Advertise on podcast: معبر | Maabar

When saving lives becomes routine, death is no longer a stranger. First responders face unclaimed bodies, mass graves, and makeshift morgues – negotiating prisoner exchanges, testing the limits of international law. And what happens at war's end, how do you return to life, after knowing only the rhythm and urgency of war?If you enjoy Maabar, please like, subscribe and support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/maabarhttps://www.maabarpodcast.com

Outside the hospital, thousands triaged on the pavement, inside they sleep on their side to make room. War is the ultimate teacher for surgeons, who never go home –  learning on the go, treating everything from vascular trauma to burn, finding life in death. But if you let someone die, is it the same as killing them?If you enjoy Maabar, please like, subscribe and support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/maabar

Under relentless bombardment – ambulances hit, hospitals overflowing, shrapnel raining from 32,000 shells – blood is everywhere. Amid the chaos, the cry of an abandoned newborn in the maternity ward becomes a ray of light, reminding first responders of their calling, their duty, and their purpose as unknown fighters from every walk of life.   تحت قصف ما بيوقف – سيارات إسعاف بتنضرب، ومستشفيات بتفوّل، وشظايا بتشتّي من 32 ألف قذيفة – الدم للركب. وبهالفوضى، صوت مولود جديد متروك بقسم الولادة بيصير فسحة أمل، بيذكّر المُسعفين ليش هّني هون، وشو واجبن، وشو هدفن، كمقاتلين مجهولين، جايين من خلفيّات متنوعة.   If you enjoy Maabar, please like, subscribe and support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/maabar

Operating under the gun, doctors were threatened by drugged militants, forced to treat fighters, even kidnapped to treat a warlord’s mother. With other first responders, they protected identities, changed names, stole fuel to keep hospitals and clinics running, they even sedated fighters to prevent a bloodbath. Silent guardian angels, they cheated death, for the sake of life.تحت تهديد السلاح، الأطباء كانوا مهدّدين من قبل مسلّحين مَخدّرين، ومفروض عليهن يطبّبوا مقاتلين، أو حتّى انخطفوا ليعالِجوا أمّ زعيم حرب. هنّي ومُسعفين غيرهن، خبّوا الهويات، وغيّروا أسامي، وسرقوا بنزين ليخلّوا المستشفيات والمراكز شغّالة، وحتّى خدّروا مقاتلين ليمنعوا مجزرة. كانوا ملاك حارس بصمت، وخدعوا الموت ليحافظوا على الحياةIf you enjoy Maabar, please like, subscribe and support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/maabar

In the midst of their emergency response, medics and doctors sometimes had to scramble to tend to their own needs, with even food being scarce and not easy to secure. Yet their dedication and selflessness never wavered in the face of the tragedies they had to tend to and improvise their way out of.

Driven only by duty, first responders leap into the cauldron of war. Barely prepared and minimally trained, but always resourceful, they are stripped of politics and religion. On the ground, from mopping blood to building field hospitals, they save lives, confront horrors, and hold onto hope in humanity. If you enjoy Maabar, support us on Patreon:patreon.com/maabarmaabarpodcast.com

New Season. April 24.#newseason #season3 #april24 #podcast #civilwar #lebanon

In our final episode, we close the series with the Lebanese journalists who tell of their struggles to balance between their job of documenting, in words or in photographs, their own country’s destruction, and of their vulnerabilities, living with the aftershock of war, carrying the weight of their trauma through the years, over generations. بالحلقة الأخيرة، منختم السلسة مع صحفيين لبنانيين بخبروا عن نضالن ليحققوا توازن بين شغلن بتوثيق الأحداث إما بكلمات أو صور، ودمار بلدن، وأوجه ضعفن، وعيش تداعيات الحرب، والتعامل مع صدمتن لسنوات وعبر الأجيال. -------------------------------------------------------------------- All images are property of their owners and are used with permission. If you enjoy our content please Like and Subscribe. Support "Maabar" on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Maabar For the list of credits: https://www.maabarpodcast.com Subscribe to the "Maabar" YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@maabar/ Watch full Season 1: https://bit.ly/3HIyrqs Follow “Maabar” on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maabarpodcast --------------------------------------------------------------------

