Lebanon

(see also Palestine, Syria & Israel)

Basics:

CIA World Factbook. Includes map.

New Internationalist Profile

UN Development Program, Human Development Indicators

World Guide

On the Web: Articles

'Other Terrorist' Still Commands Attention. Robin Wright, Los Angeles Times (10/11/01)
Profile of Imad Mughniyah of Hezbollah

On the Web: Specialized Sites

Al Bawaba: Middle East Gateway. Section for each country.

American Near East Refugee Aid.

Independent Journalists Online: Lebanon.

Middle East Research & Information Project.Publishers of indispensable MERIP Report.

Pulse of Freedom. Weblog from protesters' tent city in Beirut (2005).

In the Library: Articles:

Blanford, Nicholas. “Palestinians in Lebanon warn against Arafat expulson,” Christian Science Monitor (9/19/03):7.

Fawaz, Leila. "Sumaya: a Lebanese housemaid," in E. Burke III (ed.) Struggle & Survival in the Modern Middle East (Berkele: U. California, 1993), pp. 352-63.

Fisk, Robert. "Southern Lebanon waits," Nation (6/26/00):5-6.

__________. "View from Beirut," Nation (4/22/02):5-6. On the Arab summit meeting there, & effort to agree on a peace plan for Palestine.

Goldberg, Jeffrey. “In the party of God,” New Yorker (10/14-21/02):180-195.

Gordon, Neve. "Israel's Lebanon clients," Nation (5/22/00):6.

Haddad, Reem. "Lebanon's modern-day 'slave trade'," Middle East Report 211
(summ 1999)

Hussein, Mahmoud. "Reflections on the Lebanese impasse," Monthly Review 28,6 (11/76):14-27.

New Internationalist, special issue on Lebanon (8/94). Articles by Nikki van der Gaag, Elizabeth Suzanne Kassab, Kamal Hamdan, Chris Martin, Rosemary Sayigh, Maria Spiers, Darius Bazargan & Mohammed Khawlie.

Race & Class, special issue on the invasion of Lebanon 24,4 (spr 1983). Articles by Eqbal Ahmad, Ibrahim Abu Lugod, Selim Nassib, Sami Al-Banna, Don Wagner, Ameen Ramzy & Khalil Nakhleh.

Nasrallah, Fida. "Israel & Lebanon: how can the talks proceed?" Middle
East Report 450 (4/14/93).

Schatz, Adam. "Letter from Lebanon," Nation (5/13/02):22-24.

Swift, Richard. "Hanan al-Shaykh [interview]," New Internationalist (12/95):31.

Usher, Graham. "Hizballah, Syria & the Lebanese elections," Journal of Palestine Studies 26,2 (win 97):59-67.

Young, Michael. "The sneer of memory: Lebanon's disappeared & postwar culture," Middle East Report 217 (win 2000).

In the Library: Non-Fiction Books:

Accad, Evelyne. Sexuality & War: Literary Masks of the Middle East (NY: NYU, 1990).

Ahmad, Eqbal & Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (eds.) The Invasion of Lebanon (London, 1983).

Avakian, Asdghig. Stranger Among Friends: An Armenian Nurse from Lebanon Tells Her Story (Beirut, 1960).

Cole, Juan R.I. & Nikki R. Keddie (eds.) Shi'ism & Social Protest (New Haven: Yale, 1986).

Darwish, Mahmoud. Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982 (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1995). Recalls the Israeli invasion.

Dawisha, A.I. Syria & the Lebanese Crisis (London, 1980).

Fisk, Robert. Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War (London: Andre Deutsch, 1990). Gripping journalist's account of the conflict.

Gendzier, Irene. Notes from the Minefield. US Intervention in Lebanon & the Middle East, 1945-1958 (Boulder: Westview, 1998).

Giannou, Chris. Beseiged: A Doctor's Story of Life & Death in Beirut (NY: Interlink, 1992). Resistance to Israeli invasion in Shatila.

Hanf, Theodor. Coexistence in Wartime Lebanon (London: I.B. Tauris, 1993).

Hiro, Dilip. Lebanon: Fire & Embers. A History of the Lebanese Civil War (NY: St. Martin's, 1993).

