{ "article": { "title" : "The Beqaa’s Juniper Trees: A Tale of Multiple Crises", "author" : "Sarah Sinno", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "ecology", "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) ↩ " } , "relatedposts": [ { "title" : "Culture Must Be the Moral Compass That Geopolitics and Economics Will Never Be", "author" : "EIP Editors", "category" : "essays", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/culture-must-be-the-moral-compass-that-geopolitics-and-economics-will-never-be", "date" : "2025-07-15 16:14:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/2025_7_Opposing_Nazism_1.png", "excerpt" : "The widespread cultural rejection of Nazism in the West did not emerge spontaneously from humanity’s innate sense of right and wrong. It was not simply that people around the world, and especially in the West, were naturally alert and to the moral horror of fascism.", "content" : "The widespread cultural rejection of Nazism in the West did not emerge spontaneously from humanity’s innate sense of right and wrong. It was not simply that people around the world, and especially in the West, were naturally alert and to the moral horror of fascism.Rather, the transformation of Nazism from a nationalist ideology admired by many Western elites into the universal symbol of evil was a story of narrative engineering and the deliberate construction of collective memory. It is a story that reveals a larger truth: culture has always been the moral compass that geopolitics and economics cannot, and will not, provide on their own.And at this moment, it is crucial to understand and use the power of culture to shift geopolitics, and not the other way around.Understanding this history matters today more than ever. Because if it was possible to turn Nazism into the ultimate taboo, it is equally possible to reposition other violent ideologies and state projects—such as Israel’s ongoing system of apartheid and settler colonialism—as morally indefensible. But to do so requires acknowledging that cultural reckonings don’t simply arrive; they are made.Pre-War Ambivalence: When Fascism Was FashionableContrary to the comforting myth that the world naturally recoiled from Nazism, in the 1920s and 1930s many influential Americans and Europeans viewed Hitler’s Germany with admiration. American industrialists like Henry Ford openly praised Hitler’s economic management and fierce opposition to communism. Ford even funded antisemitic propaganda through his publication, The Dearborn Independent. British aristocrats, including the Duke of Windsor, flirted with Nazi sympathies, seeing Germany as a model of discipline and order.It was only when Hitler’s ambitions clashed with the strategic interests of other nations that fascism became intolerable. And even then, many major US and UK companies maintained their business interests with the Nazis, including Ford, IBM, GM (Opel), Standard Oil (now ExxonMobil), Chase Bank, and of course Coca-Cola, who famously created the brand Fanta so that it could break the boycott and do business with Nazi Germany.This distinction is critical: condemnation of Nazism began not as a moral imperative, but as a political necessity. Germany’s aggression threatened the European balance of power, British imperial security, and eventually, American economic and military interests. The moral narrative would only come later, after the fighting was over.It is important to learn from the past and see that only culture can shift perception, and to use culture to shift the economic realities that would otherwise wait to be shaped by politics.Wartime Shifts: From Enemy State to Symbol of EvilWorld War II did not instantly transform public opinion. For many Americans, the war in Europe remained remote until the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Even then, the decision to fight Nazi Germany was entangled with power politics: Hitler declared war on the United States first, effectively forcing Roosevelt’s hand.Nevertheless, the war provided fertile ground for a reframing of Nazism. Wartime propaganda efforts by the Allies recast the Nazi regime as a brutal, alien threat to civilization itself. Hollywood joined in: The Great Dictator (1940) ridiculed Hitler’s delusions of grandeur, while Casablanca (1942) romanticized resistance. Images of goose-stepping soldiers, swastika flags, and shattered cities circulated widely.As the Allies advanced, they encountered the first concrete evidence of the Holocaust: ghettos, mass graves, and emaciated survivors. Yet even then, much of this evidence remained unknown to the general public. It was only after liberation that the full horror became impossible to ignore.Post-War Revelation: The Holocaust and the Cultural BreakThe turning point came in 1945, with the liberation of the camps and the Nuremberg Trials. The images and testimonies from Auschwitz, Dachau, and Bergen-Belsen revealed the industrial scale of genocide. Millions murdered with chilling efficiency. A systematic attempt to erase an entire people. For the first time, the abstract notion of “Nazi evil” was grounded in visceral, visual evidence.Sociologist Jeffrey Alexander describes this phenomenon as the cultural construction of trauma. Atrocities do not automatically generate collective memory; they must be narrated, documented, and ritualized until they become an inescapable moral reference point. The Nuremberg Trials played this role by broadcasting confessions and evidence to a global audience. Schools, museums, and the press reinforced the narrative: Nazism was not simply defeated; it was unmasked as pure, irredeemable evil.Cold War Myth-Making: The Free World Versus FascismThe Cold War further cemented this narrative. To build legitimacy against the Soviet Union, the United States and its allies positioned themselves as the moral victors of World War II, the saviors of Europe from fascism. In reality, many of the same powers—Britain, France, and the United States—continued their