Beirut, City of Solidarity. The Intellectuals and the Palestinian Cause, 1952–1975
This article examines the role of Palestinian intellectuals in Beirut and their alliances and friendships with European, African, Asian, and American solidarity activists in the years leading up to the civil war. Beirut is often celebrated for its golden period in the 1960s when the city attracted d...
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| Τόπος έκδοσης: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/bssg, |
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| Κύριος συγγραφέας: | |
| Μορφή: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Γλώσσα: | Anglais |
| Έκδοση: |
Biens Symboliques / Symbolic Goods
2025
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| Θέματα: | |
| Διαθέσιμο Online: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Περίληψη: | This article examines the role of Palestinian intellectuals in Beirut and their alliances and friendships with European, African, Asian, and American solidarity activists in the years leading up to the civil war. Beirut is often celebrated for its golden period in the 1960s when the city attracted dissidents and freethinkers from across the region. In fact, this syncretism lived on and transformed in the following decade, despite the war. While militarization pushed many intellectuals into exile, it also attracted new members of Beirut’s polyglot intelligentsia. Even if most intellectual histories of Beirut pay attention to the Palestinian influence, they rarely analyse it in a transnational context that considers the presence of thousands of solidarity activists, including artists and intellectuals, who came to Beirut to work with and support the Palestinian revolution. This article focuses on the role that solidarity movements with Palestine played in the years from the “golden age” of 1952–1975 and particularly in the run-up to the civil war. This solidarity manifested itself in three registers: support from Lebanese intellectuals, the arrival of foreign solidarity activists, and the discourse of Palestinians. By reading into the archives of Palestinian organizations and solidarity movements, the article provides an overview of the intellectual tendencies in these three registers. It also interrogates the impact of their presence for intellectual life in the city, and for the course that the Palestine liberation movement took in the civil war, and in general. Theoretically, the article draws on the role of intellectuals in “cultural transfer.” |
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