The War Remembered: A Look at the Voluntary and Humanitarian Work of Young People with the Lebanese Red Cross in the Outskir

Abstract

Commitment or simply “doing something” were concerns that exercised a sizeable segment of Lebanese youth in 1975. The portents of the civil war had begun to appear, and young people were caught up in the whirlwind. The vast majority rushed to line up under the banners of political parties, where they could choose to embrace any of the major causes that were prevalent in the country at the time. To bear arms and participate in the fight, defending the land with body and soul and one’s compatriots, became a goal that stirred young people: a challenging obsession that captivated minds. Faced with this situation a group of Lebanese youth, on seeing their immediate surroundings slip into the spiral of violence, joined the ambulance teams of the Antelias-Naqqash branch of the Lebanese Red Cross. Their action, reflecting a greater solidarity with civilians than with combatants, was at odds with that of their surroundings – the humanitarian deeds they carried out governed by the seven principles of the Red Cross as well as by the 1949 Geneva Conventions. This youth movement, however, owed more to factors relating to their neighborhood, their social class, their academic level, as well as their religious or political affiliations. The slogans and humanitarian principles of the Red Cross were hardly welcomed in their environment; with links to the Unknown Soldier, they seemed ill-suited to the escalating stages of the civil war, and destined only to provoke more rage. In recounting the story of around 50 Lebanese youth in 1975, Tabet offers a rare insight into the Lebanese civil war.