This penultimate episode of our 9-part special focuses on the reflection of the francophone journalists and their role during the war, the savagery of what the civil war entailed, its futility, lives lost in vain, and the living horror of those who fought and are left to confront the harsh reality of “normal” life afterward. الحلقة ما قبل الأخيرة من السلسلة المؤلفة من تسع أجزاء بتركّز على تأملات الصحفيين المتحدثين بالفرنسية ودورن خلال الحرب، والوحشية يلّي ولّدتها الحرب الأهلية، وعبثيتا والأرواح يلّي فُقدت بدون جدوى، والرعب يلّي عاشوا يلّي حاربوا وانتركوا ليواجهوا الواقع المرّ الحياة "الطبيعية" بعد الحرب. ------------------------------------------------------------------- All images are property of their owners and are used with permission. If you enjoy our content please Like and Subscribe. For the list of credits: https://www.maabarpodcast.com Subscribe to the "Maabar" YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@maabar/ Watch full Season 1: https://bit.ly/3HIyrqs Follow “Maabar” on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maabarpodcast

In this episode, journalists burst the “rock and roll” image of war to expose its harsh and brutal reality where people act like vicious monsters. Packed with gripping tales and profound reflections on what this “war” meant in the grand scheme of things, the anglophones close in on their experience of the war.بهيدي الحلقة، بيكسر الصحفيين صورة الحرب يلّي كلا "عنتريات"، ليكشفوا واقعها القاسي والعنيف، واقع بصيروا الناس فيه وحوش كاسرة. من خلال قصص مشوّقة وتأملات عميقة بمعنى "الحرب" ضمن السياق الأوسع، بخبرونا المتحدثين باللغة الإنكليزية عن تجربتن مع الحرب.------------------------------------------------------------------- All images are property of their owners and are used with permission.If you enjoy our content please Like and Subscribe.For the list of credits: https://www.maabarpodcast.comSubscribe to the "Maabar" YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@maabar/Watch full Season 1:https://bit.ly/3HIyrqsSupport "Maabar" on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/Maabar --------------------------------------------------------------------

French audio. For subtitles in Arabic and in English please listen to the episode on YouTube.In this episode, we hear first hand what it was like to be held hostage in another country, another war; from being first lured by the exotic, exciting prospect of covering war in Lebanon, in Beirut (the Paris of the ME), French journalists find their position changed overnight, from suave and sophisticated foreign correspondents to vulnerable preys and naive pawns, at the mercy of their captors.هيدي الحلقة، رح نسمح مباشرة شو يعني إنو الشخص يصير رهينة ببلد مختلف بالبداية، استُدرجوا الصحفيين الفرنسيين بفرصة حماسية وغريبة لتغطية الحرب بلبنان، وببيروت (أو باريس الشرق الأوسط)، بس تغيّر وضعن بين ليلة وضحاها، فتحولوا من مراسلين أجانب واثقين بنفسن ومتمرسين بعملن لبيادق ضعيفي وساذجة بلعبة الحرب ووقعوا تحت رحمة يلي أسروون ------------------------------------------------------ All images are property of their owners and are used with permission. If you enjoy our content please Like and Subscribe. For the list of credits: https://www.maabarpodcast.com Subscribe to the "Maabar" YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@maabar/ Watch full Season 1: https://bit.ly/3HIyrqs Follow “Maabar” on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maabarpodcast Support "Maabar" on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Maabar ------------------------------------------------------

In this chapter, we learn how a city severed and a country truncated becomes a maze that journalists must learn to navigate, to cross lines from one sector to the next, from East to West and West to East, to do their job and get their story out, all the while risking their life. ------------------------------------------------------ All images are property of their owners and are used with permission. If you enjoy our content please Like and Subscribe. For the list of credits: https://www.maabarpodcast.com Subscribe to the "Maabar" YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@maabar/ Watch full Season 1: https://bit.ly/3HIyrqs Follow “Maabar” on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maabarpodcast Support "Maabar" on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Maabar ------------------------------- A country severed into pieces, a city cut into halves at Khat al-Tamas, the green line. This Rubik’s cube of a country can never be solved, a futile, yet deadly struggle to place people into community, sectarian, and ideological boxes. You are part of it, whether you like it or not, because who they say you are, where you come from. To others off limits, but to you, a matter of fact, you must cross the line to bear witness to what’s happening and how people live on the "other" side(s). You know the checkpoints networks like the back of your hand. Know which line you can cross when, know the handlers and their moods, map your route depending on who is at which post when. Today, it’s Khaldeh to Kfarshima, tomorrow, it’s Babir to Mathaf, lines shift all the time, depending on what happened that morning, what orders come in, who’s in the car with you, what allegiances switch, what seemed secure a minute ago, is now off the table. To survive, you can't get caught on the wrong side - whatever side that may be. You build networks, communities of fellow journalists, find fraternities and sororities so that no matter what your religion, your accent, your birthplace, or your press card, crossings can be crossed. You build a support system, meet regularly, break the idea of "the other," become more than colleagues, friends who help get each other out of the cross fire and from crossing the line between life and death.

