In the lobby of a building belonging to the prestigious American University of Beirut (AUB), a student sat down at the piano to play "Mawtini" ("my homeland"), the pan-Arab anthem and rallying song of the Palestinians. The school, known for promoting moderation, was one of the first places in Lebanon to mobilize in support of the inhabitants of Gaza caught under the Israeli bombardments. This solidarity came in unison with that expressed in Jordan, Egypt and even Syria.
On October 13, an association of university lecturers published a strongly-worded statement condemning the "atrocities that Israel is currently carrying out with impunity" and criticizing the media and the political stance of Western countries – led by the United States – toward the war, accusing them of "blatant misrepresentation of history" and "dehumanizing Palestinians."
"I can't stand it when Palestinians are annihilated, silenced and portrayed as terrorists," said Souma, a 21-year-old AUB student we met at a demonstration in downtown Beirut on October 18. "In the face of misinformation, it's our duty as Arabs to speak out."
This is not the first time that the confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians has revealed a gulf between the West and the Arab Middle East, which has itself experienced several cycles of conflict, through war or the arrival of Palestinian refugees driven from their land when the state of Israel was created in 1948. But this time, the gap seems even wider.
Almost everything from the West has been called into question, starting with the unilateral support for the Jewish state expressed by US President Joe Biden and several European leaders who visited Israel in the wake of the shockwave caused by the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7. More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, while 240 were taken hostage by the Islamist movement.
But the semantics used; the reluctance to call for a ceasefire when more than 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-administered Health Ministry; the parallels drawn between the Palestinian group and the Islamic State or global terrorism; and the reactions to pro-Palestinian demonstrations and discourse are a source of concern. Following the postponement of the prize that was to have been awarded to the Palestinian writer Adania Shibli at the Frankfurt Book Fair in mid-October, two works by the Lebanese painter Ayman Baalbaki were withdrawn from a Christie's sale scheduled for Thursday, November 9, in London. One of them depicts a man whose face is masked by a red and white keffiyeh (the Palestinian scarf is black and white).
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