مصدر عام | The Public Source

6 Mar

We are looking for rigorous, well-sourced work — journalistic, historical, or investigative — that is grounded in anti-imperialist and anti-colonial commitments on Lebanon and the region. We are also interested in photo essays, testimonies, and interviews.

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A Cairo court has ordered the closure of Mada Masr and the confiscation of its equipment. Editor-in-chief Lina Attalah was charged with running an “unlicensed website” and fined over $50,000. She has since been released, but the case against the outlet stillstands.

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This is not an isolated attack and comes as part of the latest crackdown on independent media in Egypt: six Matsadaash journalists remain in detention, journalist Rasha Azab was questioned over social media posts, and 25 journalists are currently imprisoned in Egypt.

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Defending these institutions is essential to safeguarding public-interest journalism and press freedoms across the region. We stand in solidarity with our Egyptian colleagues and call for an immediate end to their persecution.

Fatima Hourani, displaced from Tarbikha in 1948, passed away on Friday, October 16, at the age of 96. Journalist Dana Hourany spoke with her in 2024 while conducting oral history interviews documenting the lives and experiences of residents expelled from their villages in Lebanon in 1948.

Her family sheltered in Khallet Warde, below Aita al-Shaab, before being pushed from village to village across south Lebanon. She never returned to Tarbikha. Fatima trusted us with her memories, and we’re grateful she did so we could share her story.

thepublicsource.orgThe Haunting History of Lebanon’s Lost VillagesThey didn't move, the borders shifted beneath their feet.

We offer our deepest condolences to her children and grandchildren, and the expelled people of Tarbikha and Lebanon’s other lost villages. Read Fatima’s story in “Stolen by a map: the haunting history of Lebanon’s lost villages”: thepublicsource.org/lebanon-lost...

She was born in Kneisseh, south Lebanon, and rode to Tarbikha, a historic part of Jabal Amel, on horseback for her wedding, in her bridal gown, holding an umbrella against the sun. In Tarbikha, she began her life with her husband Deeb, among olive groves and fig orchards.

In 1948, the Haganah, a Zionist militia-turned-army, invaded Tarbikha, known now as one of seven Lebanese villages stolen during the Nakba. Fatima was nine months pregnant. She fled on foot with a stack of plates balanced on her head.

[Olives Under Occupation] — Olive harvest season is underway as usual across Lebanon, except in southern border villages, where access to the land hinges on the permission of the Israeli occupation. (Videographer: Ramiz Dallah)

The Israeli soldiers forced them to take a longer route to the nearby village of Halta instead of returning through Kfarshouba. Israeli military jeeps drove them out, and occupation forces then opened fire in the area.

Elsewhere in the South, the olive harvest has turned deadly. On October 11: - Hussein Ali Nehme Ramadan from Froun was killed by unexploded ordnance while olive-picking. - An Israeli tank fired at Ali Abed al-Hasan Sweidan, killing him, as he visited his grove in the outskirts of Yater.

The villagers set out for their groves, led by only one official, the municipal head Qassem Qadri. Neither the Lebanese army nor the UNIFIL were present to escort them. Some arrived to find their land bulldozed and their olive trees uprooted, damage they attribute to Israeli forces.

An Israeli occupation patrol suddenly appeared and stopped the residents’ cars. Soldiers then questioned the villagers about their presence on their land, photographed their identification documents, and ordered them to leave immediately.

A day earlier, the Lebanese army informed the municipality that Israel had yet to grant permission for the harvest through the Mechanism, the U.S.-led international committee overseeing the nominal ceasefire, a mukhtar from the village told The Public Source.

The villagers were determined to harvest their olives, the mukhtar added, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation by Israeli forces.

In Kfarshouba, villagers living under Israeli military occupation gathered in the main square on the morning of October 15, before heading to their olive groves on the outskirts of town, in an area known as Azra’el.

Three years ago today, Israel killed Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah in a strike near Alma al-Shaab, south Lebanon. He was 37. Six other journalists were wounded alongside him.

At least six investigations by human rights organizations, media outlets, and the UN reached the same conclusion: Israel deliberately targeted the journalists in what should be investigated as a war crime. Three years on, justice has yet to be served.

thepublicsource.orgIsrael Killed Issam Abdallah but Cannot Kill the StoryTwo Israeli airstrikes targeted seven journalists reporting from southern Lebanon on Friday, October 13 shortly after 6:00 p.m. The first airstrike killed Issam Abdallah instantly. He was 37.