In this episode, we hear about how addictive war becomes for the journalists covering it as they describe the smell of fear and the thrill of existing on the fine line between life and death. For some, the only way to survive was to lose their mind and their senses while simultaneously being completely sane, 100% alert. All images are property of their owners and are used with permission. If you enjoy our content please Like and Subscribe. For the list of credits: https://www.maabarpodcast.com Subscribe to the "Maabar" YouTube channel. Watch full Season 1: https://bit.ly/3HIyrqs Follow “Maabar” on Instagram. If you enjoy our content please rate us! You run on adrenaline, get high on risk, forget life. The war becomes your dealer, the story, the photograph your next fix. And yet you cannot get high or drunk, you must be lucid, 100%, your senses on high alert. Your life depends on it. You are in tune with the rhythm of military fire, know the sound of an incoming or outgoing shell, know the time from launch to impact, know the number of shells that can be fired in a round to make an escape to your car in the time it takes to reload. You’re both scared to death and exhilarated by fear; you drive fear, fear drives you. One minute you find yourself walking through minefields, the next, in the crosshairs of a sniper’s line of sight - from below and above, you’re exposed on all sides. You’ve had too many close calls with death, too many brushes, felt the rush, rise to the thrill, and then it sinks in deep. You ask, how did I survive, why him and not me? بتعيش عل أدرينالين، بتعبي راسك من الخطر، بتنسى الحياة. بتصير الحرب متل يلّي ببيبعك مخدرات، الخبر، الصورة، بصيروا جرعتك التالية. بس ما فيك تتخدّر أو تسكر، لاء لازم تكون واعي 100%، حواسك لازم يكونوا مركزين لأنو حياتك معتمدة عالموضوع. بتصير حافظ إيقاع الرصاص العسكري، بتعرف صوت القذايف إذا طالعة أم نازلة، بتعرف قدي الوقت من إطلاق القذيفة لحين وصولها، بتعرف كم قذيفة رح يضربوا ورا بعض لتقدر تهرب عالسيارة وقت يكونوا عم بعبّوا المدفع. إنت خايف للموت وبنفس الوقت الخوف محمّسك؛ بتمشّي الخوف والخوف بمشيك. بدقيقة، بتلاقي حالك عم تمشي بحقل ألغام، بدقيقة تانية بتصير بمدى نظر القناص، يعني مكشوف من كل الميلات، من فوق ومن تحت. بتعيش كتير حالات كنت رح تموت فيا، بكتير حالات بتقرّب من الموت، بتحسّ بالحماس، وبعدين بتصير تفكر وتسأل، كيف أنا نجيت، ليش هو ومش أنا؟

We continue with foreign correspondents, this episode focusing on Anglophones, telling of their experience of coming to grips with the particularities of life during the Lebanese Civil War, and in the process, building bonds with a place that never seems to kneel.All images are property of their owners and are used with permission. For the list of credits: https://www.maabarpodcast.com If you enjoy our content please rate us! Instagram: @maabarpodcast.com Maabar is created produced by Anthony Tawil Cedric Kayem. Land in Beirut, find a footing, navigate the spider web of connections, decode who is who, who’s killing who, who’s friends with who, who’s married to who, who lives where, where do you need to be? Baptism by fire, walk the streets, hunt for stories, fall into a story, live for the story, put your life on hold. In survival mode, get to the front of the line, fill in the media gaps, report the stories never told, or no one will remember. Get the break, the hostage taker communique, before the other agencies do, resist becoming a spectator to hope for the 'bang bang' pictures; get material, visit, interview, witness, collect, then before the deadline, synthesize, write, telex. The next day: rinse and repeat. Surreality becomes reality, party all night at Backstreet, picnic at Burj al Murr, knafi from Bohsali, laugh, meet the woman you will marry, eat incredible chicken, get home at 2am under shelling. You are living your invincible youth, nothing can get to you, but you are not from "here" - are you a spy? - who are you? Get out of here, narrow escape. بتوصل عبيروت، بتفتّش عن قاعدة تنطلق منّا، بتتصفّح شبكة الاتّصالات، وبتفكّ الرموز: مين عم يقتل مين؟ ومين صديق مين؟ ومين متزوّج مِن مين؟ مين عايش وين؟ وين لازم تكون؟ معمودية من نار: بتمشي بالشوارع وبتفتّش عن الخَبَر بتلاقي الخَبَر وبتكرّسلو كلّ وقتك. بتحاول تحمي حالك وتستمرّ، بتروح عالخطوط الأمامية، وبتعبّي الفراغات الإعلامية، وبتنقُل أخبار ما انقالت من قِبل، أو ما حدا رح يتذكّرها. بتحاول تغتنم الفُرَص وتسبق الوكالات الثانية وتحصل على بيان الخاطفين. بتحاول ما تكون مُجرّد متفرّج ناطِر صور "الانفجار الكبير". بتحصل على المادّة الإعلامية، بتعمل زيارات ومقابلات، بتراقب وبتجمّع المعلومات. وقبل الموعد النهائي، بتلخّصها وبتكتبها وبتبعتها. وثاني يوم بيتكرّر السيناريو ذاتو عَنْ جديد. السريالية صارت حقيقة. سهرة للصُّبح بـ "باك ستريت"، مشوار عَ برج المرّ، كنافة من عند "البحصلي"، ضحك، لقاء مع المرأة اللّي رح تتزوّجها، وجبة لذيذة، وبترجع الساعة 2 الفجر تحت القصف. إنتَ عايش شبابك لأقصى الحدود، وما في شي ممكن يتغلّب عليك، لكنّك مش من "هون" - هل أنت جاسوس؟ - مين إنتَ؟ اهرُب