own brutal colonial projects and enforced systems of racial hierarchy at home.But the cultural story was powerful: the West stood for freedom; the Nazis had embodied totalitarian darkness. School textbooks, popular films, and Holocaust memorialization institutionalized this story, forging a shared moral identity that could be contrasted against communist “evil.”This process was neither accidental nor purely altruistic. It was a strategic use of culture to consolidate power, project moral authority, and deflect scrutiny of the West’s own violence. The lesson is clear: collective memory is not a neutral mirror of reality. It is built, contested, and leveraged.The Sociological Core: Why Public Opinion ShiftsTo understand how an ideology once admired by many became the universal emblem of inhumanity, we must look beyond military defeat. Several mechanisms combined:Symbolic Association: Nazism transformed from a nationalist experiment into a symbol of mechanized genocide and racial supremacy.Cultural Trauma: The Holocaust became a shared wound that redefined moral frameworks across the West.Visual Storytelling: Images and films, rather than mere text, anchored the horror in the public imagination.State Rebranding: The Allies used anti-Nazism to build a postwar myth of moral superiority, even as they pursued imperial ambitions elsewhere.These insights are not simply historical trivia. They are a roadmap for how cultural shifts happen—and how they can be deliberately engineered.Israel, Palestine, and the Next Cultural ReckoningToday, Israel’s treatment of Palestinians—systematic dispossession, apartheid laws, and repeated military assaults—remains largely protected in Western discourse. Politicians insist on Israel’s right to defend itself. Media narratives default to framing the violence as a “conflict” rather than an occupation. Solidarity with Palestinians is often smeared as antisemitism.Yet history shows that moral consensus is not fixed. With enough sustained exposure, narrative work, and cultural pressure, the global imagination can be reshaped. Just as Nazism’s legitimacy eroded, so too can the idea of Israel as an unassailable “victim-state.”This is not a call to equate the Holocaust with the Nakba—each is historically distinct. It is, however, an argument that the techniques which made Nazism morally intolerable—trauma visualization, reframing language, relentless storytelling—are tools available to any liberation movement.Here is how such a transformation could unfold:1. Narrative InversionIsrael’s founding story must be contextualized: a state born from the trauma of European antisemitism that, in turn, created the dispossession of another people. Exposing this contradiction—survivors becoming occupiers—breaks the simplistic binary of oppressor and victim.2. Visual Culture and TestimonyJust as photographs of emaciated bodies in camps forced an awakening, so too can images of bombed Gazan neighborhoods, amputee children, and anguished families. Digital archives and survivor testimonies can anchor these experiences in collective memory.3. Linguistic ReframingTerms like “apartheid,” “settler colonialism,” and “ethnic cleansing” shift perception from tragic conflict to structural violence. Legal frameworks—UN reports, ICC filings—can fortify these terms with institutional legitimacy.4. Media SaturationBypassing corporate media gatekeepers requires a multi-platform strategy: TikTok clips, Substack essays, livestreamed trials of Israeli policy, viral documentaries. Saturation is what makes denial unsustainable.5. Global RealignmentPositioning Palestine within global struggles—Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, anti-colonial movements—expands solidarity. When the Global South embraces Palestinian liberation as part of its own decolonization, moral isolation will deepen.6. Cultural Institutions and EducationJust as Holocaust education became standard in Western curricula, Nakba education can be mainstreamed. Museums, memorials, and fellowships can institutionalize remembrance and scholarship.7. Policy Pressure and Legal ActionPublic consensus is the soil in which policy change grows. Boycotts, divestment, and sanctions, coupled with legal prosecutions of war crimes, transform moral clarity into material consequences.8. Making Occupation a LiabilityWhen supporting Israel becomes politically and financially risky—akin to defending apartheid South Africa—corporate and governmental alliances will fracture. Reputational risk can be a powerful motivator.Conclusion: Cultural Reckonings Are EngineeredIt was not “natural” for the West to reject Nazism. It took defeat, trauma exposure, and decades of cultural labor to enshrine anti-Nazism as a foundational moral principle. Similarly, it is not inevitable that the world will recognize Israel’s oppression of Palestinians as an urgent moral crisis. It will require strategic, sustained, and courageous cultural work.Culture—more than geopolitics or economics—sets the terms of what is morally acceptable. It is the compass that can point humanity toward justice. But only if we are willing to pick it up and use it." } , { "title" : "Neptune Frost", "author" : "Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman", "category" : "screenings", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/eip-screening-neptune-frost", "date" : "2025-07-12 16:00:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/netune-frost-movie-poster.jpg", "excerpt" : "Thank you for all who joined the special screening of Neptune Frost, with exclusive introduction from writer/director Saul Williams. Stay tuned and become a member for our next edition of our EIP monthly screening series.", "content" : "Thank you for all who joined the special screening of Neptune Frost, with exclusive introduction from writer/director Saul Williams. Stay tuned and become a member for our next edition of our EIP monthly screening series.Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region’s natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends." } , { "title" : "Uranus & The Cycle of Liberation", "author" : "Céline Semaan", "category" : "", "tags" : "", "url" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/readings/uranus-and-the-cycle-of-liberation", "date" : "2025-07-11 16:25:00 -0400", "img" : "https://everythingispolitical.com/uploads/EIP_Uranus.jpg", "excerpt" : "I’m definitely not an astrologer. I don’t even know where Uranus is in my chart. But I do know how to read systems and translate them to the public. What I’ve learned, through years of designing for social and environmental justice, is that history doesn’t just unfold. It cycles upwards. And if we learn to pay attention to those cycles, we can prepare—not just to resist collapse, but to shape what comes after.", "content" : "I’m definitely not an astrologer. I don’t even know where Uranus is in my chart. But I do know how to read systems and translate them to the public. What I’ve learned, through years of designing for social and environmental justice, is that history doesn’t just unfold. It cycles upwards. And if we learn to pay attention to those cycles, we can prepare—not just to resist collapse, but to shape what comes after.Even if you don’t care about astrology, the timing of these celestial movements provides us a way to examine macro trends that we can learn from. History may not exactly repeat itself, but it does echo.Uranus—the planet astrologers associated with upheaval, rebellion, and technological transformation—entered Aries in May 2010 and stayed there until 2018. That cycle coincided with a surge in political uprisings, many of which redefined our understanding of mass resistance in the 21st century.The Arab Spring began in late 2010, starting in Tunisia and erupting across the Middle East. It wasn’t just about corrupt regimes—it was about reclaiming voice, land, and dignity after decades of foreign interference, neoliberal decay, and post-colonial repression. From Tahrir Square to Pearl Roundabout, these movements were leaderless, fast, and media-savvy.Occupy Wall Street followed in 2011, challenging the violent inequality embedded in late capitalism. In 2013, Black Lives Matter emerged after the murder of Trayvon Martin, later exploding into a global uprising in 2014 and again in 2020. Standing Rock (2016) reminded the world that Indigenous resistance was not only alive but visionary. #MeToo (2017) became an international reckoning with patriarchy and sexual violence, a reminder that personal testimony is political terrain.Across these years, protests were decentralized, digitized, and visual. Social media moved from a personal tool to a frontline of collective witnessing. Livestreams replaced press conferences. Memes became political language. Design itself became a protest, and Slow Factory built the visual language for it.This was not coincidental but archetypal, because Uranus in Aries, even symbolically, tells the story of radical ignition, collective fire, visionary unrest.And yet, none of it was sustained. What followed was a backlash: fascist resurgence, climate denial, propaganda wars, and intensified state surveillance. We saw mass demobilization, media fatigue, and widespread disinformation. Many of the movements that sparked global hope were either crushed, co-opted, or burned out.So now, as Uranus moves through Taurus (2018–2026), the terrain has shifted. Taurus is about materiality, land, value, and stability. It demands we not only rise up, which is crucial, but to build. We are asked to not only critique systems, but replace them. Not just “burn it all down”, but radically imagine what’s next.This is the political and spiritual context I hold as I continue my work.At Slow Factory, we spent the past decade offering free education, cultural strategy, and ecological design rooted in climate justice and human rights. And with Everything is Political, we’re building an independent media platform not beholden to corporate donors or foundation filters—a place where movement memory, critical analysis, and cultural clarity live. If we don’t design the next phase of liberation, someone else will design it for us.This work isn’t about virality. It’s about continuity. We are here to hold political memory. To protect the intellectual commons. To ensure that the next generation doesn’t forget who stood for truth—and who profited from silence.The ask is to build the very systems we are all looking for, and for that we deserve the time, energy and support to imagine, design and co-create as a community. We can’t delegate our liberation to politicians, and we certainly won’t see startups capitalizing on the changes our society needs. Perhaps we will witness the hyper privatization of every single service our communities need, but we must strategize for during and after collapse. Funding structures will have to be challenged, as they are designed to sustain themselves and uphold status quo. However, we are witnessing the collapse of every industry: media, education, banking, all industries we rely on, will be challenged. We are going to need to rely on our creative skills and our ability to build true solidarity across our communities towards a common goal outside of dogma and division. It’s a cultural moment, and we are here for it.Resistance isn’t just about protest. It’s about imagination. And imagination requires discipline, community, and space.We are creating that space right here. And together we can co-create together if everybody puts in effort and care. For now, we are imagining what systems of mitigation amidst systems collapse will look like. Will we outsource our infrastructure to highly funded Silicon Valley funded platforms feeding off of public data feeding ads markets and Ai learning in real time from our work? Or are we truly invested in building sovereign media? I personally invest in the latter, and hope you all join us. Because we are the majority, and truly if we align we are unstoppable." } ] }