In 2023, Christina Cavalcanti wrote about Issam, his legacy, and what he meant to friends, family, and colleagues who loved him. Read our profile of Issam Abdallah: thepublicsource.org/israel-kille... Illustration by Amy Chiniara.

Depuis le cessez-le-feu de novembre 2024, la question du désarmement du Hezbollah s’est imposée au cœur du débat politique libanais. Sous la pression des États-Unis et d’Israël, le gouvernement de Nawaf Salam a fait du monopole des armes par l’État l’un de ses objectifs.

Pourtant, nombreux sont ceux qui, au sein de l’armée, "refusent catégoriquement de voir leur institution retourner ses armes contre son propre peuple."

orientxxi.infoL’illusion d’une solution militaire au LibanLe monopole des armes par l’État est l’un des objectifs du gouvernement de Nawaf Salam, formé en 2025. Il implique de désarmer le Hezbollah et repose sur un (…)

Que signifie alors le monopole des armes par l’État dans un pays traversé par les ingérences internationales et les divisions internes ? L’illusion d’une solution militaire au Liban, par Jonathan Hassine. À lire sur @orientxxi.bsky.social: orientxxi.info/L-illusion-d...

Mais la neutralité de l’État n’est qu’"un mirage," tant l’État et son armée dépendent de l’aide étrangère. Pour Washington et ses alliés, l’objectif est de consolider les forces armées libanaises comme « une force de maintien de l’ordre efficace » et d’« affirmer leur primauté sur le Hezbollah ».

بعد ثلاث سنوات على طوفان الأقصى، ما الذي تبقّى من الفاعلية حين تُصمَّم كلّ الشروط لسحقها؟ تقوم الكاتبة الفلسطينية نادين ن. صايغ بقراءةٌ في المقاومة بوصفها شكلًا من أشكال الوجود السياسي، لا ردّ فعلٍ عليه. https://thepublicsource.org/ar/sinwar-gaza-agency-dilemma-resistance ترجمة فاطمة فؤاد السمّان

Three years into Israel's genocide in Gaza, who holds the authority to narrate it? Palestinian novelist Susan Abulhawa (@susanabulhawa) reflects on the limits of language in the face of extreme violence and the selective solidarity of Western feminism. 🧵

Read the full interview at: https://thepublicsource.org/susan-abulhawa-every-moment-anthology Edited by Tracy J. Jawad (@TracyJwd)

In an interview with Shiva Akhavan Rad, she argues against a discourse that renders Palestinian death as aggregate and Palestinian life as background. It insists each moment carries its own weight and does not need to culminate in martyrdom or verdict to matter.

Long before Karbala, Iranians were already grieving a martyred prince. Siyavash, the betrayed hero of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, was mourned in song for centuries. That grief later passed into the rituals for Imam Husayn: you can hear it in the elegies sung in Iran today.

Read about these overlapping traditions of myth and mourning in Maziyar Ghiabi's long read, “When The Supreme Leader Disappears.” https://thepublicsource.org/iran-supreme-leader-absence

“As Muslims in the Persianate world later started performing the ta‘ziyeh, the passion drama of Muharram commemorating Imam Husayn’s martyrdom, One could hear echoes of the pre-Islamic lament told in Ferdowsi’s tale about Siyavash.”

“The story returns again and again to the idea of the legitimate, the gifted, and the innocent, destroyed by those who hold power and fear losing it. Mourning becomes a verdict on the killers and is part of the act of fighting against injustice.”

“Narshakhi, writing his History of Bukhara in the tenth century, records that the people of that city had songs for mourning the killing of the legendary Siyavash.”

“His throat was cut over a basin so his blood wouldn’t fall to the earth. Yet the blood fell anyway, the story goes, and a beautiful plant sprang up, an image preserved by Iranians to this day in the name par-e siavashan, or ‘Siyavash’s Feather.’”

“Siyavash is a prince who leaves the Iranian court of his father, King Kay Kavus, and takes refuge with the enemy King Afrasiab in Turan, where he is eventually slandered and murdered in cold blood.”