Jansen, Michael. The Battle of Beirut (London: Zed, 1982). Cf. Schiff & Ya'ari.

Khater, Akram Fouad. Inventing Home: Emigration, Gender, & the Middle Class in Lebanon, 1870-1920 (Berkeley: U. California, 2001).

Longrigg, Stephen H. Syria & Lebanon under French Mandate (London, 1958).

Maalouf, Amin. In the Name of Identity: Violence & the Need to Belong (trans. Barbara Bray; NY: Arcade, 2001).

Makdisi, Jean. Beirut Fragments (NY: Persea, 1990). First-hand account of life during the Israeli invasion of 1982.

McDowall, David. Lebanon: A Conflict of Minorities (London: Minority Rights Group, 198?).

Peretz, Don. Reporting Lebanon the Christian Way: The Media in the US on Lebanon (NY: Councel on International & Public Affairs, 1982).

Petit, Michael. Peacekeepers at War: A Marine's Account of the Beirut Catastrophe (Boston: Faber & Faber, 1986).

Petran, Tabitha. The Struggle Over Lebanon (NY: Monthly Review, 198?).

Randal, Jonathan. The Tragedy of Lebanon (London: Chatto & Windus, 1983). On first years of the war.

Salibi, Kamal. A House of Many Mansions (London: I.B. Tauris, 1988). Historical analysis of the civil war.

Schiff, Ze'ev & Ehud Ya'ari. Israel's Lebanon War (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1985). Cf. Jansen.

Shehadi, Nadim & Dan Haffar Mills (eds.) From Lebanon: A History of Conflict & Consensus (London: I.B. Tauris, 1988).

Sherry, Virginia N. Israel/Lebanon: "Operation Grapes of Wrath", The Civilian Victims (NY: Human Rights Watch, 1998).

Timerman, Jacobo. The Longest War: Israel in Lebanon (NY: Knopf, 1982).

Yaniv, Avner. Dilemmas of Security: Politics, Strategy, & the Israeli Experience in Lebanon (NY: Oxford, 1987).

In the Library: Fiction

Accad, Evelyne. L'excisee (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1982).

Adnan, Etel. Sitt Marie Rose: A Novel (trans. Georgina Kleege; Sausalito CA: Post-Apollo, 1982).

Alameddine, Rabih. Koolaids: The Art of War (NY: Picador, 1998).

__________. The Perv: Stories (NY: Picador, 1999).

Alamuddin, Rima. The Sun is Silent: Stories (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1964).

al-Shaykh, Hanan. The Story of Zahra (London: Quartet, 1986).

__________. Beirut Blues (NY: Anchor, 1995).

Bache, Ellyn. Safe Passage (NY: Crown, 1988).

Badr, Liyanah. The Eye of the Mirror (trans. Samira Kawar; Reading UK: Garnet, 1994).

Barakat, Huda. The Stone of Laughter (trans. Sophie Bennett: NY: Interlink, 1995).

__________. The Tiller of Waters (trans. Marilyn Booth; Cairo: American U, 2001).

Buchan, James. A Parish of Rich Women (NY: Atheneum, 1985).

Caputo, Philip. DelCorso's Gallery (NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1983).

Chedid, Andree. The Return to Beirut (trans. Ros Schwartz; London: Serpent's Tail, 1989).

Cohen, Florence Chanock. The Sea of Stones: A Novel in Three Parts (NY: Pushcart, 1993).

Creed, David. Travellers in an Antique Land (London: Secker & Warburg, 1982).

Da'if, Rashid. Dear Mr. Kawabata (trans. Paul Starkey; London: Quartet, 1999).

__________. Passage to Dusk (trans. Nirvana Tanoukhi; Austin: U. Texas, 2001).

Daoud, Hassan. The House of Mathilde (trans. Peter Theroux; London: Granta, 1999).

Dye, Dale. Outrage: A Novel (Boston: Little, Brown, 1988).

Fallaci, Oriana. Inshallah (NY: Nan A. Talese Doubleday, 1992).

Hazo, Samuel John. Stills (NY: Atheneum, 1989).

