Forget Me Not: South Lebanon in Memory and Motion at Palestine House

The exhibition 'Forget Me Not: South Lebanon in Memory and Motion' at Palestine House in London, co-curated by Rasha Kotaiche and Ali Abou Khalil, tells the stories of southern Lebanon's people through archival news footage, photographs, and children's drawings. The show, originally planned for 2020, opened earlier this month as Israeli tanks returned to Lebanon. It features a film by Kotaiche using 30 years of footage on migration, Nor Nsralla's video 'What Remains' with testimonials from the October 2024 invasion, and displays on diaspora and the land. The curators aim to reclaim the narrative of al-Jnoub, a region shaped by foreign intervention and neglect since before Lebanon's 1943 independence. The exhibition highlights the creation of Hezbollah in 1982 and the failure of the Lebanese state to protect the south, despite a November 2024 ceasefire and the election of President Joseph Aoun in January. UN peacekeepers reported multiple violations, mostly by Israel. Abou Khalil notes that for southerners, the border is 'literal and existential.'