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The Beqaa’s Juniper Trees
A Tale of Multiple Crises
Along the barren lands of western Beqaa’s Hermel region lies an undisturbed natural forest of Juniper trees, both the Juniperus excelsa and Juniperus foetidissima species. Perched on top of a hill, this unsung conifer does not enjoy nearly as much praise as the Lebanese Cedar does – despite it being just as glorious. It can even grow at a higher altitude of 2,800 meters and possesses a myriad of exceptional ecological attributes that makes it vital for Lebanese forests.
The Lezzab tree, as we call it in Arabic, is an enormous producer of oxygen. It improves the quality of the soil it lives in, creates the right conditions for other plants to grow, and protects the soil from erosion due to its substantial roots – preventing risks of landslides. It is also a habitat for wildlife. In fact, the way this tree germinates is a magnificent natural process; it relies on birds, mainly the Turdus Viscivorus and Turdus Merula, who consume its berries, and then excrete its seeds into the ground after ingestion, allowing it to sprout. Juniper berries also have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and they have been traditionally used as a herbal medicine to treat cancer, diabetes, indigestion and kidney issues. Additionally, they are the main botanical in gin. They are sweet and retain an earthy aroma with a bitter hint of citrus. Unfortunately, though, this tree does not receive the proper safeguarding it deserves.
Deprivation
For years, forests surrounding Hermel have been threatened by hazardous and illegal tree cutting, which is now driving deforestation. No longer able to afford fuel for heat, people have resorted to cutting down trees. Not being able to afford fuel does not excuse arbitrarily felling scores of trees, though. It is feasible to source firewood without killing trees – especially those that take years on end to grow – but the lack of regulation and control is a state negligence that loggers continue to abuse.
Lebanon’s 2019 economic collapse and massive currency devaluation have driven the inhabitants of this already marginalized region into further poverty. However, the roots of this marginalization date much farther back. Since the establishment of Greater Lebanon in 1920, peripheral regions like the Beqaa, the South, along with Akkar and Tripoli, were historically sidelined, while growth and development efforts were confined to Beirut and Mount Lebanon. During Lebanon’s so-called heyday, the inequalities between regions were flagrant, and the Beqaa – quasi-abandoned by the state – was deprived of the most basic services. Its people were treated as second class citizens.
Climate Change
Despite its historical deprivation, the wealth of the Beqaa’s lands has made it Lebanon’s agricultural breadbasket. The Beqaa accounts for 43% of Lebanon’s cultivated land. Nestled between Lebanon’s two mountain ranges that extend from north to south along Lebanon’s eastern frontier with Syria, it is fed by two rivers. Al-Assi River, also known as the Orontes, flows northwards towards Syria, while the Litani River flows southwards towards the north of Tyre. The region’s fertile soil, rich variety of seeds, four seasons, and ensuing exposure to the ideal amount of rain and sun, offer plenty of agricultural richness. In recent years, the tangible impact of climate change has increasingly been felt across the region.
The lezzab tree is famously distinguished by its capability to withstand harsh environmental conditions that can be detrimental to survival; not all species share such resilient properties in the face of changing weather patterns. Lebanon has been experiencing an annual temperature increase of 0.3°C per decade since 1970, and an 11mm decrease in rainfall per decade since 1950. These hotter and drier climate conditions, which are projected to worsen in the future, along with the consequent water scarcity, are contributing to droughts and the desertification of the Beqaa. Later, warmer, and shorter winters are diminishing soil moisture. This threatens biodiversity, reducing crop yields, and increasing the possibility of fires.
The ramifications of this are seen in the quality of food and water sources, which is also being compromised by pollution. It is taking a toll on the most widely grown crops in the Beqaa: legumes such as fava beans and chickpeas, wheat and barley, and fruit trees (namely cherries, apricots, grapes, and apples). Additionally, climate change is altering grazing periods and pastureland quality, which is affecting livestock raising.
Such losses are costing people their livelihood, as they mainly rely on agriculture to sustain themselves. That said, questions about climate change must not take precedence amid the ongoing, systematic destruction of the area. The unprecedented death and displacement in the Beqaa, at the hands of Israel, are far more urgent.
