Local Journalism in the Public Interest
Editorials

What is the responsibility of knowledge producers to Palestine?
Seizing Knowledge Production in Solidarity With Palestine
The (Dis)order Report

A composite image of women riding a motorcycle through agricultural fields in Central Bekaa and a snowy mountain range. Photos taken by Marwan Tahtah in Saadnayel, Lebanon on April 14, 2023. (The Public Source)
Warm Winter Woes: How Global Warming is Affecting Local Agriculture and Food

A composite of a senior woman protesting during the October 2019 uprising in the foreground (courtesy of Mourane Matar/Fawra Media) against an old Mar Mkhayel barber shop in the background. (The Public Source)
Indefinitely Deferred: Dignified Retirement Inaccessible to Most

Villa owners can afford the cost and space it takes to install good solar systems. Akkar, Lebanon. September 30, 2022. (Rita Kabalan/The Public Source)
Privatizing the Sun: The Dark Side of Lebanon’s “Solar Revolution”

A composite of 13-year-old Jinane in the foreground and a public school classroom in the background. Photos taken on September 19, 2022 by Rita Kabalan.
Public Education: Thousands of Children Left Behind at the Start of the School Year

Agricultural laborers work the field on amiri land, a type of state land that allows for communal use. Most amiri lands are in the Beqaa region, where three quarters of residents live off agricultural work. Beqaa, Lebanon. 2021. (Photo courtesy of Public Works Studio)
The Land We Stand to Lose to the Sovereign Fund

A composite image of hands cupping grains of wheat against the backdrop of a mill worker loading bags of flour onto a truck in Beirut, Lebanon. Photos taken on June 28, 2022 by Marwan Tahtah. (The Public Source)
Grain of Hope and Loaf of Neglect: Lebanon’s Renewed Bread Crisis

Composite of images taken of Lebanese passports and of the Beirut International Airport. Photos taken on August 1, 2020 and April 8, 2022, by Marwan Tahtah. (The Public Source)
“Like a Prison”: Lebanon’s General Security Makes Passport Renewal a Nightmare

Composite of images taken at a hospital in Lebanon and of protests organized by Lebanese University students. Photos taken on October 19, 2021 and October 25, 2011, by Marwan Tahtah. (The Public Source)
Students or Workers? Lebanese University Medical Students on the Frontline of a Crumbling Healthcare System

Private security guards stand in front of a barricaded branch of BLOM Bank. Beirut, Lebanon. July 2020. (Marwan Tahtah/The Public Source)
While We Try to Survive Its Last Scheme, Lebanon's Banking Sector Plots Another Grand Theft
Chronicles of the Crisis

An altered image of Hashem Methlej over a picture of the Mediterranean sea. (The Public Source)
Intercepted at Sea: The Drowned, the Saved & the Missing

An altered image of the small migrant boat as it attempted to evade the pursuit of a Lebanese naval vessel. (The Public Source)
Intercepted at Sea: Anatomy of a Pullback

Months before he embarked on the "death boat," Hashem Methlej drew an ominous sketch of a boat sinking. Tripoli, Lebanon. October 28, 2022. (Marwan Tahtah/The Public Source)
Intercepted at Sea: The Deadly Reality of Border Control

A composite of a forged document claiming the successful incineration of the toxic waste, the Radhost motorship, and the toxic barrels. (Photos © ShipSpotting/Wolfgang Kramer & © Dr. Pierre Malychef from Lab of False Witnesses for Ecotoxicological Research and Communication)
The “Ecological Time Bombs” Unloaded at the Beirut Port Decades Ago

A composite of people protesting the 2015 garbage crisis, barrels of toxic waste at the Shnan‘ir quarry, and a “river of trash” in Jdeideh in 2015. (Photos by Marwan Tahtah & © Dr. Pierre Malychef from the Lab of False Witnesses for Ecotoxicological Research and Communication)
Merchants of Death

A composite of archival images from Assafir newspaper of the offices of Intra Investment Company and the opening of the Finance Bank, one of Intra Holdings' most secretive holding companies, on December 7, 1999. Mahfouz Sakina, Hassan Farran, Yacoub Al Sarraf, and Salah Harakat are seen cutting a cake. (The Public Source)
Intra Investment Company: The “Lebanese State’s Best Kept Secret”

Composite of images taken at different National Social Security Fund (NSSF) offices across Lebanon. Photos taken on October 8, 2021, by Marwan Tahtah. (The Public Source)
The Full Story Behind the Looming Collapse of the National Social Security Fund

Composite of images taken at a protest organized by the Beirut Port Explosion Victims' Families and the Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities to demand justice for people killed and injured by the blast. Sylvana Lakkis, president of the union, is the center of the image. Photos taken on July 4, 2021, by Hussein Baydoun. (The Public Source)
“And What Would You Like Me to Do About It?”: How the Lebanese Government Disabled Hundreds of People — and Then Left Them to Pay for Its Crime
The Long Read

