Sonallah Ibrahim - Beirut, Beirut

“We can all imagine this solution would not exist at all except through the partitioning of Lebanon. A state filled with hatred would arise. A state more dangerous and more hostile than Israel.

“A third thing: you can all foresee that a military settlement in this way will fling open the doors to every foreign intervention, and especially Israeli intervention.

“On the same day, I summoned Yasser Arafat and this is what I said to him: I told him and I’m telling you now that I cannot conceive of the connection between Palestinians doing battle on top of Mount Lebanon and the liberation of Palestine… My friends, do you recall what went on in 1970 in Jordan? At the time, they shouted slogans: Power, all power to the resistance. We are liberating Palestine by way of Amman. The matter is being repeated now in Lebanon. At that meeting, Yasser Arafat promised me that he would withdraw from the fighting.

“Syria is a land of stalwart resistance. Whoever is for stalwart resistance must be for Syria. Syria is a land of liberation, and whoever is for liberation must be for Syria. Syria is a land of Arab nationalism and progress, and whoever is for Arab nationalism must be for Syria. Syria is a land of the Palestinian struggle, and whoever is for the Palestinian struggle must be for Syria. Any talk about liberating Palestine without Syria is ignorance and a deception of the masses.”

Title card:

On the same day that the Syrian president gave this speech, Lebanon’s mufti sent him the following appeal:

“Today, after the pressure caused by the crisis of hunger, thirst, fear and illness has grown intense, and spreading epidemics have come to threaten the lives of all the inhabitants of Beirut and its environs, not to mention the danger of spreading contagion throughout Lebanon… because of the continuation of the squalid 500-day war, and the tightening of the blockade around us from all sides, from land, sea and air.

“… We turn to you, demanding in the name of Muslim and Arab brotherhood, that you fulfill the call of duty to the human race and to Arab nationalism, namely:

“First — that you leave the international Damascus — Beirut road open to all convoys carrying supplies of food, medicine and fuel from brother Arab states through Syria.

“Secondly — that you prevent any threatening move that would block the arrival of ships to the harbors of Sidon and Tripoli…”

A separate title card:

Two days later…

The headquarters of the Socialist Progressive Party in Beirut. A crowd of journalists and politicians. Kamal Jumblatt, head of the party, holds a press conference. The Lebanese leader announces the establishment of a central political council with him as president that will undertake the functions of political leadership for the nationalist and progressive forces and parties in Lebanon.

In front of the Tel Zaatar camp. Crowds of soldiers. A group of Red Cross ambulances slowly approaches.

A newspaper headline: “Isolationist forces fire on the Red Cross delegation that attempted to evacuate the wounded from the Tel Zaatar camp.”

A newspaper headline: “TASS blames Saudi Arabia for what is happening in Lebanon.”

A newspaper headline: “The Saudi Industrial Services Company (SISCO) announces that the Middle East will likely settle down once the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon has been weakened.”

A newspaper headline: “For 3 days, Syrian forces have been unable to break through the lines of the Palestinian resistance in Bhamdoun.”

Title card:

On July 29…

A newspaper headline: “Agreement in Damascus between the Palestinian resistance and Syria to end the fighting.”

A circle around a paragraph from the same newspaper: “The Syrian side confirmed its firm and ongoing position supporting the PLO as representative of the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Israeli enemy and on behalf of liberation; and confirmed that Syria was and will remain a base of the struggle for the people of Palestine… Likewise, the Palestinian side praised the position of the Arab nation of Syria with regard to the struggle of the Palestinian Arab people, the Palestinian cause, the assistance of the Syrian nation, and its support for the Palestinian resistance.”

Title card:

Two days later…

A newspaper headline dated July 31: “Evacuation of the wounded from Tel Zaatar. A Swedish doctor states that the number of killed at the camp has reached 1,400, and the number of injured 4,000.”

The Naba’a neighborhood near Beirut. A Phalangist militia fires bullets in every direction. The militia starts expelling residents from their homes.

A crossing-point between the Eastern and Western sectors, near the Museum. Hundreds of residents of the Naba’a district, expelled from East Beirut, arrive together. A narrow street that ends at an overturned bus. Barrels filled with sand. Broken pipes. Women carry everything they own on their heads and drag their children behind them. A girl is carrying a doll, and another carries a gas stove. Everyone advances to the end of the street where the barrier to West Beirut is located.

Title card:

On the fiftieth day of the siege of Tel Zaatar, Yasser Arafat sent letters to Arab leaders, holding them responsible for the fate of the camp. On the same day, the agreement was reached, through the Red Cross and Arab Security Forces, to complete the evacuation of 12,000 civilians from the camp, and to transport them to the Bekaa Valley or West Beirut.

Two days later, on August 12, 1976…

Red Cross automobiles in front of Tel Zaatar. A truck carrying the emblem of the Arab Security Forces. Several women and children — no trace of a man among them — climb onto it. The street is covered with countless numbers of different kinds of shoes: traditional slippers, sandals, women’s shoes (high heels and flats). Another truck with sides made of interlaced slats, like trucks used for transporting animals.

In front of the Teachers’ College in West Beirut. Crowds. A weeping woman, another woman with torn clothes, and children step out of a small truck. Another weeping woman embraces two children.

The Arab University Hospital. An elderly woman leans over a wounded man with no legs and embraces him.

Title card:

During the evacuation of non-combatants, the Phalangists and Tigers assaulted the camp in large numbers. Fighting occurred between them and 300 Palestinian and Lebanese young men who refused to submit and continued to resist to the end. At the end of the day, it was announced that Tel Zaatar had fallen.

The woman really was captivating: she was wrapped in a diaphanous cape that showed off her body’s charms. Below the photo I read these words: “The West, enraptured by the Orient and its exoticism. The Orient — like a magic wand, it can turn you into a woman of a thousand faces.”

I took my eyes off the advertisement, and went back to reading the news report about the elderly French philosopher Althusser, who had choked his wife. Then I put the newspaper to one side and picked up the phone.

I dialed the number of Dar al-Thaqafa Publishing, and found the line was busy, so I called Wadia in his office.

As soon as I heard his voice, I said, “The maid hasn’t come yet and I’d like to leave the house.”

“If she hasn’t come by now, then she won’t be coming today,” he explained. “Should I expect you for dinner?”

“I don’t think so. Antoinette and I have been invited to the house of a French acquaintance in the evening. We might go directly there from Fakahani.”

The sun was shining, making it a warm day, so I went out wearing only a wool sweater over my shirt, and slung my bag over my shoulder. Then I dialed the number for Dar al-Thaqafa again, and since it was still busy, I left the apartment.