Israeli Atrocities
Over the last year, the Beqaa has been subjected to sporadic Israeli attacks, but the bloody escalation since September 2024 has taken Israeli criminality to a new level of violence. Due to their unleashing of indiscriminate massacres, homes sheltering entire families have been razed to the ground, entire neighborhoods flattened, and thousands have been killed and injured – many of whom remain trapped under the rubble at this very moment.
With an estimated population of 1,000,000 residents, Israel’s carpet bombing campaign has subjected the Beqaa to unprecedented levels of forced displacement, resulting in hardship for Lebanese and Syrian refugees (who poured into Lebanon at the onset of the war on Syria) alike.
This forced displacement – another prominent feature of Israel’s long list of war crimes – falls within Israel’s orchestrated scheme to uproot a segment of the population from their lands. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have been issuing so-called ‘evacuation orders’ for the people of the Beqaa, just as they have for the Southern Lebanese villages and Beirut’s southern suburb. Last week, the residents of the ancient ‘city of the sun’, Baalbek, known for its Roman Temple complex, and also a UNESCO heritage site, were forced to empty their homes due to Israel’s terrorizing attempts at erasure. It is worth noting that this is a city first inhabited since around 10,000BC.
Closing Thought
Some of the statuesque lezzab trees sitting on that hill in Hermel are thousands of years old. At this point, it is difficult to count how many have been damaged by the relentless Israeli bombardment – and painful to even think about. The growth of these trees requires patience, as they take decades to mature. In the same way that these old Juniper trees are now witnessing Israel’s severe aggression against the Beqaa, they have also endured the brutality of countless empires throughout history – once thought invincible and immortal. While these empires collapsed and ceased to exist, the resistant trees remained firmly embedded in the Beqaa’s soil.
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{
"article":
{
"title" : "The Beqaa’s Juniper Trees: A Tale of Multiple Crises",
"author" : "Sarah Sinno",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/beqaa-juniper-trees-multiple-crises",
"date" : "2024-12-11 14:33:00 -0500",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/beqaa-juniper.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Along the barren lands of western Beqaa’s Hermel region lies an undisturbed natural forest of Juniper trees, both the Juniperus excelsa and Juniperus foetidissima species. Perched on top of a hill, this unsung conifer does not enjoy nearly as much praise as the Lebanese Cedar does – despite it being just as glorious. It can even grow at a higher altitude of 2,800 meters and possesses a myriad of exceptional ecological attributes that makes it vital for Lebanese forests.",
"content" : "Along the barren lands of western Beqaa’s Hermel region lies an undisturbed natural forest of Juniper trees, both the Juniperus excelsa and Juniperus foetidissima species. Perched on top of a hill, this unsung conifer does not enjoy nearly as much praise as the Lebanese Cedar does – despite it being just as glorious. It can even grow at a higher altitude of 2,800 meters and possesses a myriad of exceptional ecological attributes that makes it vital for Lebanese forests.The Lezzab tree, as we call it in Arabic, is an enormous producer of oxygen. It improves the quality of the soil it lives in, creates the right conditions for other plants to grow, and protects the soil from erosion due to its substantial roots – preventing risks of landslides. It is also a habitat for wildlife. In fact, the way this tree germinates is a magnificent natural process; it relies on birds, mainly the Turdus Viscivorus and Turdus Merula, who consume its berries, and then excrete its seeds into the ground after ingestion, allowing it to sprout1. Juniper berries also have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and they have been traditionally used as a herbal medicine to treat cancer, diabetes, indigestion and kidney issues2. Additionally, they are the main botanical in gin. They are sweet and retain an earthy aroma with a bitter hint of citrus. Unfortunately, though, this tree does not receive the proper safeguarding it deserves.DeprivationFor years, forests surrounding Hermel have been threatened by hazardous and illegal tree cutting, which is now driving deforestation. No longer able to afford fuel for heat, people have resorted to cutting down trees. Not being able to afford fuel does not excuse arbitrarily felling scores of trees, though. It is feasible to source firewood without killing trees – especially those that take years on end to grow – but the lack of regulation and control is a state negligence that loggers continue to abuse.Lebanon’s 2019 economic collapse and massive currency devaluation