

Education on the issue is an ongoing process that takes on many forms, but it includes doing research into the harsh realities of the war and the history of the ongoing conflict, seeking out and listening to Palestinian voices, and having difficult conversations about Israel and what it means to be Jewish, especially in this moment. 

I understand that the Jewish relationship can vary widely. Some Jews may have been raised to believe that God gave Israel to the Jewish people and may now exist in a Zionist echo chamber. On the other end of the spectrum, many Jews are adamantly anti-Zionist yet may know Zionist community members or have Israeli relatives. I believe you can acknowledge these nuances while also condemning a corrupt government and the actions it has taken.

That being said, I also understand the frustration of constantly being conflated with Israel and being held accountable for the actions of the Israeli government. Though anti-Zionism does not equal antisemitism and one can absolutely criticize Israel without being antisemitic, these views are often used to justify antisemitism. This is in large part to blame for the dramatic rise in antisemitic hate crimes throughout North America, which is dismaying and frightening to see. Yet again, we must not use these examples of violence to diminish Palestinian experiences. There has been a serious increase in anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim hate crimes as well, which is not to compare experiences or play games of “who has it worse,” but rather to point out a universal lack of humanity in regards to this issue. Suffering is not mutually exclusive—as Jews, we absolutely can (and should) mourn our own losses while also acknowledging the experiences of other groups and condemning all violence toward them. 

Though I am specifically addressing my own Jewish community in this letter, its basic concept extends universally. Everyone is raised with a distinct set of values, which become more complicated once religion and culture are involved. However, we do not exist in a vacuum with our own people, and our perspective on the world often fails to reflect that. To stand obstinately with one’s values despite evidence from the opposition is not admirable, it is only damaging. How can humans progress if we don’t educate ourselves and make an active effort toward evolving? Every case of positive progress—civil rights, LGBTQIA2S+ rights, women’s rights—is only hindered by people who refuse to reevaluate the ideas they so firmly believe in. 

We cannot choose what set of beliefs we are born into, and we cannot control the information we are raised with. What we can control is the information we seek out, and what we choose to do about it.

__

*Edit, March 31 2024: I would like to make a long overdue correction to the language I used in this letter at the time of publication. It is abundantly clear that this is not a war, but rather a genocide of the Palestinian people. It is not an ongoing conflict, but rather an ongoing occupation. As such, much of the wording used here is inadequate for communicating the true devastation of Israeli occupation and the impacts of Zionism. As the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza continues to rise, there is less and less place for “nuance” in these discussions.

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    Sudan’s web of unsolved issues

    The death toll is rising in Sudan’s Darfur region

    An outburst of violence spiraled Sudan’s westernmost region, Darfur, into disarray in January. This territory has been subject to endless conflicts since early 2000 due to its tribal tension, even with the newly elected democratic government. However, Darfur is only taking the spotlight for what is a complex amalgamation of issues within Sudan’s core that are barely understood by the international community.

    “Sudan is very large and complex, it has essentially been at war since before it was a country,” said Sara Winger, professor and former external affairs officer at the United Nations Mission in Sudan.

    Sudan’s federal government is no stranger to perpetrating hostilities in its provinces.

    “There is no single region of Sudan that has not been victim at one point or another to the central government’s exclusionary practices,” said Winger. Sudan is, like any other country, facing challenges intertwined with its social web and history. The Darfur Crisis is only one part of what is a national issue.

    “Because we are focused on the problem in Darfur, we don’t address the crisis in Blue Nile and Kordofan states — these must be addressed globally to establish peace in Sudan,” said Aristide Nononsi, country director for Lawyers Without Borders Canada and former independent expert in Sudan for the United Nations. Yet, peace has not been reached. Why is that?

    A legacy of violence

    Throughout Sudan’s previous government, led by former president Omar al-Bashir, violence was enforced upon its people, especially when political opposition started to grow in certain regions.

    Taking Darfur as an example, a civil war between the government and two rebel groups in 2003 led to the government hiring militias from nomadic Arab tribes to eradicate the rebellion. These Arab tribes were named the Janjaweed; they committed mass violence against civilians.

