News

By Katerina Portela | Edited by Victoria Vega

News coming from Lebanon this November has reported an increasing barrage of Israeli air strikes and raids across the country as the Israeli government says it aims to attack Hezbollah. As poverty triples in Lebanon and the Lebanese Ministry of Health confirms that over 3,000 have died since the Israeli attacks began, Lebanese students abroad say they’ve experienced heightened stress and isolation.

“I just feel guilty. I just feel hurt all the time,” says JCU first-year student Yasmine Abi Samra. “I just want to be able to do something, and having to be away and not do anything, feeling powerless, is probably one of the worst feelings ever.” 

Abi Samra was raised in Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, for many years before living in Italy, and says that seeing the attacks back home has been especially worrying as strikes neared her family’s homes. 

“The bombs have hit the entirety of South Lebanon at this point, including my [home] city and my cousin’s city, and my family has lost three homes,” Abi Samra said. “Thank goodness, everyone is fine, but the impact of it all – it’s very heavy when you see the numbers.”

Airstrikes continue to escalate in Lebanon, causing more than a fifth of the population to be displaced. This month, Israel warned southern Lebanon to evacuate, indicating more airstrikes to come.

While Abi Samra’s parents have immigrated to safety in Italy, she still grapples with the loss of her best friend in the bombings. This loss and other worries continue to impact her academic life.

“It’s been very difficult, I’m just constantly thinking about what’s happening, what could potentially happen, and I’m not able to lock into my work,” she said. “I can’t focus, and I sometimes have not been able to go to class just because of how stressed I was feeling, especially in classes that relate to politics.”

JCU second-year Tina Marie Chahine, also raised in Beirut, shares similar struggles with focusing on her studies this semester.

“I feel like my body came to Rome, but my head will always be with my parents and my friends in Lebanon,” Chahine said. “Doing my schoolwork, I’ve been dreading, and I’m behind, and I wish I could buy my ticket to go back home. I’m always thinking, have I called my mom today, my dad, my brother, my grandma, my aunts? What if anything happens?”

While Chahine says some of her professors have been supportive and reached out, she expresses that asking for help has been difficult in the past weeks.

“With most [Lebanese] people I know, we tend not to talk about it. It’s like, we feel like we’re being suffocated by everything that’s happening because sometimes you don’t want to burden anyone with it, and knowing that other people are living through it…you don’t want to add your worries onto them, so we just lift each other up in different ways while knowing what’s happening,” Chahine said.

According to the WHO, displaced people and migrants tend to be more prone to depression, anxiety, and post- traumatic stress disorder. 

At JCU, Lebanese students are equally anxious and hopeful for their home country.

“I think one of the biggest comforts for me is knowing that Lebanon will make it out alive because we always have, and this time is no different,” Abi Samra said. “In my mind, our land is absolutely wonderful. It has so much history and so much culture. We cannot. We will never give that up as Lebanese people.”

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