have driven the inhabitants of this already marginalized region into further poverty. However, the roots of this marginalization date much farther back. Since the establishment of Greater Lebanon in 1920, peripheral regions like the Beqaa, the South, along with Akkar and Tripoli, were historically sidelined, while growth and development efforts were confined to Beirut and Mount Lebanon. During Lebanon’s so-called heyday, the inequalities between regions were flagrant, and the Beqaa – quasi-abandoned by the state – was deprived of the most basic services. Its people were treated as second class citizens.Climate ChangeDespite its historical deprivation, the wealth of the Beqaa’s lands has made it Lebanon’s agricultural breadbasket. The Beqaa accounts for 43% of Lebanon’s cultivated land3. Nestled between Lebanon’s two mountain ranges that extend from north to south along Lebanon’s eastern frontier with Syria, it is fed by two rivers. Al-Assi River, also known as the Orontes, flows northwards towards Syria, while the Litani River flows southwards towards the north of Tyre. The region’s fertile soil, rich variety of seeds, four seasons, and ensuing exposure to the ideal amount of rain and sun, offer plenty of agricultural richness. In recent years, the tangible impact of climate change has increasingly been felt across the region.The lezzab tree is famously distinguished by its capability to withstand harsh environmental conditions that can be detrimental to survival; not all species share such resilient properties in the face of changing weather patterns. Lebanon has been experiencing an annual temperature increase of 0.3°C per decade since 1970, and an 11mm decrease in rainfall per decade since 19504. These hotter and drier climate conditions, which are projected to worsen in the future5, along with the consequent water scarcity, are contributing to droughts and the desertification of the Beqaa. Later, warmer, and shorter winters are diminishing soil moisture. This threatens biodiversity, reducing crop yields, and increasing the possibility of fires.The ramifications of this are seen in the quality of food and water sources, which is also being compromised by pollution. It is taking a toll on the most widely grown crops in the Beqaa: legumes such as fava beans and chickpeas, wheat and barley, and fruit trees (namely cherries, apricots, grapes, and apples). Additionally, climate change is altering grazing periods and pastureland quality, which is affecting livestock raising.Such losses are costing people their livelihood, as they mainly rely on agriculture to sustain themselves. That said, questions about climate change must not take precedence amid the ongoing, systematic destruction of the area. The unprecedented death and displacement in the Beqaa, at the hands of Israel, are far more urgent.Israeli AtrocitiesOver the last year, the Beqaa has been subjected to sporadic Israeli attacks, but the bloody escalation since September 2024 has taken Israeli criminality to a new level of violence. Due to their unleashing of indiscriminate massacres, homes sheltering entire families have been razed to the ground, entire neighborhoods flattened, and thousands have been killed and injured – many of whom remain trapped under the rubble at this very moment.With an estimated population of 1,000,000 residents6, Israel’s carpet bombing campaign has subjected the Beqaa to unprecedented levels of forced displacement, resulting in hardship for Lebanese and Syrian refugees (who poured into Lebanon at the onset of the war on Syria) alike.This forced displacement – another prominent feature of Israel’s long list of war crimes – falls within Israel’s orchestrated scheme to uproot a segment of the population from their lands. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have been issuing so-called ‘evacuation orders’ for the people of the Beqaa, just as they have for the Southern Lebanese villages and Beirut’s southern suburb. Last week, the residents of the ancient ‘city of the sun’, Baalbek, known for its Roman Temple complex, and also a UNESCO heritage site, were forced to empty their homes due to Israel’s terrorizing attempts at erasure. It is worth noting that this is a city first inhabited since around 10,000BC.Closing ThoughtSome of the statuesque lezzab trees sitting on that hill in Hermel are thousands of years old. At this point, it is difficult to count how many have been damaged by the relentless Israeli bombardment – and painful to even think about. The growth of these trees requires patience, as they take decades to mature. In the same way that these old Juniper trees are now witnessing Israel’s severe aggression against the Beqaa, they have also endured the brutality of countless empires throughout history – once thought invincible and immortal. While these empires collapsed and ceased to exist, the resistant trees remained firmly embedded in the Beqaa’s soil.References H. Allaw, personal communication, October 13th, 2024 ↩ N. Rahbani, personal communication, November 17th, 2024 ↩ Climate Center (2024). Climate Fact Sheet. Red Crescent. ↩ World Bank. (2021). Lebanon: Climate change overview. Climate Change Knowledge Portal ↩ Verner, D., Ashwill, M., Christensen, J., Mcdonnell, R., Redwood, J., Jomaa, I., & Treguer, D. (2018). Droughts and agriculture in Lebanon: causes, consequences, and risk management. World Bank ↩ United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Lebanon: Bekaa Governorate Profile (2014) ↩ "