    The government would “manipulate and instrumentalize the tribes against one another” to dismantle the rebellion, said Nononsi.

    Similar actions were taken when dealing with most other conflicts. Even with the peace agreements signed after the wars, tribal hostilities are still plaguing many regions of the country because they have yet to reconcile.

    When Al-Bashir’s government was toppled by the Sudanese Armed Forces in 2019, a democratic civilian government was elected later that year. This new government has been active in negotiating with the United Nations according to Nononsi.

    Although, a history of governmental violence upon its people does not simply fade away.

    “Changing leaders is one thing,” said Winger, although “There is a broader change that has to take place in order to make sure to inoculate the country from it ever happening again.”

    She added, “The political elite were part of the country’s structure when these decisions were being made … Unless you change out your entire political elite, then you still have these people involved with these institutions.”

    “When the root causes of the crisis are not addressed, the crisis will continue,” said Nononsi. According to him, these causes are related to the establishment of law, ensuring everybody can enjoy their human rights and resolve Sudan’s extreme poverty. But it seems as if the government is not taking every step needed to provide these needs.

    The government’s inactions    

    The United Nations is limited in what it can do to solve a problem in countries with conflict, which include that no outright actions can be made without being filtered through the biases of the local government.

    But advising can be offered by the international community as tools to help a country build its various institutions, including education and health care.

    “Tools can be provided, tools are super easy,” said Winger, “but it’s the willingness to open the toolbox that changes everything. If you don’t want to provide education, it doesn’t matter if there are five international partners who want to help you provide the education.”

    In another setback, while assessing the human rights situation in Sudan, Nononsi found that the governmental position on this “is that there are no human right violations in the country and there are no human right abuses.”

    This apparent government inaction stems from a feeling of persecution.

    “Although the government seems to cooperate with the United Nations,” said Nononsi, “it also has a perception that the wars in general are against the regime of Sudan,” meaning that these wars based upon political opposition are critiques of Sudan’s governmental regime, attacking the legitimacy of their function.

    Negotiations for international intervention and internal peace have been difficult for Sudan because of this notion. From outright denial to laborious negotiating, the solutions that may provide peace to Sudan are not acknowledged, making the process frustrating.

    “I worked in a town called Wau,” said Winger. “We were driving around as election observers at the time. And then in that same town in 2013–2014, conflict erupted, and everybody left. It is kind of crazy, like wow, I walked those roads. I went and bought my vegetables at the market, and now that market has been burned down.”

    “We’re doing a bad job, making promises that we’re not coming anywhere near,” she said. “The UN says that they are going to save the next generation from the scourge of war. Well, sorry guys, you haven’t done it, you’re not doing a great job at it.”

    Misunderstood nuances

    The United Nations’ involvement in Sudan has been widespread, yet unproductive.

    “There wasn’t a good understanding that the conflicts, while they were related, they were also distinct,” said Winger, “and I think just that sheer level of complexity bested and arguably continues to best the UN when it comes to Sudan.”

    Decision making at the UN has been flawed when it comes to making a comprehensive strategy to solve conflicts. For example, in Winger’s UN experience in South Sudan, the international community would “focus on South Sudan and getting the election done,” instead of providing for other regions in need.

    She follows this idea with “South Sudan was very much the hot topic until Syria started happening. We have kind of a collective inability to think about more than one thing at a time.”  The short attention span of both the international community and the media can only be detrimental to the well-being of the countries supported by these institutions.

    “I think that the UN has to have a really nuanced understanding of an area, and I think that those kinds of interconnections need to be well understood,” said Winger.

    That nuance can be reached through many means. Selecting specific conflict regions to solve the overall problem will only perpetuate unattended conflicts.

    However, she also adds that a country’s overreliance on the international community may blur the lines.

    “If you think the international community is supposed to bring you housing and education then you don’t get mad at your government when they fail to provide that. So, that’s part of the problem as well, there is this kind of unclear narrative about who is supposed to be doing what, and who is responsible for what.”

