Inside Palestinian-Canadians’ fight to save family members trapped in Gaza
The Breach - March 21, 2024 | Gazan-Canadians are pushing the federal government to overhaul its emergency visa program, which is leaving their family members behind.
‘Our families are dying’: outrage as program fails to bring Palestinians to Canada
The Guardian - March 13, 2024 | Not a single person has escaped the Gaza strip under the family reunification program announced by the Canadian government in December 2023. Many Palestinian Canadians feel “scammed” by the program, said community organizer Omar Mansour. They are left in limbo while their loved ones in Gaza face Israeli indiscriminate bombardment and siege.
In South Lebanon, Cultivating Resistance Against Israel’s “Substance from Hell”
The Public Source - March 7, 2024 | Over the past 6 months, Israeli occupation forces have been firing munitions shells, including US-supplied white phosphorus, on southern Lebanon. This is only the latest aggression in Israel's history of war and occupation in the South. But despite the devastation on agriculture, farmers remain steadfast on their lands. Southern crops themselves are “resistant” and can acclimate to conflagrations and seasonal fires.
ㅤIn this (Dis)order Report, we talk to farmers and researchers about the damages incurred due to white phosphorus munitions, and how southerners resist despite the challenges.
The desperate last-ditch search for Lebanon’s missing war victims
The Guardian - February 27, 2024 | Forty years on, as witnesses age and possible graves are built over, a final attempt is being made to uncover what happened those who disappeared during the long civil war.
Three Years After the Beirut Explosion: Where Does Lebanon’s Disaster Management Stand?
The Public Source - August 4, 2023 | Three years after the deadly Beirut explosion, the families of the victims are still demanding justice and accountability, as well as the least of our rights, the right to safety. Having witnessed firsthand the chaos that reigned after the blast, many fear what might happen in case of a natural or another man-made disaster. For this reason, I looked into Lebanon’s disaster risk management strategy to answer a question that concerns many survivors of the explosion: How ready are we to face another disaster if one were to strike again?
Warm Winter Woes: How Global Warming is Affecting Local Agriculture and Food
The Public Source - May 12, 2023 | Lebanon is starting to experience a shift in seasonal events — spring warmth came early and was followed by winter-like storms in April. The mistiming of warm days and rain disrupts many natural cycles that are interdependent — with less rain, higher temperatures, and mistimed seasons, both the natural world and agriculture is at risk. This means our food security as well as our ecosystems are on the line.
Intercepted at Sea: Part 1 The Deadly Cost of Border Control / Part 2 Anatomy of a Pullback / Part 3 The Drowned, the Saved, and the Missing
The Public Source - February 2023 | This is an investigative series about the human cost of border enforcement in the Mediterranean, specifically the EU's outsourcing of migration control to lower-income countries. We followed the story of Hashem Methlej, a lighthearted but desperate young artist who attempted to leave Tripoli, one of the region's poorest cities, to build a life abroad. The Lebanese army (which has been receiving aid for offshore and coastal patrol vessels from the EU and the US) intercepted the small migrant boat Methlej was on. The army vessel and migrant boat collided, causing the latter to sink. Forty people died, at least one of the survivors was arrested on false smuggling charges, and Methlej has been missing since then.
Returning to the Land and Our Oral Plantcestral History
The Public Source - October 11, 2022 | Young and old foragers, herbalists, botanists, and environmentalists across Lebanon lead initiatives that document, conserve, and practice ancestral ecological knowledge — and the way it connects us to nature and the world around us.
Privatizing the Sun: The Dark Side of Lebanon’s “Solar Revolution”
The Public Source - October 11, 2022 | Lebanon's “solar revolution" is anything but. It is unfolding not as a collective action, but as a hyper-individualized, privatized free-for-all shopping spree, leaving behind all those who cannot afford it and creating a looming waste crisis.
Plantcestral Remedies for Perennial Ailments
The Public Source - October 11, 2022 | Learn traditional recipes and herbal remedies from Lebanon’s native flora, told by matriarchs, foragers, and herbalists across the country.
Collective Beekeeping in South Lebanon
The Public Source - August 4, 2022 | Started as a grassroots initiative, By Bee brings together Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian professional and amateur beekeepers working in South Lebanon to solve collective economic and environmental challenges and provide a safe space for them and their hives.
“Like a Prison”: Lebanon’s General Security Makes Passport Renewal a Nightmare
The Public Source - May 25, 2022 | Getting a passport in Lebanon was once a smooth and fast process. But over the past two years, requirements to renew one’s Lebanese passport have changed, often unannounced, trapping in hundreds of residents trying to leave the country.