}
,
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"author" : "EIP Editors",
"category" : "essays",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/black-liberation-on-palestine",
"date" : "2025-10-17 09:01:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/mandela-keffiyeh.jpg",
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"content" : "In understanding global politics, it is important to look at Black liberation struggles as one important source of moral perspective. So, when looking at Palestine, we look to Black leaders to see how they perceived the Palestinian struggle in relation to theirs, from the 1960’s to today.Why must we understand where the injustice lies? Because, as Desmond Tutu famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”{% for person in site.data.quotes-black-liberation-palestine %}{{ person.name }}{% for quote in person.quotes %}“{{ quote.text }}”{% if quote.source %}— {{ quote.source }}{% endif %}{% endfor %}{% endfor %}"
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"category" : "events",
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"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/WSA_EIP_Launch_Cover.jpg",
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{
"title" : "Miu Miu Transforms the Apron From Trad Wife to Boss Lady: The sexiest thing in Paris was a work garment",
"author" : "Khaoula Ghanem",
"category" : "",
"url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/miu-miu-transforms-the-apron-from-trad-wife-to-boss-lady",
"date" : "2025-10-14 13:05:00 -0400",
"img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/Cover_EIP_MiuMiu_Apron.jpg",
"excerpt" : "Miuccia Prada has a habit of taking the least “fashion” thing in the room and making it the argument. For Spring 2026 at Miu Miu, the argument is the apron; staged not as a coy retro flourish but as a total system. The show’s mise-en-scène read like a canteen or factory floor with melamine-like tables, rationalist severity, a whiff of cleaning fluid. In other words, a runway designed to force a conversation about labor before any sparkle could distract us.",
"content" : "Miuccia Prada has a habit of taking the least “fashion” thing in the room and making it the argument. For Spring 2026 at Miu Miu, the argument is the apron; staged not as a coy retro flourish but as a total system. The show’s mise-en-scène read like a canteen or factory floor with melamine-like tables, rationalist severity, a whiff of cleaning fluid. In other words, a runway designed to force a conversation about labor before any sparkle could distract us.From the opening look—German actress Sandra Hüller in a utilitarian deep-blue apron layered over a barn jacket and neat blue shirting—the thesis was loud: the “cover” becomes the thing itself. As silhouettes marched on, aprons multiplied and mutated—industrial drill cotton with front pockets, raw canvas, taffeta and cloqué silk, lace-edged versions that flirted with lingerie, even black leather and crystal-studded incarnations that reframed function as ornament. What the apron traditionally shields (clothes, bodies, “the good dress”) was inverted; the protection became the prized surface. Prada herself spelled it out: “The apron is my favorite piece of clothing… it symbolizes women, from factories through to serving to the home.”Miu Miu Spring 2026 Ready-to-Wear. SuppliedThis inversion matters historically. The apron’s earliest fashion-adjacent life was industrial. It served as a barrier against grease, heat, stain. It was a token of paid and unpaid care. Miu Miu tapped that lineage directly (canvas, work belts, D-ring hardware), then sliced it against domestic codes (florals, ruffles, crochet), and finally pushed into nightlife with bejeweled and leather bibs. The garment’s migration across materials made its social migrations visible. It is a kitchen apron, yes, but also one for labs, hospitals, and factories; the set and styling insisted on that plurality.What makes the apron such a loaded emblem is not just what it covers, but what it reveals about who has always been working. Before industrialization formalized labor into factory shifts and wages, women were already performing invisible labour, the kind that doesn’t exist on payrolls but sits at the foundation of every functioning society. They were cooking, cleaning, raising children, nursing the ill. These tasks were foundational to every economy and yet absent from every ledger. Even when women entered the industrial workforce, from textile plants to