Hoffman, Andrew Jay. Beehive (Sag Harbor NY: Permanent, 1992).

Khalaf, Roseanne Saad. Lebanon: Four Journeys to the Past (Beirut: Dar An-Nahar, 1998).

Khuri, Elias. The Journey of Little Gandhi (trans. Paula Haydar; Minneapolis: U. Minnesota, 1994).

__________. The Kingdom of Strangers (trans. Paula Haydar; Fayetteville: U. Arkansas, 1996).

Maalouf, Amin. The Rock of Tanios (trans. Dorothy Blair; NY: Braziller, 1994).

__________. Ports of Call (trans. Alberto Manguel; London: Harvill, 1999).

Pope, Liston. Redemption: A Novel of War in Lebanon (NY: N.A. Gilbert, 1994).

Saleh, Nabil A. The Qadi & the Fortune Teller: Diary of a Judge in Ottoman Beirut, 1843 (London: Quartet, 1996).

__________. Open House (London: Quartet, 2000).

Samman, Ghadah. Beirut Nightmares (trans. Nancy N. Roberts; London: quartet, 1997).

Sasson, Jean. Ester's Child: A Novel (Van Nuys CA: Windsor-Brooke, 2001).

Shaykh, Hanan. The Story of Zahra (trans. Peter Ford; NY: Anchor, 1994).

__________. Beirut Blues: A Novel (trans. Catherine Cobham; NY: Anchor, 1995).

Stover, Matthew Woodring. Heart of Bronze; Iron Dawn; Jericho Moon (n.p.; SFBC, 1998).

In the Library: For Young Readers:

Heide, Florence Parry. Sami & the Time of Troubles (NY: Clarion, 1992).

In the Library: Poetry

Melhem, D.H. "To my unknown sister in Beirut," Monthly Review 35,8 (1/84):36.

In the Library: Photography

CD & Audio:

Film & Video:

"Alone with War" [2000], dir. Danielle Arbid, 58m. From First Run/Icarus. Christian & Muslim veterans remember civil war of 1975-91 that killed 150,000 people, amidst collective amnesia.

"Arab Diaries: Love & Marriage" [2001], dir. Samia Chala & Muriel Aboulrouss, 26m. From First Run/Icarus. Women & love in Algeria & Lebanon.

"Arab Diaries: Youth" [2001], dir. Ali Bilail, Samia Chala & Muriel Aboulrouss, 26m. From First Run/Icarus. Youth issues in Lebanon, Algeria & Egypt.

"Beirut: The Last Home Movie" [1988], dir. Jennifer Fox, 90m.

" Children of Shatila" [1998], dir. Mai Masri.

"Human Weapon" [2002], dir. Ilan Ziv, 55m. From First Run/Icarus. Examines new tactic of "suicide bombing" in conflicts in Iran, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Israel, Palestine, Europe & the US.

"Harmed Forces" [1999?], dir. Irit Gal. Continuing trauma among Israeli veterans resulting from what they did in Lebanon.

"Human Weapon" [2002], dir. Ilan Ziv, 55m. From First Run/Icarus. Examines new tactic of "suicide bombing" in conflicts in Iran, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Israel, Palestine, Europe & the US.

"Souha: Surviving Hell" [2001], dir. Randa Chahal Sabbag, 57m. From First Run/Icarus. Lebanese Communist Souha Béchara, who in 1989 attempted to assassinate Gen. Antoine Lahad for his collaboration with the Israeli occupation, & survived ten years of imprisonment, torture & solitary confinement with her spirit unbroken.

"Suspended Dreams" [1992], dir. Jean Chamoun, 50 m. Appalling impact of war on environment seen through lives of four Lebanese. Looks ahead to conflict in the making over region’s water.

"The War Generation - Beirut" [199?]. From International Broadcasting Trust in London. Traces experience of different people during the war.

"West Beirut" (1998?), dir. Ziad Doueiri (1998?). Three teenagers growing up during the civil war of the 70s.

"Women of Hezbollah" [2000], dir. Maher Abi-Samra, 49m. From First Run/Icarus. Examines convictions of Shi'ite rural-urban migrants from Southern Lebanon in southern suburbs of Beirut.