A Lebanese man holds a national flag during a march last April on Beirut's former Green Line, as Lebanon commemorated the 33rd anniversary of the outbreak in 1975 of its 15-year civil war. (Photo by Ramzi Haidar/AFP/Getty Images)
In commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the Lebanese civil war, triggered on April 13, 1975, by shots fired at a bus carrying Palestinians in east Beirut, a "peace bus" pulled out from the Al-Sanaeh area of Beirut under the slogan "The Roar of the Bus…Memories of a Country." The bus will traverse Lebanon from north to south, passing though Al-Beqaa and Al-Jabal with ten young people of different regional backgrounds who have volunteered to spread a culture of peace.
The project was launched at a youth meeting organised in Al-Sanaeh, where Nada Sehnaoui screened her documentary film, "Weren’t 15 years of hiding in toilets enough?" The film explores the experience of hiding from shells in bathrooms, the results of the war, and eye witness testimonies from people who lived through the war or participated in it such as fighters Asaad Sheftari and Mohedin Shehab who have become among the most vehement anti-violence and peace advocates.
As a means of condemning acts of war, the Farah Al-Ata Association organised a tour for children to visit leaders and officials to collect signatures on a petition for "Renunciation of Violence and the Right to be Different". In the same context, and under the slogan, "Remember- Do Not Repeat," some Lebanese people commemorated the memory of the war by setting up love barricades on roads, handing out roses to passersby, and chanting, "Remember not to repeat!"
Amine Gemayel, president of the Lebanese Kataeb Party, which was a key player in the war, believes that, “The causes of the war are not yet behind us; they still exist." He took note of "the continued presence of security islands and the spread of weapons inside and outside the Palestinian camps." Gemayel also emphasized that the southern front still lacks stability. where instead of Palestinian refugee operations, Hezbollah now threatens to react with military operations.
Lebanese citizen Hussein Murtada who once lived on the line between East and West Beirut said, "If the circumstances and causes of the outbreak of war on April 13, 1975, differ from the circumstances and causes of today, it still seems that no one has learned from the bitterness of the civil war."
An official from the ‘Our Unity is Our Salvation’ movement has asked the Lebanese people to refrain from returning to the language of war. He explained, "Reminders of what the war left behind in terms of victims and losses are intended to avoid a repeat of these tragedies. Our goal is to hold on to goodness, hope, the Lebanese right to peace and optimism to lead us to a better tomorrow."
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