The Public Source joins the global call for the immediate release of Egyptian fact-checking platform @matsadaash.bsky.social's six journalists.

The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy@timep.bsky.social

NEW: Following the arrest of Matsadaash’s entire newsroom, TIMEP joins partners to condemn the escalating crackdown on the independent Egyptian investigative journalism platform and to call on authorities to immediately release the six detained journalists: timep.org/2026/09/30/g...

Alongside 80 other organizations, we, the undersigned, call on authorities to halt any and all targeting directed at the Matsadaash platform and to release all journalists detained or imprisoned for their work in Egypt.

The crackdown on the Matsadaash platform and these arrests are alarming escalations on independent media and freedom of expression that cannot be allowed to stand.

For the six survivors of Israel’s pager attack, there is no single answer. For some, healing has come through faith. For others, through motherhood, through love, through returning to the struggle. Their stories are shared in Arabic & English in our photo series, ‘Surviving the Pager Massacre.’

Bleeding in a hospital corridor after the pager attack, Assi Zeineddine recited the shahada. “I saw God with an eye that had been forced from its socket,” he says. Read Assi’s testimony: thepublicsource.org/pager-attack...

Meet all three of them at: thepublicsource.org/pager-attack... By Fatima Fouad el-Samman. Photos by Fatima Joumaa. Cover image by Marwan Bou Haidar. Translated by Sintia Issa, Basyma Saad, and Laura Albast.

Mohammad Abed finds his way through faith and feeling. “I can feel the warmth of the light, even if I can’t see it,” he says. Read Abu Sharif’s testimony: thepublicsource.org/pager-attack...

Zeinab Mestrah lost an eye and her fingertips in the pager attack, weeks before she was to build a life with her fiancé. He never wavered. “Love is proven through actions,” she says. Read Zeinab’s testimony: thepublicsource.org/pager-attack...

يخوض النشطاء التونسيين الأربعة المعتقلين في قضية "أسطول الصمود العالمي" إضرابًا مفتوحًا عن الطعام. في هذا المقال, يشرح الكاتب التونسي علي كنيس كيف يُقمع التضامن الشعبي مع فلسطين حين يتحدّى الهيمنة الإمبريالية:https://thepublicsource.org/ar/oppression-tunisia-solidarity-palestine

"يأتي اعتقال أعضاء أسطول الصمود في في ظلّ قمع سياسي تُغلق فيه السلطة المجال العام، وتستخدم المحاكمات الجائرة والملاحقة القضائية ضد الجمعيات والأحزاب والفاعلين في المجال العام من أجل محاصرة الحركة النضالية المناصرة لفلسطين التي ارتقت بدور تونس كساحة نضال وتضامن إقليمي وعالمي. "

“مع اعتقال أعضاء أسطول الصمود اعتبرت تنسيقية العمل المشترك من أجل فلسطين في تونس أن ما جرى هو رضوخ السلطة للضغوط الأمريكية تماشيا مع السياسات الإمبريالية التي تخضع لها المنطقة. "

منذ اندلاع الحرب على إيران، تحوّل الموقف الرسمي التونسي بشكل حاد: من استقبال أسطول الصمود شهر أيلول إلى اعتقال منظّميه والإضراب عن الطعام في الزنازين. “هذا التضييق أتى في سياق تتقاطع فيه الظروف الدولية والإقليمية مع العوامل الداخلية.

“Some things can be so extreme and terrible ... that they actively destroy language.” For susan abulhawa (@susanabulhawa.bsky.social), the ‘Every Moment Is A Life’ anthology gives narrative authority to Palestinians in Gaza: https://thepublicsource.org/susan-abulhawa-every-moment-anthology

Palestinian novelist susan abulhawa (@susanabulhawa.bsky.social) speaks about the limits of language, the ethics of collecting testimony amid an ongoing genocide, & how the West decides whose suffering is legible. Read the interview: https://thepublicsource.org/susan-abulhawa-every-moment-anthology

thepublicsource.orgJasbir Puar on the Pager Attacks and the Right to Maim

22 Sept

"What is being normalized is the mass impairment of Palestinian and Lebanese bodies." Last week marked 2 years since Israel's pager attacks in Lebanon. Revisit our interview with Jasbir Puar on maiming as a deliberate strategy of state violence. Read: thepublicsource.org/blog/lebanon...