From Unimondo website https://www.unimondo.org/news/e-una-nakba-e-la-palestina-2-0-dal-libano-la-voce-di-una-cooperante-italiana

Arcs Culture Solidali is the social development NGO of Arci, which has been active in Lebanon since the early 2000s. Its work is currently based in the Baalbek-Hermel area, in the north-east of the Bekaa Valley, on the border with Syria. To understand the situation in this country, which is about the same size as Abruzzo, we spoke to Virginia Sarotto, who has been the Arcs coordinator at the Beirut office since June 2024.

What is the situation like in the Baalbek-Hermel area where you are based?

“It was one of the areas hardest hit by Israeli bombardments, particularly in 2024–2025. At this moment, it is less affected than the south, but it remains an extremely volatile area, as there is a significant Hezbollah presence in this territory.”

What projects are you currently running?

“We have two development projects in Baalbek-Hermel. The first supports local communities and small businesses; it has been running for a year and a half, and despite the war, we have managed to keep it going thanks to ARCS’s strong roots in the area and because, although these areas have been affected by bombing, the attacks are not as intense as in the south. We have also managed to provide support supplies to help small-scale producers with their economic activities. The second project, launched in September 2025, was in its initial phase when a new escalation occurred in March, which made it difficult to get it off the ground; however, following a period of slowdown, we are now resuming activities. At the same time, we have launched emergency projects with our partners, including Nahnoo and the Tyre Association for Arts, distributing food, hygiene products and essential items in Beirut, the Mount Lebanon Governorate and the city of Tyre. Thanks to a fund from the Waldensian Church’s ‘otto per mille’ scheme, supplemented by a grant from Italian development cooperation, we are currently launching a more structured response to the emergency in various parts of the country.”

Who are your local partners?

“Both in fundraising and in other emergency projects, the main partner is Nahnoo, a Lebanese association based in Beirut, which ‘in normal times’ works extensively on community participation in public life and the management of communal spaces. They also do excellent work on democratic participation and the development of an organised, cross-sectarian civil society. Back in 2024 and again now, during the emergency, they are working alongside us to meet people’s needs at grassroots level: they distribute food and hygiene products, and provide psychosocial support for children and families, both in Beirut and in the south, between Saida and Nabatieh. Another partner we work with, particularly on fundraising, is the Tiro Association for Arts, a cultural organisation with which we have been involved in various cultural projects. For example, we supported them with a campaign to restore and reopen to the public a theatre in Beirut which, like the others in Tyre and Tripoli run by the association, had been turned into shelters during the crisis: they opened their doors to welcome people, and we delivered food parcels and hygiene products to them”.

What is the overall situation in the country?

“It is becoming increasingly serious, terrible and disheartening, in the sense that the gravity of the situation has simply become the new normal. None of the ceasefire conditions have been respected. Beirut is no longer being bombed every day as it was in March, but in reality the situation is far more serious than it was two months ago. Even though the capital is being spared, Israeli bombardments across the country are ongoing and have devastated the south to such an extent that people will no longer be able to return. A ground invasion by the Israeli army is currently underway, and over 20 per cent of Lebanese territory has been forcibly displaced and bombed: from the southern border to the Zahrani River, the entire area is under fire. These are orders for forced displacement, not evacuation orders: let us not use Israeli language, which is that of the oppressor. It is a Nakba; it is Palestine 2.0. A third of the country’s inhabitants have been forced to move into the remaining two-thirds, overburdening a system already lacking in basic services and resources”.

For children, one right that is undoubtedly being denied because of the war is the right to education, given that schools are taking in displaced people. Do you also have any active educational projects?

“Not at the moment, but we have had some in the past. We completed the last one last February. It was an educational support programme, aimed primarily at children from the Syrian community – who tend to face greater discrimination in terms of their rights – in an area of Beirut called Nabaa, located in Bourj Hammoud.”

Apart from the housing crisis, what is the situation regarding services for the population?

“Lebanon already lacked basic public services: there were few of them and they were of poor quality. In a country where virtually everything is privately run, it is now obviously even more difficult to access healthcare and education. State schools remain closed because they are housing displaced people. Private schools are sometimes open, so there is a class divide between those who can afford private schooling and those who have no prospect whatsoever of state schools reopening to admit children next year. I really do not know how the education system in this country will resume. The same goes for healthcare: already lacking before, it is now even worse because, obviously, there are no resources. A third of the country’s population has moved into the remaining two-thirds. Already lacking resources before, there is overcrowding and everything is even more overburdened.”

What is lacking in structural terms?

“In Lebanon, there is a dynamic of blatant colonialism that nobody talks about. The negotiations are a huge charade. They are not taking place on a level playing field. Moreover, we are not talking about a conflict or a war, because in reality there is not one state pitted against another: there is an extremely strong and powerful nation like Israel pitted against Hezbollah, the militia of a political party. The Lebanese government lacks the means, the resources, and even the weapons to be an equal partner with Israel. The resistance possesses weapons that the Lebanese army cannot have, because the latter is subject to US monitoring. The Lebanese armed forces do not, for example, have an air force.”

So? What can be done?

“Political action is needed; we realise this too in our humanitarian work. We can meet the needs of the population, just as Lebanese organisations do.

There is a vast amount of local and international civil society working to tackle the emergency, and that is wonderful. Having said that, however, we must take action on the political front, because we can raise millions through fundraising to buy food, but until someone ensures that international law is upheld and makes it clear that these are not negotiations on an equal footing, we will never resolve the structural problem. This is Israel’s sixth invasion of Lebanon, and they are taking over the country. It’s a story we’ve seen before. Until it is recognised that the mediator between the parties – the United States – is not impartial, and that the two sides, Israel and Lebanon, do not have equal power, we will get nowhere. We must see it this way; otherwise, we’re not being honest with ourselves.”

Photo: – Mahdi313 da Shutterstock