Ra’lhato Al Janna

Summer 1982. Beirut, two months after the launch of the operation, Peace in Galilee. The Israeli army has invaded Lebanon and is bombarding Beirut to drive out the Palestinians, the “terrorists”. In a city torn apart by explosions and air strikes, the television announces the bombings and records the politicians’ declarations. Walid Jumblatt announces the eventual trengthening of the right. Bachir Gemayel offers violent injunctions. Michel Edde, the minister of Information, looks at how the entente between Jews and Muslims has changed over time. In the Christian districts, life continues in a comfortable normality. In West Beirut, Palestinian refugees talk about their wanderings and their grief. Lebanese and Palestinians, civilians and combatants alike, tell of a city that is disappearing, far from the slogans and the extremists’ gesticulations. On 15th July 1982, on the eve of the PLO’s departure, Arafat announces that his soldiers are in excellent spirits and smell “like the perfume of paradise”.