    Sudan’s web of conflicts is convoluted. Decades of expert analysis, international investing and lives lost builds up to now.

    The combination of a nuanced understanding, governmental implication and healing of the violent legacy may bring peace to Sudan. But, deeper roots to the conflict are harder to resolve.

    “When you talk about long standing discrimination and inequality, you can’t address it in one day,” said Nononsi. This means that there are more years of conflict to come in Sudan, but the new democratic government is a step in the right direction for the country’s eventual peace. 

     

    Graphic by @ihooqstudio

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    Three months after fighting ends in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenian and Azerbaijani communities are still recovering

    Armenians and Azerbaijani share different perspectives, post ceasefire

    On Nov. 9, 2020 a ceasefire agreement was signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The deal was brokered by Russia and ended 44 days of warfare in Nagorno-Karabakh (known to Armenians as Artsakh). Now, both Armenian and Azerbaijani communities across the globe are dealing with the conflict’s fallout.

    The capitulation by the Armenian government determined a complete victory for Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan will hold on to the land it took during the conflict and Armenia agreed to withdraw from several other adjacent areas.

    Ismayil Alakbarov is a political analyst and one of the board members of the Network of Azerbaijani Canadians.

    “We feel honoured and we feel very happy that justice is restored. We feel a responsibility on our shoulders to help this region to bring peace and stability,” said Alakbarov.

    “We as Canadians want to help the region,” Alkabarov continued. “We as the Azerbaijani community and the Armenian community living in Canada need to prove that it’s here in terms of reconciliation we need to build inter-community here and bring this model to the region.”

    While the Azerbaijani people are celebrating a victory, Armenians are disappointed.

    Sevag Belian is the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada.

    “Armenians feel absolutely betrayed by the international community … Most countries did not lift a finger, or simply they kept it within the boundaries of some empathetic statements by saying, you know, they’re concerned and they would like for peace to reign,” said Belian.

    Belian says many Armenians are feeling betrayed by their own government as well.

    “They weren’t being transparent enough, and they weren’t being open enough in terms of how the negotiations were ongoing … But we can’t vent our fury at the Armenian government. As Canadians, we can only share that with our government here,” Belian continued.

    Fighting being brought to an end is a good thing. But at the moment it seems like both sides —  both in their home countries and here in Canada —  have issues with the agreement.

    “There was a very lopsided announcement, a lot of the grievances of the Armenian people and regions, the indigenous population of the land has not been addressed in the announcement … There are many prisoners of war that are still being held captive by Azerbaijan,” Belian said.

    For the Azerbaijani people, the issues come from the new Russian military presence in Nagorno-Karabakh. The ceasefire agreement will bring nearly 2,000 Russian peacekeepers into the area.

    “Of course, we don’t feel good about it, honestly Azerbaijani people are not happy with having Russian peacekeepers and military presence inside of Azerbaijan … It’s not welcome. We don’t want any other country’s military presence in our home country, but on the other hand, it is good for the security of the people living there,” said Alakbarov.

    It’s difficult to tell if the ceasefire will lead to lasting peace within the region. At the time the deal was signed, Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh were under intense pressure, having just lost Shusha (known as Shushi in Armenian) the second-largest city in Nagorno-Karabakh.

    While the situation remains delicate neither side wants a war to continue.

    “Let’s sit down let’s talk, let’s bring forward our issues. What is wrong with coexistence together,” said Alakbarov.

    Armenians also want peace talks to be revisited.

    “We want peace to hold but whether lasting peace can be achieved based on the provisions that are included in the Nov. 9 ceasefire announcement is hard to tell because a lot of issues in the region were not addressed,” said Belian.

    But Azerbaijani people feel hesitant to give up anything they won in November.

    “If Armenians do not want war, if they want to have peace and stability they should forget about putting forward territorial claims. They should accept Azerbaijan citizenship and integrate into Azerbaijani society,” said Alakbarov.

