(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Businessman Adnan Kassar donated $10 million to endow the Adnan Kassar School of Business at the Lebanese American University today, in the presence of LAU President Dr. Joseph Jabbra, LAU senior management, and Lebanese members of parliament.
Kassar is a former minister of economy and trade, and the chairman of Fransabank Group. He was also the president of the Beirut Chamber of Commerce.
“Today is President Adnan Kassar’s day at LAU, and from now and on, every day will be Adnan Kassar’s day at LAU,” said Dr. Jabbra. “His name on the school of business will be soaring up into the sky in the heart of Ras Beirut.”
LAU said Kassar’s donation is one of the biggest philanthropic investments in the university’s history.
Kassar donates $60,000 annually to endow scholarships to students in the Lebanese American University School of Business. (Photo Fransabank Corporate Communications)
Kassar and his brother are major shareholders of Fransabank and owners of a multitude of businesses in trade, shipping, travel industries. He is also a partner with Walid Jumblatt in a cement manufacturing firm.
“I consider private initiative as the main source for growth and development,” said Kassar. “Perhaps this explains my deep involvement in chambers of commerce and industry, which I consider as organizers for private initiative and for bringing about socio-economic growth and development.”
Dr. Jabbra highlighted Kassar’s achivements in economy and business, calling him an “extraordinary human being.”
“Alongside being a great defender of the private sector, he is an active participant in the advancement of society in Lebanon and in the entire region,” Jabbra said, adding that he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Lebanese orphanages, hospitals, and major development projects in Beirut.
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(ANN ARBOR, MI) — Dr. Akram Khater, director of the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, said Lebanese-Americans have a responsibility to preserve their history of immigration to the United States.
“We have to build a place for ourselves here,” said Khater, during a keynote address at the Lebanese Collegiate Network student convention in Ann Arbor, Mich. on Apr. 11. “We have to carve out a place in American history for the Lebanese and for the Arabs in general.”
Khater said Lebanese-Americans have established an influential role in American immigration history.
“We belong in (the USA) because our values are American values, and American values are ours,” he said. “We didn’t just assimilate.”
The Khayrallah Center was launched in 2014 at North Carolina State University after receiving an $8.1 million endowment from Lebanese-American businessman Moise Khayrallah.
The center aims to study Lebanese history in the United States, and to preserve stories of early Lebanese settlers.
LISTEN to Dr. Khater’s remarks:
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(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The first installment of French military equipment arrived in Beirut on Monday under a four-year plan to help arm the Lebanese army in its battle against militants from neighboring Syria.
The $3 billion plan paid for by Saudi Arabia aims to help bolster the Lebanese army over the next four years with new transport vehicles, tanks, warships, and communication equipment.
The handover ceremony at Beirut’s international airport was attended by Lebanese and French defense ministers, including MP Samir Moqbel, his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, Lebanese Army Commander Jean Kahwagi, and Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Asiri.
Agence France-Presse reports that deliveries will include 250 combat and transport vehicles, seven Cougar attack helicopters, three small corvette warships, and a range of surveillance equipment.
The Saudi-deal also includes seven years of training for the 70,000 members of the Lebanese Army and 10 years of equipment maintenance, according to media reports.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, center, speaks with Lebanese Defense Minister Samir Moqbel, left, as Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Assiri, second left, listens during a ceremony at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, April 20, 2015. Lebanon has received the first shipment of $3 billion worth of French weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia. The handover ceremony occurred Monday at Beirut’s international airport and was attended by Lebanese, French defense ministers, and top army officers. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
The deal involves more than 20 French companies who will provide land, sea and air equipment, including armored vehicles, heavy artillery, anti-tank missiles, mortars, and assault weapons.
Security sources from Lebanon say the first shipment from France included 48 “Milan” anti-tank missiles.
“Lebanon’s victory against terrorism is a victory to all nations threatened by terrorism,” Lebanese Defense Minister Samir Moqbel said.
Lebanese army officials called the delivery a “turning point” in the army’s performance, according to the Associated Press.
“The Lebanese army paid a high price in Arsal and France helped and will help Lebanon so that it does not slip into chaos,” French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
Le Drian added that the next shipment of weapons will arrive to Beirut in May.
The $3 billion deal was signed in November in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Saudi Arabia has already provided $1 billion in military aid to the Lebanese army.
Many Lebanese view the deal as part of a competition for foreign influence, which they say could spark sectarian conflict.
Future Movement chief and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri thanked Saudi king Salman Bin Abdel-Aziz on Monday for “the kingdom’s keenness on Lebanon’s security and stability.”
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(DETROIT, MI) — Fox News commentator Walid Phares will visit Detroit, Mich. next month to attend a banquet hosted by the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce on May 29.
