Overview
In this lesson, students will gain a deeper understanding of how unmet needs contribute to a lack of peace. Moreover, students will examine how basic fundamental human rights are an essential ingredient for a peaceful world.
Notes for Teacher
Country:
This lesson plan will focus on the Burj Barajneh Refugee camp which is located in the southern suburb of Beirut, which is the capital of Lebanon. Although it is in Lebanon, the refugees within the camp do not have citizen status of Lebanon. They are stateless. This lesson will address these issues through the eyes and voice of Mira Sidawi.
The Burj Barajneh Refugee camp was created in 1949 by the Red Cross Societies. Originally there were approximately 3500 refugees but it expanded in 1969 and was not given the proper attention to build out safely. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, “Building work was undertaken randomly, with no opportunity to increase the foundations. Roads became extremely narrow and infrastructure was put under heavy stress. These problems were compounded by the destruction of several Palestine refugee camps in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war and the ongoing Syria crisis, each resulting in a wave of new refugees to Burj Barajneh” (https://www.unrwa.org/where-we-work/lebanon/burj-barajneh-camp). According to the Anera charity there are now 35,000 refugees living in the camp.
Below is background information about Lebanon:
“Since its independence in 1943 from France’s Mandatory rule, Lebanon’s fragile government has been based on its National Pact, a complex division of power granting preferential status to the then majority Maronite Christian community, over its Shiite, Sunni, and Druze citizens. The rationale for this was Lebanon’s 1932 census, the only official census conducted to this day. After World War II, hundreds of thousands of Jewish survivors emigrated to British Palestine as the United Nations began to create a partition plan which would create two states. By 1948, the Arab-Israeli war displaced 700,000 Palestinians in what is known as the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe.’ This resulted in the UNRWA establishing refugee camps in Lebanon. Christian President Camille Chamoun attempted to keep Lebanon aligned with the west as Arab nationalism swept across neighboring nations, pushing Lebanon to the brink of civil war. The Six Day War in 1967 and Israel’s victory over its Arab neighbors, meant Israel took control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria. The immediate effect was to create hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and to bring nearly a million Palestinians under Israeli control within the captured territories…Today the World Bank recognizes that as much as half the population is below the poverty line, inflation and unemployment continues to climb and basic infrastructure services, together with health care, are failing.
Meet Don McCullin: He is a British photojournalist, particularly recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialized in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and impoverished.
Meet Robin Wright: She has covered conflicts and political intrigue across the Middle East since the 1973 war. She lived in Beirut during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that played out over local sectarian strife, regional rivalries, and Cold War tensions.
Student Ages or Grade Level
9th - 12th Grades
Essential questions the lesson will address:
How do we allow our identities to create division? How does this division create instability and thus unmet needs?
What is the connection between unmet needs and human rights? And how does this contribute to or detract from peace?
Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to . . .
▪ Examine how identities and “othering” can create division
▪ Discuss how this division creates instability and thus unmet needs
▪ Articulate the connection between unmet needs and human rights
▪ Conclude how unmet needs and a lack of basic human rights contributes to instability and a lack of peace
Common Core State Standards (11th grade)
▪ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1.B Work with peers to promote civil, democratic discussions and decision-making, set clear goals and deadlines, and establish individual roles as needed.
▪ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1.C Propel conversations by posing and responding to questions that probe reasoning and evidence; ensure a hearing for a full range of positions on a topic or issue; clarify, verify, or challenge ideas and conclusions; and promote divergent and creative perspectives.
▪ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1.D Respond thoughtfully to diverse perspectives; synthesize comments, claims, and evidence made on all sides of an issue; resolve contradictions when possible; and determine what additional information or research is required to deepen the investigation or complete the task.
▪ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
▪ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
▪ CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Curriculum Glossary and Key Concepts and Ideas
● Human Rights: one of the basic rights that everyone has to be treated fairly and not in a cruel way, especially by their government Oxford
● Identity: the distinguishing character or personality of an individual. Merriam Webster
● Othering: to conceptualize (a people, a group, etc.) as excluded and different from oneself. Oxford
● Unmet Needs: When necessities are not satisfied or fulfilled. Merriam Webster
Formative Assessment Strategies
The teacher can make a note of…
● Class participation in opening discussion about the UDHR and photo exploration
● Individual engagement with identity self-reflection and sharing activity
● Individual participation during discussion and journal writing about being an agent for peace
Materials for Instructor
● Laptop
● Projector
● Speakers
● Copies of the Photograph from Imagine
Materials for Students
● Paper and writing utensils
● Copies of the Photograph from Imagine
● Colored Pencils, Markers, Crayons
Lesson Plan
I. Opening Discussion, Introductions, & Video (15 min)
Step 1: Background Information
Provide brief background information on Lebanon, explaining that it is a sectarian and religiously diverse country, which stems from the region’s long history of foreign domination leaving behind a multicultural legacy, along with factioned instability.
Watch this brief video explaining the current situation in Lebanon.
Step 2: Introductions
Introduce Don McCullin[1] , who is a British photojournalist, particularly recognized for his war photography and images of urban strife. His career, which began in 1959, has specialized in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and impoverished.
Introduce Robin Wright[2] , who has covered conflicts and political intrigue across the Middle East since the 1973 war. She lived in Beirut during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war that played out over local sectarian strife, regional rivalries, and Cold War tensions.
Explain to students we will be incorporating photography and excerpts from Don and Robin in this lesson.