    “The president of Azerbaijan declared the highest level of guarantee to their security as citizens.” Alakbarov continued.

    Despite tensions remaining high, a meeting was held on Jan. 11 between the leaders of  Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladamir Putin met for the first time since the ceasefire agreement. The three parties discussed reopening transit routes between the regions in an effort to return stability to the region.

    “Now having achieved this peace deal there is a good and excellent opportunity for this region to reconcile … This could be a good opportunity for the region to integrate economically,” said Alakbarov.

    For Armenians however, this is not the primary issue.

    “I think it’s pointless to speak about opening back trade routes and transportation links … The issue of our cultural heritage, and all the issues that are related to that none of these were discussed,” said Belian

    Click here for more information on the recent conflict and history.

     

    Graphic by @ihooqstudio

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    Ethiopia is in turmoil

    Ethiopia’s ethnic tensions may cause a civil war

    The possibility of a  civil war stirs between Ethiopia and its Tigray region. Since Nov. 4, missiles have been launched, with various battles held across the country. 20,000 civilians have fled to Sudan. All of this has unfolded under a communication blackout.

    The conflict began with a surprise attack made by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TLPF) on an Ethiopian military base. This was a consequence of a dispute between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray leadership over a regional election that was federally illegal.

    The reporting of this conflict became murky when Abiy cut electricity, telephone, and internet services in Tigray. It became a media blind spot.

    Since then, the situation has escalated rapidly. Missiles struck Ethiopian airports, the Tigray Region and bordering country Eritrea. According to the TLPF’s leader Debretsion Gebremicheal, Eritrea is sending troops in Tigray, justifying their missile strike in Eritrea’s capital.

    Due to the blackout, no one can confirm nor deny these claims, but both Eritrea’s leader and Prime Minister Abiy have been prompt in denying this.

    The lack of on-foot media coverage has made this conflict hard to follow, but the facts are these: 20,000 refugees have fled the Tigray region to Sudan; missiles were exchanged between the TLPF, Eritrea and the rest of Ethiopia; there is evidence of mass killings in the Tigray region; Abiy is resolute in trying “to save the country and region from instability,” and the TLPF has no intentions of backing down.

    The cause of this situation lies in Ethiopia’s deep-rooted ethnic dilemmas. The Tigrayan’s TLPF ruled the country for almost 20 years until they merged into a coalition due to other ethnic groups feeling discriminated against.

    It is called the Prosperity Party and it appointed Ahmed as Prime Minister in 2019. Although, the relationship between Tigray and the rest of the country deteriorated when the TLPF left the coalition.

    From then on, Ahmed turned against Tigrayan leadership, and they were eventually pushed aside from the federal government altogether. This escalating tension resulted in civil unrest.

    Ethiopia has one of Africa’s largest military forces, but their most experienced fighters are Tigrayan. Most of their military hardware is controlled by Tigrayans. So, if this escalates further, the consequences could be very damaging to the Horn of Africa.

    A civil war in Ethiopia and surrounding countries could bring Africa to a halt. If it keeps escalating under a media blackout, who knows where this will go.

     

    Graphic by @the.beta.lab

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    Pro-Armenian protestors gather to call for Mayor Valérie Plante’s support

    A thousand protestors gathered in front of city hall on Thursday

    A pro-Armenian protest in front of Montreal City Hall on Thursday Oct. 8 called on Mayor Valérie Plante to publicly support Armenians in the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh territory conflict.

    On Sept. 27, conflicts re-erupted in the region, leaving at least 23 civilians killed. While the Nagorno-Karabakh territory is recognized internationally as located in Azerbaijan, the majority of the territory is occupied and controlled by a majority population of ethnic Armenians.

    Aram Shoujounian, one of the organizers of the demonstration on Thursday, said they want Plante to denounce Azerbaijan and Turkey’s violence towards Armenians in a conflict that has claimed over 300 lives, according to Armenian, Turkish, and Azeri reports.

    Shoujounian said the protest also calls on Plante to recognize the independence of the “Republic of Artsakh.”