The organization announced they would honor Phares with the “Pillar of Baalbeck” award during a banquet entitled ‘An Evening with Walid Phares.’
Phares immigrated to the United States in 1990 from Lebanon, and quickly rose to become a leading commentator on global terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs.
Phares has testified before committees of the U.S. State, Justice, Defense and Homeland Security, the United States Congress, the European Parliament, and the United Nations Security Council.
Since 2007, he has served as an expert on terrorism and the Middle East for FOX News and previously held a position as terrorism expert for NBC from 2003 to 2006.
The Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce ‘Evening With’ events have previously hosted many other newsmakers, including MSNBC personality Raghida Dergham, CNN personality Octavia Nasr, filmmaker Nadine Labaki, Central Bank of Lebanon vice governor Raed Charafeddine, and Beirut Marathon Association founder May El Khalil.
The Chamber says they will announce details of the banquet in the coming weeks.
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(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), together with the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC), is organizing a special photo exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the start of the civil war in Lebanon.
The exhibition will feature photographs from the Red Cross archives and from Lebanese photographers, depicting humanitarian work carried out by the ICRC and LRC during the conflict. The civil war in Lebanon, which lasted for 15 years, left thousands of people dead and injured.
“The war brought about a lot of previously unseen challenges and had profound consequences for our organization,” said Fabrizzio Carboni, head of the ICRC delegation in Beirut, in a news release. “We faced a very volatile environment and often had to operate in urban areas under fire, crossing constantly-moving front-lines.”
Organizers say outcomes of the Lebanese Civil War continue to plague the country today.
“This exhibition is but a modest attempt to shed light on a history filled with pain,” said Georges Kettaneh, Secretary-General of the Lebanese Red Cross. “Wherever there are wars and victims, there are human stories. 40 years have passed, but memories still hurt us and are deeply engraved in our hearts and minds.”
The photographs at the exhibition will illustrate many of the humanitarian issues faced in Lebanon during the past four decades.
The exhibition takes place between 17 and 26 April, 2015 at the Villa Paradiso, Gemmayzeh, Beirut.
(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres this week visited Syrian refugees living in harsh conditions in informal settlements in south Lebanon and called on the international community to do more to ease their plight.
Lebanon is host to nearly 1.2 million Syrian refugees, representing around a quarter of the country’s total population. The massive influx since the start of the Syria crisis in March 2011 has seen refugees settle in every corner of the country, putting a huge strain on stretched services and infrastructure.
“The equivalent of what we have in Lebanon in the United States would be more than 80 million refugees coming into the United States. You can understand that this has a terrible impact on the economy and society of Lebanon,” Guterres said on Tuesday in Debane, an informal settlement near the southern city of Ghaziye.
Almost a fifth of Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in informal settlements like Debane, where Guterres and Abdullah Al-Matouq, the UN’s secretary-general’s Humanitarian Envoy for Kuwait, met the residents and discussed the challenges they face.
Next to a dirt road in the shadow of the main coastal highway, the Debane settlement is a huddle of 23 makeshift shelters built from wooden planks and plastic sheeting and currently home to 30 Syrian families. Located on a strip of public land, the refugees are not allowed to make permanent constructions, with the result that living and sanitary conditions remain basic.
Mohammed, aged 44 years, and nine members of his family have lived there since 2012, when they fled the western Syrian city of Hama after their house was destroyed by bombing.
Asked by Guterres to describe the biggest difficulties facing them, Mohammed cited new government regulations requiring Syrians in Lebanon, including refugees registered with UNHCR, to pay a fee of US$200 each to renew their residency permits, which he said he and his family were unable to afford.
He also expressed his deep concern for his children’s education and the future of his unborn grandson. “These children, the new generation, there is no education here, the whole education system has changed for them, a whole generation is destroyed, what future is there for them?” he asked. “This little boy, who will be born in 10 to 15 days time, if we stay like this, he is going to be illiterate. This is an illiterate generation.”
Of the 400,000 school-age Syrian children in Lebanon, UNHCR and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) are only able to provide funding for 106,000 places in the country’s state schools with the remaining three quarters receiving no formal education.
Afterwards Guterres said the visit had highlighted the dramatic needs not only of the Syrian refugees, but also the Lebanese government and communities hosting them, together with other host countries in the region.
He welcomed pledges totalling US$3.8 billion for the Syria crisis response in 2015 made by international donors at a conference in Kuwait last month, but stressed that even more would be needed due to the scale of the catastrophe.
“We cannot accept that the Syrian people will go on living in these absolutely tragic circumstances, and we cannot accept that countries like Lebanon and Jordan are facing such a dramatic challenge to their own economies and to their own stability,” he said.
(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Lebanese diva Haifa Wehbe came out with her first-ever English music video on Tuesday, in a move to presumably enter the Western music market.
