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Sara Samad

Six Noteworthy Stories You Might Have Missed in Lebanon This Week (7/19)

You’re busy, we get it. No sweat. Here’s some of the most important news stories you might have missed from the past week.

1. Lebanese Child Urged to Beat Syrian Child in Video


In a video posted to YouTube on July 18, adults can be heard prodding a Lebanese child to beat a Syrian boy. “Hit him Abbas, hit him on the head with the stick,” says a voice in the background believed to be a family member. During the nearly two-minute assault, a number of adult voices can be heard instructing the child to engage in specific acts against the victim, including: beating him with a stack, slapping him in the face, punching him and kicking him. According to the Daily Star newspaper, a prosecutor in the Bekaa Valley, where the video is believed to have been filmed, is working to identify the names and nationalities of the people involved in the video, including the victim.

2. Army To Launch New Security App

(Photo via The Daily Star)

The Lebanese Army announced on Monday that it is launching a new mobile application in August that will enable citizens to report security threats and concerns. It will allow users to send text, photos, audio and video recordings of suspicious entities, as well as security incidents such as robberies and kidnappings. The application will be available on Andriod and IOS and is set to “empower citizens to contribute in protecting the country.”

3. Hash-Filled Pistachios Seized in Aley Prison

(Photo via The Daily Star)

A drug bust in Aley’s prison on Tuesday uncovered an attempt to smuggle hashish inside the compound. The hash was hidden inside empty pistachio shells glued back together, covered in salt, and mixed in with around a kilogram of another type of nut.

4. Banned “Homosexuality Test” Still Being Administered

(Photo via The Daily Star)

At least five new cases of a doctor using a discredited anal “test” for homosexuality, deemed as “torture” by the Lebanese Order of Physicians, have emerged, according to a report in The Daily Star newspaper this past week.

In the July edition of the Legal Agenda, an unidentified forensic doctor was hired by the judicial police’s Moral Protection Bureau in January to determine the sexuality of five Lebanese and Syrian men accused of being gay. Homosexuality is still considered a criminal offense in Lebanon. Legal Agenda Editor Nizar Saghieh has called on the Order of Physicians to sue the doctor for professional misconduct.

5. Call for Lebanese Doctors to Aid Gaza

(Photo via The Daily Star)

A campaign in solidarity with Gaza was launched on Wednesday by the Gathering of Lebanese Doctors in collaboration with the National Initiative Committee to Break the Gaza Siege. The organization gathered in front of the ESCWA headquarters in Beirut urging medical volunteers to travel to Gaza and assist in the treatment of local residents.

6. Lebanese Filmmakers Grab Win at International Festival

(Photo via The Daily Star)

Writer-actor-directors Mounia Akl and Cyril Aris have taken home a prize on the international film circuit. Akl’s short, “Christine,” won the Cervantes Award for Best Creative Short at Rome’s Medfilm Festival this week. In June, the duo’s short film, “Siham” took First Prize in the Live Action Short Film (15 minutes and under) category at the 2014 Palm Springs International Shortfest.