    While the disputed territory is officially called the Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenians refer to the territory as the Armenian-language name of the region: “Artsakh.”

    At present, the majority of the territory is ruled by a government called the “Republic of Artsakh,” and positions within the government are largely held by ethnic Armenians.

    “We’re telling Valérie Plante, and the entire city hall, to recognize the Republic of Artsakh as an independent state, because that’s the only way to guarantee the security and the right to live on the territory of the Republic of Artsakh,” Shoujounian told The Concordian.

    “We do not want our democratic societies to stay neutral,” said Shoujounian.

    Located between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the territory has been disputed through political and military conflict for decades, beginning in the ‘80s.

    Russia brokered a cease-fire with both countries in 1994, but conflict continued throughout the years.

    Canada suspended drone technological exports to Turkey after reports emerged that the technology was used by Turkey to target Armenian civilians.

    A ceasefire agreement on Oct. 10 was promptly broken just minutes after the agreed upon deadline. Both countries put blame on the other for breaking the agreement.

    On Friday Oct. 16, Justin Trudeau met with Armenian and Turkish leaders to speak on the conflict, and to encourage a peaceful resolution. A petition supporting Armenia and Armenians in Artsakh was begun by Ontario Liberal Member of Parliament Bryan May, and will collect signatures to present to parliament until Nov. 8.

    Fourth-year Concordia student at the protest.

    One fourth-year Concordia student said she was attending the protest because more needs to be done.

    “There is a second genocide towards Armenians happening right now and people are silent,” she said.

    She says leaders need to take a stand to get involved beyond peace talks, stating, “Talking nicely and telling them to cease fire won’t work because we had a ceasefire agreement.”

    Nathalie Setian, the student’s close friend, said, “they [Azerbaijan and Turkey] just want to invade and erase us as a nation as an Armenian race.”

    Both Armenian Montrealers said they came to pressure government officials to support the self-determination and safety of the people in the disputed region, and to aid the movement in Montreal.

    “We’re raising money [for Armenian soldiers], we’re donating a lot, we’re writing open letters,  we’re urging the government and the politicians and especially the media to stand with us,” said Setian.

    “We’re raising our voices and doing as much as we can to get people to stand up for us, because we’re not accepting biased and falsified information by journalists.”

    Last week the Armenian diaspora in Montreal organized a protest in front of the Montreal Gazette and Global News media offices, to call out the “surface level” reporting on the conflict, and how the reporting does not accurately represent the level of threat this conflict has for the ethnic Armenians in the conflict zone.

    “If you are neutral, that means you support terrorism,” said Setian.

    “We don’t want genocide to repeat itself and we don’t want whatever happened in Syria to repeat itself in Artsakh,” said Setian.

    Since the protest, Setian has co-written an article on the conflict.

    On Saturday Oct. 17, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a ceasefire starting at midnight. The deal was brokered by the OSCE Minsk Group. Early Sunday morning, the ceasefire deal was broken with both sides blaming each other for the violation.

    Today, Monday Oct. 19, Plante has released a statement saying she stands in solidarity with the Armenian people, and will support efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

    “To the Armenian community of Montreal I would like to offer you all our support…I wish you strength and peace in these very difficult times and know that we stand altogether with you,” said Plante.

    Photos by Hadassah Alencar

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    World in brief: The Berlin Wall, Bolivia’s unstable democracy, and virginity tests

    This weekend marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. More than 100,000 people celebrated this historical event in the city, where images and videos from Nov. 9, 1989, were projected onto buildings, reported the Associated Press.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel took the opportunity to remind the world of the danger of taking democracy for granted. “The values on which Europe is founded – freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, human rights – they are anything but self-evident and they have to be revitalized and defended time and time again,” said Merkel during the official ceremony, as reported by various outlets. Built after the end of World War II, the Wall divided East Berlin, occupied by the Soviets, from the West, controlled by the Western allies for 28 years during the Cold War.