The new song called “Breathing You In” features a provocative Haifa flaunting around Jennifer Lopez’s ex-lover, Casper Smart. Haifa circles Smart until she watches him float into space.
Haifa’s auto-tuned single repeats the lyrics, “Breathing You In” dozens of times.
Directed by Dubai-based businessman and film producer Tarik Freitekh, the music video was shot in Las Vegas in studios previously used by the likes of Shakira, Snoop Dog, and Justin Bieber.
The red-haired Haifa watches as a group of shirtless muscle-men gently caress her.
Haifa has more than 3 million followers on Twitter and 5.5 million likes on Facebook.
Her move to English songs suggests that she’s looking to expand to a wider audience.
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(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Lebanese actor Issam Breidy died on Sunday morning after his vehicle collided with a concrete barrier used to separate a populated highway in Beirut’s Dora district.
Breidy’s Lexus reportedly flipped over the Dora bridge after colliding with the barrier, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.
Media reports say Breidy was performing with his band in the Compass Lounge in Hamra before the accident. It is unclear what time the collision happened, but sources say it most likely occurred before dawn.
Breidy’s Lexus landed on its side, according to this photograph posted on Twitter.
The Lebanese Traffic Management Center confirmed that a citizen was killed in the Dora accident, without specifying an identity.
Breidy was born in 1980 in the Keserwan town of Feitroun. He studied fine arts at the Lebanese University and oriental music at the Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of Music. He also graduated from Lebanese talent show “Studio El-Fan” in 2001.
The actor starred in several Lebanese dramas, including movies and theater plays in the Middle East.
Lebanese TV host Wissam Breidy, brother of Issam Breidy, announced funeral plans on Twitter.
“You are all invited to celebrate Issam’s life as he leaves onto a better one,” he wrote.
The funeral will take place at St. Georges Church in Feytroun on Tuesday at 4pm.
Dora is a populated transport hub for service taxis and buses to destinations north of Beirut. Traffic officials say accidents are common in the area.
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(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — Today Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded a two-day visit to Lebanon where he met with Prime Minister Tammam Salam, Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Lebanese Armed Forces Commander Jean Qahwagi, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblatt, and UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag.
He also visited the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center in Bourj Hammoud, which serves both Lebanese community members and refugees.
Deputy Secretary Blinken toured the facility and observed a legal rights awareness session aimed at preventing the abuse and exploitation of vulnerable refugees.
In addition, he visited the offices of AMIDEAST Lebanon and met with Lebanese students studying English through the Access Microscholarship Program.
“I urge Lebanon’s leaders not to look outside of their country for a resolution to the presidential gridlock, but instead to find a solution from within,” Blinken said. “Responsible voices in the international community will support you. But unless and until a president is chosen, the erosion of Lebanon’s political institutions will only deepen.”
Blinken says he hopes to “strengthen” the relationship between the United States and Lebanon.
“I have appreciated the opportunity to engage in meaningful exchanges, as we deepen and strengthen a relationship that reflects the enduring U.S. commitment to Lebanon and its people.”
VIEW photos of Blinken’s visit to Lebanon:
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UPDATE: The University of Michigan called their decision a “mistake” and returned to their original plan to show the film at the same location and time. Meanwhile, E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, said the decision to drop the film violated “freedom of expression.”
(ANN ARBOR, MI) — Arab-American students from the University of Michigan protested the university’s Center for Campus Involvement on Monday, after the center announced they would screen the controversial film, “American Sniper.”
A petition started by sophomore Lamees Mekkaoui garnered 280 signatures on Tuesday, which prompted the university to cancel plans and respond to the controversy.
“Student reactions have clearly articulated that this is neither the venue nor the time to show this movie,” said the Center of Campus Involvement in a prepared statement. “We deeply regret causing harm to members of our community, and appreciate the thoughtful feedback provided to us by students and staff alike.”
“American Sniper” has come under fire by left-leaning audiences for its “polarizing” views on the Iraq war. The film has also been accused of presenting a positive portrayal of snipers, who allegedly took pleasure in killing Iraqis.
The film follows the story of a U.S. Navy SEAL in Iraq, who is fighting to “protect his comrades,” according to the film’s synopsis.
Many Arab-Americans have expressed outrage over the Clint Eastwood film, calling it a “disturbing” portrayal of Muslims in American media.
“Middle Eastern characters in the film are not lent an ounce of humanity and watching this movie is provocative and unsafe to MENA and Muslim students who are too often reminded of how little the media and world values their lives,” said a collective letter to the university from “Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim Students” on campus.
“The University of Michigan should not participate in further perpetuating these negative and misleading stereotypes.”
Film critics have also responded with mixed reviews, including many insiders who call it “patriotic.”
The university has since cancelled the event, but a student activities representative said the screening will be rescheduled to include a panel discussion.
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