Rethinking Gaza and the Geography of Suffering

Having lived in multiple countries and experienced life in regions affected by conflict, I’ve come to realize that most people, especially those far removed from these regions, form their understanding of war and suffering not through facts, but through images. These mental pictures, shaped by media headlines, curated social media content, and activist-driven narratives, create a perception often detached from reality on the ground.

When people hear names like Lebanon, Syria, or Gaza, they instantly visualize disaster zones, flattened buildings, crying mothers, wounded children, and endless devastation. In the Western imagination, for instance, the mention of "Lebanon during wartime", whether in 2006 or 2024, evokes images of a nation brought entirely to its knees. The impression is one of absolute chaos and suffering. But while these images may be grounded in real events, they are misleading in their scale. Total devastation across every neighborhood is rare. Most destruction is localized, surgical, and concentrated in specific areas.

During conflicts in Lebanon, the majority of the population continues life with remarkable normalcy. People still go to work, attend weddings, dine at restaurants, and dance in nightclubs. When you hear the phrase "war in Lebanon 2024," would you ever imagine that just minutes away from sites bombed in Hezbollah’s areas, tens of thousands of people were attending massive concerts and nightlife events?

In fact, in 2024, Lebanon’s tourism sector saw notable activity. Major concerts featuring regional pop stars like Elissa and Wael Kfoury took place near Beirut. Despite the war, Lebanon hosted over 1 million tourists that year, many of them from the diaspora returning to enjoy the summer. The nightlife in areas like Batroun, Jounieh, and Beirut remained vibrant, offering an astonishing contrast to the images shared abroad.

Beirut Festival 2024

Think for a moment about how you imagined life in Lebanon based on what you saw online or on the news, and compare that to this reality.

I worked in Lebanon for years, particularly with Syrian refugees. And I, too, used to carry a mental image shaped by the media, one of widespread paralysis and suffering. But that image started to fall apart as I watched Syrian refugees commuting regularly between Lebanon and Syria to attend weddings, follow up on construction projects, or manage businesses. I realized then that war zones, even amid conflict, contain layers of normalcy and resilience that don’t make headlines.

The same applies to Gaza.

When people hear the word "Gaza" today, they picture a dystopian wasteland, a region in total ruin, with starving civilians unable to access basic necessities.

The October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas and the subsequent war were indeed tragic and severe. Israel’s response, driven by its determination to dismantle Hamas and prevent further atrocities, has resulted in devastation. But again, the mental image drawn for Western audiences lacks nuance.

There is no famine in Gaza. This is not a careless claim, it’s supported by facts on the ground. The majority of people in Gaza continue to access food, supplies, and consumer goods. In fact, one of the recurring complaints seen on local social media centers around the inflated prices of hookah tobacco, Nescafé 3-in-1, and other nonessential items. People are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for flavored tobacco, and traders continue to hold open auctions for luxury goods.

When a population is facing widespread starvation, auctions for coffee and hookah flavors become unlikely, if not impossible. This doesn’t mean there is no suffering, it means the suffering might not be what we imagine. Suffering has a scope, and that scope matters. Too many people are forming macro-level opinions based on micro-level snapshots.

False mental images breed false activism. The inability to zoom in, to examine things with precision and granularity, leads to emotional manipulation and misinformed outrage. In war, the truth is often more complex than a photograph can capture. And as I’ve seen firsthand, reality has more layers than the headlines suggest.

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