* Lebanese journalist

 

Up to 1926, there were no borders or barriers between Lebanon and Palestine. The north of Palestine and southern Lebanon had one human, economic and social environment. The Hula Valley, for example, was a natural geographical extension of the Marjayoun Plain. The mountains of Galilee were part of the mountain range from Jabal Lukam (Amanus) in northern Syria today to the heights of Jabal Amel in southern Lebanon, and then to the mountains of Jerusalem. The lands of some villages of the south such as Meiss al-Jabal and Adaisseh penetrated into the Palestinian territories despite the borders traced for the first time in 1922 by Newcombe and Paulet. The people of southern Lebanon headed toward Palestinian cities before 1948, such as Haifa, Jaffa and Nazareth, due to geographic proximity and relative prosperity. Following the Nakba in 1948, however, the inhabitants of the south headed toward Saida, and then gradually toward Beirut. Many Lebanese lived in Palestine and in Lebanon at the same time. Many eminent Lebanese figures, such as Raif Khoury, Zaki al-Nakash, George Hanna, Ali Nasereddine, Ajaj Nouwayhed, Nabih Amin Fares (born in Palestine like May Ziade), Wadeeh Al Bustani, Najib Nassar (founder of Al-Karmil newspaper), Naguib Azoury, George Antonius, Monah Khoury, Farid Zeineddine, Labib Ghulmiyye, Salwa Nassar and Maarouf Saad. 
Music and Song
Before the Nakba, the Lebanese Youssef al-Batrouni enjoyed fame in Palestine, teaching music at Terra Sancta (Holy Land) College in Bethlehem and then became the conductor of the Jerusalem Radio Orchestra. The Lebanese musician Yahya al-Lababidi, born in Akka, also enjoyed fame. He is the author of the famous tune Ya raytni tayr (Wish I Were a Bird), which launched Farid al-Atrash’s singing career. In addition to these two eminent figures, Ajaj Nuwayhed (from the town of Ras al-Metn and the father of the historian Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout) was director of the Arab department of Al-Quds Radio in the 1940s. Many pioneering musicians and singers in the Arab world worked at the Near East Broadcasting Station. Among them were Lebanese Philemon Wehbe, Elia Baida (performer of Baghdadi mawwal), Saber el-Safh (known as the “songbird of the cedars”), Amer Khadaj and his wife, singer Sanaa (her real name Adla Jadoun) and Toufic El Bacha. 

The Palestinian poet Sabri al-Sharif discovered that folklore is the fountain from which modern Arabic song should derive its creativity. To this end, he summoned the Lebanese poet Assaad Said to Jerusalem and commissioned him to catalogue folk songs in the Levant, especially in Palestine and Lebanon. Sabri al-Sharif continued his project with Halim el-Roumi moving to Lebanon together in the 1950s, along with Zaki Nassif. Emigrant Palestinian musicians in Lebanon gathered at Radio Lebanon. The most eminent were musicians Farah al-Dakhil, Abdel-Karim Kazmouz (the most virtuosic riq player in the Arab world), Michel Baqlouq, Ihsan Fakhoury, Hanna al-Salfiti, Farid al-Salfiti and George Abyad. They were joined by maestro Riad al-Bandak and the great singer Mohammad Ghazi. 

In 1962, Nabil Khoury, a Palestinian novelist and journalist from Jerusalem, and Shafiq al-Hout, a journalist and political activist from Jaffa whose family is originally from Beirut, joined Radio Lebanon. It is well known that Ghanem Dajjani, Subhi Abu Lughod and Abdelmajed Abu Laban were in charge of Radio Lebanon and brought with them the Lebanese director Mohammad Krayyem, who previously worked for Near East Broadcasting Station, and directed in Beirut the famous program Shamel w Merii. They were joined by Nahida Fadli Dajani and Shakib Khoury.

Three Palestinians can claim great credit for the career of the singer Fairuz. They are Halim el-Roumi (Hanna Awad Baradei), Sabri al-Sharif, who directed most of the Rahabani Brothers’ plays, and singer Mohammad Ghazi, who trained her to sing muwashshah and sang with her Al-layl anasheed wal omr mawaeed. He also performed the muwashshah Ya waheed al-ghaydi and the song Khamrat al-aliha (music by Toufic El Bacha). 

Culture and Journalism

The Palestinian presence in Lebanon did not consist of armed factions, as portrayed by many. It was a place where a Palestinian community that was uprooted from its original land lived. This place later turned into the headquarters of a national liberation movement, with all its merits and its failings. Between 1952 and 1982 in Lebanon, the Palestinians issued some 120 newspapers, magazines and publications, with Tha’r (Revenge) in 1952 being the first in this series. Worth mentioning are the magazines Al-hurriyah (Freedom), Al-hadaf (Goal) and Ila al-amam (Going forward), which were magazines with Lebanese legal privilege), in addition to specialized periodicals such as Palestinian Affairs, Arab Issues, Al-Karmil, the Journal of Palestine Studies, The Palestinian Revolution, The Voice of Palestine, Nidal al-shab (The Struggle of the People), Sumud (Resistance), The Arab Revolutionary, Balsam, The Palestinian Writer, Samed al-iqtisadi, Al-Jil (The Generation), and Olive Mountain. There were the Palestine Film Institute, the Research Center, the Planning Center, The Institute for Palestine Studies, the Wafa News Agency, the Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation and other institutions appeared in the neighborhoods of Beirut, such as libraries, archives and printing presses.

Many worked and excelled at these institutions in journalism, creative writing and the arts, such as Ismail Shammout, Tamam al-Akhal, Naji al-Ali, Ghassan Kanafani, Nabil Khoury, Jihad al-Khazen, Afif el-Tibi, Wafic el-Tibi, Aboud Abdel Al in music, Ihsan Abbas and Mohammed Youssef Najm in academia, Ahmed Shafiq al-Khatib and Constantin Theodore in dictionary work, and Dimitri Baramki in archaeology. In addition, Marwan Jarrar and Wadia Haddad were the first to establish a folk-dance group in Lebanon. The first to found choirs were the Palestinians Alvarez Boulos and Salvador Arnita (the uncle of Lebanese singer Madonna). The first founders of scientific research centers were Walid Khalidi, Burhan Dajani (Institute for Palestine Studies), Fayez Sayegh and later Anis Sayegh (Research Center) and Yousef Sayegh (Planning Center). There was a fourth brother, the poet Toufic Sayegh. They all lived and worked in Lebanon. They were like all the other people mentioned above, Palestinians and Lebanese, Arabs, with all what Arabism signifies in terms of comprehensive cultural meanings. Let us also recall that Juliana Seraphim, Moussa Tayba and Paul Guiragossian were at once Palestinian and Lebanese. So, can anyone break this bond?