UT focuses on providing safe space for students impacted by situation in Lebanon

Members of Toledo’s Lebanese community are witnessing attacks on their homeland from across the globe, with University of Toledo students feeling the impact through social media posts and texts with family.

On campus, providing a place where students can feel safe amid the international tensions is a priority.

“It is our duty. I mean, that’s our duty as professors, as an educational institution, despite where the students are coming from, despite where their political views are, despite where they stand on issues,” said Gaby Semaan, University of Toledo director of Middle East studies and coordinator of Arabic program. “Our duty is to make them feel safe that they can express their feelings, their emotions, even if we don't agree with it.”

Ty Musa, a 22-year-old political science and history major, said he’s having restless nights.

“I haven’t slept good in the last three or four days, trying to make sure everybody’s OK, and keeping contact with friends and family,” he said.

Mr. Musa reflected on the vulnerable position his family members are facing. On Monday, they fled southern Lebanon to the north because of the bombing.

“How safe can you be when you keep getting displaced from one area to another in a very small country? So it’s difficult, but hopefully they’ll be safe and the situation resolves soon,” he said.

About 90,000 people are newly displaced in Lebanon, according to the United Nations.

“I can see two sides of it, not only sitting here in Toledo and looking at the conflict, but also having lived it there, so it’s been pretty difficult,” Mr. Musa said.

As the child of two Lebanese immigrants, Mr. Musa was raised in both Lebanon and the United States. He experienced the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war when he lived in Lebanon as a child, and the recent attacks have caused those memories to resurface.

“There was a lot of displacement at that point, too, and then it was followed by a ground invasion, which hasn’t happened yet in this conflict,” Mr. Musa said. “I still remember the anxiety around there. I didn’t understand the conflict at that point, so I had no connection to it as I do right now. And it’s not good. You basically have flashbacks to the past, and it’s been very tough.”

Amid the unfolding devastation, a concern has surfaced in the digital age.

Hacking civilian devices is the “battlefield of the future,” former CIA director Leon Panetta said on CBS News Sunday Morning in reference to last week’s pager attacks.

“It’s not the first time, though, that it happens,” Mr. Semaan said. “It reminds me of 1997.”

That was the year the Israeli army used booby traps and scattered toys in southern Lebanon, according to the French newspaper L’Orient le Jour.

“Sadly, human life is dependent on political attitudes and atmospheres of the governments that are involved to sell. But definitely, we cannot separate as well what’s happening in Lebanon currently from what has been happening in Gaza,” Mr. Semaan said.

“A year of a war. That is thinking from an intercultural communication perspective. What did it accomplish?” Mr. Semaan asked. “If you think of the goals of the war, what did that accomplish? A year. Hostages were not freed; Hamas was not destroyed.”

A growing fear is that Israel is planning a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

“Sadly, right now, what’s happening to the lives of the hostages?” Mr. Semaan asked. “Nobody is talking about that right now. So it’s distracting even from the so-called reasons for the wars.”