As the world mourns for Paris after the deadly attacks that left scores of innocent people dead and injured, maybe we should remind this world that, only one day before, Beirut was hit with a double suicide attack where innocent lives were also lost.
Leaders and people from every corner of the world rushed to show love and support for their beloved French capital, but Beirut was ignored.
Landmarks around the globe, including New York’s Empire State Building and Sydney’s Opera house, were lit in the colors of the French flag, but not one building held the colors of the Lebanese flag.
And to add more insult to injury, Facebook quickly activated the safety check option for the people in Paris to alert their friends and family that they are safe, and added a new feature allowing its users to add a tricolor profile picture filter to show support for France and its people. However, Beirut did not get any of these privileges.
Moreover, although the same terrorist group claimed both attacks in Lebanon and France, the Western media coverage was widely different. While they reported the attacks in Paris as assaults against innocent civilians, they stated that explosions hit a "Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a poor, mostly Shiite area often branded as a bastion of terrorism in the region.”
But this blatant discrimination was not left unseen.
Journalists and bloggers in Lebanon and abroad did not hesitate to raise their voice and ask the world why has Beirut been forgotten?
Why violence in one part of the world is barely covered, while violence elsewhere is globally mourned?
Here are some headlines:
Separate State of Mind 13
The New York Times
The Independent
Rolling Stone
Time
And many more…
The social media giant, Facebook, has also come under fire and was widely criticized by many for implying that western victims were prioritized over those in the Middle East. This sharp criticism led Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to respond by saying:
"Many people have rightfully asked why we turned on Safety Check for Paris but not for bombings in Beirut and other places. Until yesterday, our policy was only to activate Safety Check for natural disasters. We just changed this and now plan to activate Safety Check for more human disasters going forward as well.”
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out with questions and concerns about this. You are right that there are many other important conflicts in the world. We care about all people equally, and we will work hard to help people suffering in as many of these situations as we can."