This episode shares the insights of foreign correspondents, mainly the francophones, and how they found themselves lured to Beirut on assignments to cover the war, while experiencing the upside of privileged life compared to their Lebanese colleagues. Subscribe to our Channel: https://bit.ly/3w81FMy Follow us on Instagram: @maabarpodcast Hotels turned into beehives of foreign journalists; glamorous base camps, separate havens, with exclusivity and access to VIPs. Come to Beirut, they said. Chaos and lawlessness creates a sense of intense freedom, no rules. The only thing understood is that you can’t understand anything - and - anything is possible in the absurdity of war. In Lebanon 4 or 5 wars happening at the same time, in the same place, sometimes just one street away. Too detailed, too confusing. You might not know who is who on the street, or why they are fighting, but you know who gave the orders. The surrealist encounters, the contrasts, real life "Top Gun" characters; is this fiction or reality? To get the scoop, you need the connection. The right person, the right number - do you have that number? Getting the images captured, getting the story through, getting to the wire, getting to the traveler, everything to get the news out. You yourself become a conduit to the outside world. A life of extremes, of passion, of being only in the moment. You become attached, you fall in love, make love, make friends, make money, party all night - while others go fight, others die. The life of an ajanib (foreigner) is easy, charming even. With a panoply of press cards, status, authority, respect, and importance, French journalists had undiluted laissez passer. Big fish in a small sea. الفنادق تحوّلت لخليّة للصحفيين الأجانب؛ مُعسكرات فاخرة، ملاجئ منفصلة، مع امتيازات حصرية ووصول للشخصيات المهمّة. قالوا: تعوا عبيروت. الفوضى والخروج عن القانون بيخلقوا إحساس بالحرية المُطلقة، من دون ضوابط. الشي الوحيد المفهوم هو إنّك ما فيك تفهم أي شي - وكل شي ممكن بِظلّ عَبَثيّة الحرب. بلبنان، في 4 أو 5 حروب بنفس الوقت وبنفس المكان، ويمكن على بُعد شارع واحد بسّ، مع تفاصيل ومتاهات ما بتنتهي. ممكن ما تَعرْف هوية الناس اللّي بالشارع، أو ليش عم يتقاتلوا، بس عالأكيد بتعرف الجهة اللّي أعطت الأوامر. لقاءات سُريالية، تناقضات، وكأنّك عم تشوف فيلم "أكشن" بالواقع؛ هيدا خيال أو حقيقة؟ لتحصل على السبق الصحفي، إنتَ بحاجة للمَعارِف. الشخص المناسب، والرقم المناسب - معك هيدا الرقم؟ بتحاول تلتقط الصُّوَر وتنقل الأحداث وتفهمها بالعمق لآخر لحظة وتستعمل كلّ الوسايل لتوَصِّل الخَبَر. أنتَ بحدّ ذاتك بتصير صِلِة وَصْل للعالم الخارجي. حياة متطرّفة لأقصى الحدود، مليانة شغف. بتعيش اللحظة، بتتعلّق، بتوقع بالحب، بتمارس الحب، بتكوّن صداقات، بتجمع أموال، وبتحتفل طول الليل – بالوقت اللّي غيرك عم يقاتل ويموت. حياة الأجانب سهلة، حتّى إنّو فيها سِحِر خاصّ. الصحفيين الفرنسيين كان عندن مجموعة واسعة من البطاقات الصحفية، وكان عندن مركز اجتماعي وسلطة واحترام وأهمية. أصحاب نفوذ كبير بدايرة صغيرة