    Instability in South America continues to grow as Bolivia President Evo Morales resigned after nearly 14 years in power. On Monday, the country entered what the Associated Press referred to as an era of political uncertainty, after Morales stepped down over ongoing protests about the legitimacy of his re-election, earlier in October. Morales, the first Indigenous Bolivian president, had controversially abolished the limits of presidential terms, even after the 2016 referendum showed a majority were against that decision. While Carlos Mesa, who finished second to Morales in the election, called this a “democratic popular action,” BBC South America correspondent Katy Watson pointed out the fact that the military was behind what few people dared to call a coup, which strongly endangers the country’s democracy.

    American rapper T.I. prompted strong backlash after revealing in a podcast that he’s been taking his 18-year-old daughter for annual hymen checkups, to make sure she’s still a virgin. In a segment aired on Ladies like us last Tuesday, which has since been removed, T.I. explained that “not only have we had the conversation, we have yearly trips to the gynecologist to check her hymen. Yes, I go with her … I will say, as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact.” Medical experts were quick to denounce his comments, stating that there is no such thing as a scientific-based virginity test, but rather a shameful procedure, reported The New York Times.

     

    Graphic by @sundaeghost

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    Oh my sweet, broken home

    It is no question that Lebanon prides itself for being a land based on paradoxes.

    Where the government forces its people to travel to Cyprus for civil marriage, but never bats an eye at nightclubs closing at 6 a.m. Where religion and politics are – quite literally – the two nesting pillars, and are more often than not interchangeable. Where our greatest accomplishments consist of being among the top 10 party cities, and breaking the Guinness World Record for the biggest hummus plate.

    I love my birth country more than anything in the world. Despite all its flaws and political turmoils, I remain the devil’s advocate. However, there are certain things I will never be able to overlook, nor defend; and that is the Lebanese population’s innate racism and intolerance.

    On Sept. 20, Lebanon’s Minister of Education Akram Chehayeb took to Twitter to discuss the Near Eastern country’s refugee crisis.

    “Despite all the challenges, we will not allow any student to remain outside of school in Lebanon, whatever his nationality, and we will endeavor to ensure a comprehensive and just education for all,” his words read. “The human right to education is a sacred right guaranteed by all international conventions and laws.”

    Such an accepting statement did not sit well with a number of people, and was followed by an overtly racist, some would call ‘nationalist,’ caricature. OTV, a Lebanese broadcasting channel, shared a cartoonist’s take on Chehayeb’s words. The drawing shows two Lebanese students walking to school, only to be greeted with a sign that roughly translates from Arabic to: “We apologize, the school is full of Syrians, Palestinians, Indians, (an offensive word for Black people), Ethiopians, Bangladeshis.”

    The Daily Star reported that the cartoon has been removed from OTV’s socials as of Monday, with no response from the channel about the backlash.

    It’s no secret that Lebanon has had its fair share of conflicts from the influx of refugees, due to the many strifes the Near East has had to face over the years. Not to mention the unresolved Civil War issues, placing the country in a devil’s palm, where the people live in imminent fear of it happening again. Suffice to say, a country with a pint-sized territory of 10,452 square km bites off more discords than it can chew; and for inexplicable reasons, remains hungry for more.

    One thing I have learned since moving to Montreal is how similar we all are once we get over our differences. At times, I have more in common with a Syrian or Palestinian citizen than I do with a Lebanese one who has lived their entire life in the same country as I. I even go as far as relating to many Latinos about similar childhood moments, mostly ones relating to parental disciplinary methods. Because globalization has enabled us to look beyond one’s nationality, and realize that no ethnicity is better than others – especially not ethnicities that live so close together. 

    As the years go by, I don’t believe the sentence “I am not racist, but” should be tolerated anymore. It is not acceptable to follow antiquated ideals of favouritism, and elitist attitudes, where one believes themselves to be better than others.

    I grew up in an environment where institutionalized racism was ever-present, but was taught to treat everyone with respect and kindness. I’ve outgrown, and educated myself out of that innate racial bias, and I am only 22. What’s your excuse?

     

    Graphic by Victoria Blair

     

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