(Credit: L'Orient-Le Jour archives/Collage by Jaimee Haddad)
In June 1972, a group of young people paraded on a pile of rubble in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon. The smallest among them was still a child, fidgeting with his hands, his gaze distant. Did they come to assess the losses or to salvage what can be saved — a memory, a photo, a medal? After four hours of intense shelling, the noise of the bombs ceased. "A massacre as retribution," stated L’Orient-Le Jour.The Israeli offensive aimed to avenge the attack on Lod airport, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, perpetrated a few weeks earlier by three Japanese members of the Red Army. This was nearly three years before the spark of April 1975 that would ignite the 15-year civil war. Yet, life already had a taste of ashes. In this south Lebanon village, charred cars, deployed tanks and broken bridges were part of the landscape. Southern...
In June 1972, a group of young people paraded on a pile of rubble in Hasbaya in southern Lebanon. The smallest among them was still a child, fidgeting with his hands, his gaze distant. Did they come to assess the losses or to salvage what can be saved — a memory, a photo, a medal? After four hours of intense shelling, the noise of the bombs ceased. "A massacre as retribution," stated L’Orient-Le Jour.The Israeli offensive aimed to avenge the attack on Lod airport, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, perpetrated a few weeks earlier by three Japanese members of the Red Army. This was nearly three years before the spark of April 1975 that would ignite the 15-year civil war. Yet, life already had a taste of ashes. In this south Lebanon village, charred cars, deployed tanks and broken bridges were part of the landscape. Southern...