wartime assembly lines, their domestic responsibilities did not disappear, they doubled. In that context, the apron here is a quiet manifesto for the strength that goes unrecorded, unthanked, and yet keeps civilization running.The algorithmic rise of the “tradwife,” the influencer economy that packages domesticity as soft power, is the contemporary cultural shadow here. Miu Miu’s apron refuses that rehearsal. In fact, it’s intentionally awkward—oversized, undone, worn over bikinis or with sturdy shoes—so the viewer can’t flatten it into Pinterest-ready nostalgia. Critics noted the collection as a reclamation, a rebuttal to the flattening forces of the feed: the apron as a uniform for endurance rather than submission. The show notes framed it simply as “a consideration of the work of women,” a reminder that the invisible economies of effort—paid, unpaid, emotional—still structure daily life.If that sounds unusually explicit for a luxury runway, consider the designer. Prada trained as a mime at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro, earned a PhD in political science, joined the Italian Communist Party, and was active in the women’s rights movement in 1970s Milan. Those facts are not trivia; they are the grammar of her clothes. Decades of “ugly chic” were, essentially, a slow campaign against easy consumption and default beauty. In 2026, the apron becomes the newest dialect. An emblem drawn from leftist feminist history, recoded into a product that still has to sell. That tension—belief versus business—is the Miuccia paradox, and it’s precisely why these aprons read as statements, not trends.The runway narrative traced a journey from function to fetish. Early looks were squarely utilitarian—thick cottons, pocketed bibs—before migrating toward fragility and sparkle. Lace aprons laid transparently over swimmers; crystal-studded aprons slipped across cocktail territory; leather apron-dresses stiffened posture into armor. The sequencing proposed the same silhouette can encode labor, intimacy, and spectacle depending on fabrication. If most brands smuggle “workwear” in as set dressing, Miu Miu forced it onto the body as the central garment and an unmissable reminder that the feminine is often asked to be both shield and display at once.It’s instructive to read this collection against the house’s last mega-viral object: the micro-mini of Spring 2022, a pleated, raw-hem wafer that colonized timelines and magazine covers. That skirt’s thesis was exposure—hip bones and hemlines as post-lockdown spectacle, Y2K nostalgia framed as liberation-lite. The apron, ironically, covers. Where the micro-mini trafficked in the optics of freedom (and the speed of virality), the apron asks about the conditions that make freedom possible: who launders, who cooks, who cares? To move from “look at me” to “who is working here?” is a pivot from optics to ethics, without abandoning desire. (The aprons are, after all, deeply covetable.) In a platform economy that still rewards the shortest hemline with the biggest click-through, this is a sophisticated counter-program.Yet the designer is not romanticizing toil. There’s wit in the ruffles and perversity in the crystals; neither negate labor, they metabolize it. The most striking image is the apron treated as couture-adjacent. Traditionally, an apron protects the precious thing beneath; here, the apron is the precious thing. You could call that hypocrisy—luxurizing the uniform of workers. Or, strategy, insisting that the symbols of care and effort deserve visibility and investment.Of course, none of this exists in a vacuum. The “tradwife” script thrives because it is aesthetically legible and commercially scalable. It packages gender ideology as moodboard. Miu Miu counters with garments whose legibility flickers. The collection’s best looks ask viewers to reconcile tenderness with toughness, convenience with care, which is exactly the mental choreography demanded of women in every context from office to home to online.If you wanted a season-defining “It” item, you’ll still find it. The apron is poised to proliferate across fast-fashion and luxury alike. But the deeper success is structural: Miu Miu re-centered labor as an aesthetic category. That’s rarer than a viral skirt. It’s a reminder that clothes don’t merely decorate life, they describe and negotiate it. In making the apron the subject rather than the prop, Prada turned a garment of service into a platform for agency. It’s precisely the kind of cultural recursion you’d expect from a designer shaped by feminist politics, who never stopped treating fashion as an instrument of thought as much as style.The last image to hold onto is deceptively simple: a woman in an apron, neither fetishized nor infantilized, striding, hands free. Not a costume for nostalgia, not a meme for the feed, but a working uniform reframed, respected, and suddenly, undeniably beautiful. That is Miu Miu’s provocation for Spring 2026: the work behind the work, made visible at last."
}
]
}