Lebanon Still Struggles To Tell the Story of Its Civil War
Half a century after Lebanon’s civil war began, the country still lacks a unified narrative about the 15-year conflict that left deep scars across generations. In a report for The Media Line, Taylor Thomas traces the lingering legacy of the war through personal stories like that of Ayman, who joined the fighting as a teenager and now seeks to prevent history from repeating itself.
The Lebanese Civil War began on April 13, 1975, with the killing of 27 Palestinians by Phalangist militia members. What followed was a brutal war that pitted various Lebanese factions and foreign powers against each other, leaving at least 150,000 dead, displacing nearly a million people, and devastating Beirut and much of the country’s infrastructure. Israel and Syria intervened directly, and international troops entered temporarily. Hezbollah emerged during the conflict and remains a key political player.
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Despite the war’s far-reaching impact, Lebanon has never reckoned with it formally. The general amnesty law passed in 1990 pardoned all war crimes, allowing former militia leaders to transition into political roles. To this day, no official history is taught in schools beyond 1943, leaving young people like Ameera to piece together the past through bullet-riddled buildings and personal research.
Ameera told The Media Line that growing up surrounded by silence and trauma created confusion and division. “We are a generation raised by traumatized people who lived through the war,” she said. Now, voices like hers and Ayman’s are trying to fill the vacuum left by the state’s silence.
To understand how Lebanon’s unresolved history shapes its fragile present, read Taylor Thomas’s full report at The Media Line.