A composite of Lebanese police guarding the Bank of Beirut during the "week of rage" anti-government protests in Hamra on January 14, 2020, (Marwan Tahtah/The Public Source) and Greek police guarding the National Bank of Greece during anti-austerity protests on February 25, 2010. (Creative Commons)
What About the “Sovereign Wealth Fund”? Some Lessons From Greece

A composite of migrant domestic workers holding their employers' children and enjoying the view, and a woman chatting with a friend from the balcony of her employer's home. Photos taken by Matthew Cassel between March 31, 2010 and May 13, 2010 in Beirut, Lebanon.
Neoliberalism and Kafala

Life and war in South Lebanon are embroidered in the landscape: the border fence, a deadly minefield, an olive grove, a tobacco field and a lovingly-tended backyard garden. Dhaira, Lebanon. 2007. (Photo courtesy of Munira Khayyat)
Seasons of Life and War in South Lebanon: An Interview on Ecologies of Resistance

The sea of Sur by night. Tyre, Lebanon. June 18, 2021. (Marwan Tahtah/The Public Source)
Surrounding Sur: Liberation Day Poetics

“Tomorrow: Lebanon Unites to Face Those Starving It.” Assafir, November 4, 1987.
Digging Through the Archives for the 1987 Strike That Braved the Barricades

Composite of images taken at archeological sites-turned-constructions sites around Beirut. Photos taken on June 26, 2012 and February 17, 2022, by Marwan Tahtah. (The Public Source)
Searching for Lebanon’s Ancient Ruins Amid Capitalist Ruination

A delivery driver on the go in the late evening, bringing customers their orders, rain or shine. Beirut, Lebanon. March 17, 2021. (Marwan Tahtah/The Public Source)
Always on the Move, Yet Trapped in Precarity: On the Buried Dreams of Gig Economy Drivers
In the Interlude

Photojournalist Marwan Tahtah had heard about this photograph taken by his relative Kamel Lamaa before he saw it for the first time hung on a wall in his uncle’s apartment. Lamaa worked as a photojournalist for the AFP and owned “Play Boy,” a photography studio he ran with his siblings and cousins in the southern suburb of Beirut. In the mid-80s, as heavy shelling was falling on the city, Lamaa was driving with his colleagues near al-Sahel Hospital when their car was hit. After hiding under a bridge, they found this terrified family taking refuge. Beirut, Lebanon. August 25, 1985. (Kamal Lamaa/AFP, courtesy of Marwan Tahtah)
Capturing the End Times: The Unseen Realities of Photojournalists in Lebanon

Rianna Tassabehji makes her way amid rocky outcrops on a trail that twists at the bottom of a hill. Batloun, Lebanon. September 14, 2022. (Chris Trinh/The Public Source)
Returning to the Land and Our Oral Plantcestral History

A composite image of Khaled Al Mahmoud inspecting a frame amid colorful wooden hives with bees and flowers in the foreground in Mazra'at Jemjim, Lebanon. Photos taken on June 11, 2022 by Marwan Tahtah. (The Public Source)
Collective Beekeeping in South Lebanon

Composite of images provided by Zoukak of their performance of the Rave Empire in France. Photos taken on January 27, 2022. (The Public Source)
Zoukak’s Political Theater: A Space for Collective Reflection Amid Crisis

A composite image of Fodda El Youssef (left) and her mother Aziza Sattouf (right) manually sorting wheat to be sent to a mill in Saadnayel, Lebanon, against the backdrop of Seed in a Box's vegetable seedling greenhouse in Beddawi, Lebanon. Photos taken on May 10, 2022, and May 18, 2022 by Chris Trinh. (The Public Source)
From the Ground Up: Seed Saving and Food Sovereignty in Lebanon
[From the Archive] Dispatches from the October Revolution

Protesters engage in a discussion during the early days of the October uprising in "The Egg," an iconic abandoned opera house in central Beirut. October 24, 2019. (Gloria Tawk/Fawra)
Lebanon’s Global Conundrum: Which Strategy for Political Change?

Young women in factory uniforms hold a banner that reads, “our identity is to die for our bread.” Date unknown. Source: Al-Anwar newspaper.
The Power of Withholding Labor: The General Strike as Cultural Work

A sanitation worker employed by Lebanese company Ramco pauses for a picture while working a shift at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. April 6, 2020. (Marwan Tahtah/The Public Source)
Labor in Lebanon: Between Racism and Capitalist Exploitation

Protesters rest beside graffiti depicting the hanging of an authority figure. Downtown Beirut, Lebanon. December 15, 2019. (Rita Kabalan/The Public Source)
Oligarchiyya, Lebanese Style (Part 2 of 2)

Lebanese expatriates in New York City express support for injured and killed anti-establishment protesters in their home country. November 19, 2019. (Ahmed Gaaber/The Public Source)