I imagine them smiling and congratulating the winners and nominees. 

I imagine them discussing and comparing the works, all of which carry the echo of their struggles. 

Aren’t “Is There Life Before Death?,” “Random Expansion,” and “Forced Maturity” reflections on the misery of Arabs?

Will freedom prevail if the occupation ends but women still do not have freedom over their bodies, freedom to refuse female genital mutilation in Egypt, freedom to practice their culture in Sinjar, and freedom to work and and gain knowledge in Sudan?

Will freedom prevail if the occupation ends but the doors to all prisons in the Arab capitals are not opened, and our cities do not celebrate their diversity?

And will freedom prevail if the occupation ends and we remain in the grip of an economy led by despising monopolists, whether they are called social media platforms, smuggling mafias, black market princes… or pseudo-banks?

Their battle for freedom is our battle. A comprehensive battle, one battle.

A battle for justice for the victims of genocide; justice for the victims of assassination. The battle for human rights in the face of genocide. 

In the face of racism, crimes against humanity, Israel’s execution of Palestinian and Lebanese journalists, and the targeting of children, and medical and humanitarian teams.

The battle for human rights in the face of those who claim to support Palestine but kill their own people, imprison their women, and prevent their youth from laughing and dreaming.

As for our partners and friends, who have supported and continue to support our battle for human rights, perhaps they realize the dilemma we face with the continued supply of bombs to Israel, the failure to exert real pressure to stop the ceasefire, and rewarding dictators for restraining migrants and refugees.

We find ourselves compelled to justify our values, commitments, and defense of human rights, as we have been subjected to double standards by those accustomed to carrying their banner, while we continue to face arrest, harassment, and killing by regimes and militias accustomed to persecuting them.

And our battle will become more difficult if the electoral slide towards racist forces, rejecting diversity continues, despising the media and its freedom, whose concern is to keep refugees where they are, and their illusion that security and prosperity will thus be achieved.

But we will persist, even if we are a minority.

With you, here. 

With the 354 journalists who applied to receive the award this year. With the winners.

With the nine nominees, of which four live in exile due to their countries’ leaders.

With the two nominees who are currently experiencing displacement in their own countries due to genocide and the attempt to erase their history, culture, and existence.

With Beirut, and its historian, Samir Kassir, and its lover, Gisele Khoury.

This is the Beirut under the rule of the killers of Samir Kassir, who protect the killers of Issam Abdallah from justice.

But this is the Beirut whose new media published four out of nine works that reached the final rounds. Works whose writers cannot publish in their own country’s media.

This is Beirut’s role. This is a restoration of Beirut’s journalism, which was the voice, pen, and lens of every other opinion, in a region that detests any pluralism.

Except for “Hewar al-‘Umur” (The Conversation of a Lifetime), Lebanese television has not been able to perform this role. Today, young Lebanese digital media is the beacon of hope and the platform for resisting monism.

If spring blossoms in Beirut, it announces the time of roses in Damascus, as well as in Palestine, and in all the caves of the East and its deserts and cities…

We will give time to time.