Zoukak’s Political Theater: A Space for Collective Reflection Amid Crisis
The Public Source - May 25, 2022 | The Zoukak collective has spent the past two years figuring out how to survive and produce cultural work when money is scarce and gathering in person is fraught with difficulties amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Lebanon’s economic collapse, and the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion.
Students or Workers? Lebanese University Medical Students on the Frontline of a Crumbling Healthcare System
The Public Source - March 22, 2022 | Underpaid and unprotected, students from Lebanon’s only public medical school have been bearing the brunt of the multiple crises hitting the country’s healthcare system since 2019.
Always on the Move, Yet Trapped in Precarity: On the Buried Dreams of Gig Economy Drivers
Published in The Public Source - March 22, 2022 | After the closure of Zomato, one of Lebanon’s main food delivery app, drivers have been left in limbo and on the hunt for new jobs, abandoning basic life standards along with ambitious dreams.
Costly and Unsustainable: Where Lebanon’s COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign Went Wrong
The Public Source - October 11, 2021 | In its planning (or lack thereof) for vaccine procurement, the Ministry of Public Health failed to strike efficient and sustainable deals. Instead, they plunge the country into further unmitigated debt while continuing to fall short on public health measures.
Nabaa’s Changing Face: Repurposing and Refurbishing in Times of Crisis
The Public Source - September 13, 2021 | Once thriving markets are now shuttered, storefronts are turned into repair shops, daily life is being reworked.
“We All Benefit”: On the Little Dikkeneh Co-op that could
The Public Source - July 03, 2021 | In Lebanon’s free-falling economy, activists and founder of the Dikkeneh consumer cooperative demonstrate working models that facilitate communal participation in the economy and equitable wealth creation and distribution.
“We Didn’t Even Try”: How Lebanon's Chaotic COVID-19 Strategy Let Thousands Die
The Public Source - June 08, 2021 | Data suggests that if Lebanon had followed a better strategy since March — or any strategy — it could have prevented the deaths of thousands of people. Instead, responsibility —and accountability— is scattered across more than 10 committees, many of which have refused to listen to scientists.
Hospitals try to curb astronomical emissions as pandemic brings new challenges
The Guardian - April 07, 2021 | In birth, in sickness and in death, hospitals produce gigantic amounts of waste – much of which can be avoided. A small but growing number of healthcare workers who are improving their – and their hospitals’ – environmental footprints through sustainable practices on both small and large scales.
From the Archival to the Fictional: How "Where to, Marie?" Revives Local Feminist History
The Public Source - March 08, 2021 | “Where to, Marie? Stories of Feminisms in Lebanon," distills a century of overlooked feminist struggles through the stories of five fictional characters. We interview the authors and artists behind the comic book.
In Treatment: Therapy in the Middle East Needs a Non-Western Approach
New Lines Magazine - February 12, 2021 | There’s long been a mismatch between the mental health care tradition conceptualized in the West and the non-Western populations it aims to serve. It is time to bridge this gap.
Breaking the cycle of trauma and illness among Syrian refugees
The New Arab - January 13, 2021 | Researchers are exploring the correlation between mental and physical health to provide adequate care to refugees, but with the data still lacking, community-based activities are filling the gap.
This Is Not Lab-Made
The NYC News Service - April 29, 2020 | The conspiracy theory asserting that the virus linked to COVID-19 was crafted in a laboratory to spread worldwide death and panic is among the most tenacious in circulation. “There is no indication of that.”
Seeking a New Rhythm: NYers Tap into Arabic Percussions
City Limits - March 10, 2020 | Every week, lovers of music, dance, art, food and everything in between visit a different culture through Circle World Arts. On Friday February 21, attendees were transported to the Arab world by the beats of Lebanese musician, Gilbert Mansour.
Can We Still Save the Northern White Rhinos?
Scheherazade Speaks Science - November 2019 | Three species of rhinos are critically endangered, one near threatened, and one vulnerable. After the death the last male in 2018, the extinction of northern white rhinoceros became only a matter of time. Can surrogacy save them?
This Brownsville Center Has a Few Tricks in the Bag for a Healthier Halloween
The Brooklyn Reader - October 30, 2019 | This Halloween, a health center in Brownsville is swapping Hershey Bars and Milky Ways for apples and bananas and offering trick-or-treaters healthy snacks and Jack-O’Lantern buckets with every free dental screening.
Close but Not Enough: The Uncanny Valley
Scheherazade Speaks Science - August 2019 | New research in neuroscience explains the Uncanny Valley: the uneasy feelings we experience when faced with robots or dolls that look eerily human.
“Paw-sitive” Rewiring of the Brain
Scheherazade Speaks Science - May 2019 | Science confirms that cuddling your pet will make you happier. Several mechanisms come into play and create a positive feedback loop between humans and pets.