Step 3: Opening Discussion
Ask students what they know about the UDHR Articles? Solicit responses.[3] [4]
In pairs, have the students briefly review UDHR Articles or this Simplified Version of the UDHR Articles
Explain that these basic human rights will be important to understand as we move forward in the lesson.
II. Imagine Photography Exploration (10 min)
Step 1:
Project the following photograph from Imagine:
Palestinians flee attack. Up to 1,500 Palestinians died in the Karantina massacre (an incident within the larger Lebanese civil war) by Christian Falangist gunmen. Beirut, Lebanon, 1976.
Credit: Don McCullin, Unreasonable Behaviour: The Updated Autobiography, London: Jonathan Cape, 2015
Step 2:
Examine the photograph above taken by Don McCullin during the Karantina massacre by Christian Falangist gunmen in Beirut, Lebanon, 1976. In 1976 a Christian militia attacked and evicted the Palestinian refugee population, killing 1,500, in what became known as the Karantina massacre. Think about the following:
● What do you notice?
● What questions do you have?
● For what or whom in this photograph do you feel empathy for or about?
III. Imagine excerpt by Robin Wright & Identity Activity (10 min)
Step 1:
Now, read the following excerpt from Imagine by Robin Wright to provide some context for the protracted and ongoing conflict in Lebanon:
“The 15-year conflict in Lebanon actually featured many wars. It erupted, on April 13, 1975, in a hail of bullets fired by a Christian militia and Palestinian gunmen in tit-for-tat ambushes. Most of the first victims were civilians shot while standing in front of a church or riding on a public bus. The war in the little Levantine country, which is about the size of Connecticut, eventually spilled across borders, then continents. More than a dozen local militias and the armies or interests of foreign governments on four continents were sucked into the strife. Like most conflicts, it proved easier to start than to stop.
The war had many messy layers. Among them, Christians were pitted against Muslims, Palestinians against Israelis, America’s Marines against Iran’s proxies, the West against the East, fascists against socialists, devout believers against stoic atheists. Over time, alliances fluctuated, enemies flipped. The war was full of contradictions. At some point, every major sect also fought its own brethren—just as bloodily—for turf or power. Lebanon’s graveyards (and some backyards) were filled with more than 100,000 war dead. A million people, roughly a quarter of the population, were displaced. As the economy deteriorated, Lebanon became the pirating capital of the world. The nation’s infrastructure—the electricity grid, water supply, and sewage system—collapsed in disrepair; it still hadn’t recovered three decades later.”
Step 2:
In the above excerpt we can see how identity politics create division and othering, while not only prohibiting peace, but fostering conflict and violence. While having certain identifying features to our lives is necessary to create a sense of community, we must be diligent not to allow those distinctive features of our identities to become weaponized as a means to otherize those outside of our cultural, religious, or ethnic norm.
Take out your Imagine Journal. For the next five to ten minutes and jot down on paper all the features you feel make up of your own identity. Consider the following:
● Your age
● Your cultural background
● Your religion
● Your nationality
● Your ethnicity
● Your values
● Your goals
● Your beliefs
● Other defining features which constitute your identity
Step 3:
Stand up and mingle around the room. When your teacher says, “stop,” locate a peer to stand with for a brief conversation.
Step 4:
Spend five minutes discussing your identifying features with a peer. What do you have in common? What are some differences? Within your differences can you both still locate a shared common humanity with each other?
IV. Excerpt from Imagine – Being an Agent of Peace (10 min)
Step 1:
Return to your seats. Have a different student read each of the following excerpts from Asaadd Chafrati. (These excerpts and quote from the Imagine: Reflections on Peace book and exhibit).
Asaadd Chafrati fought for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia. During the war’s early days, he was an artillery officer directing fire on the Muslim quarters of Beirut. He rose to become the second-highest-ranking intelligence officer. He acknowledged his role in a letter to his countrymen after the war. “My task was to decide the fate of all those rounded up at checkpoints—whether someone should be spared, exchanged, or killed,” he wrote. “A human being was little more than a product to me.”
“There was no pleasure in killing,” Chaftari [said]. “I was fighting for two holy things—my religion and my country, which was as holy as my faith. I could go to church and have communion and not even worry that I had sinned during the week. I would confess some small thing, petty thing. I never confessed to killing because I didn’t see it as a sin. I was a crusader.”
Chaftari began to rethink killing toward the end of the war. His wife joined Moral Rearmament, a social movement launched in the 1930s by an American Protestant. He was invited to attend. “The idea was that the ladies could convince their men,” he explained. “I asked, ‘Who was the boss? Which embassy was sponsoring it?’” At the first meeting, he had a gun tucked into his belt and two bodyguards outside. “They asked me if I was first ready to change myself. I thought there was nothing to change. I thought I was the best person alive.”
Chaftari later wrote candidly about a life of early hate and late-in-life discovery in his memoir The Truth Even If My Voice Trembles. He also co-founded Fighters for Peace, a movement of 50 former Christian, Muslim, and Druze gunmen. The numbers are minuscule, given the tens of thousands who fought in the war. But they provided what Lebanon as a state has not: education about a conflict that almost unraveled the country. The school system doesn’t teach about the war; different communities have disparate versions of it. The peace accord gave amnesty to the warlords, but Lebanon has never had a formal reconciliation process.
Step 2:
Let's discuss. Chaftari eventually realized he wanted to be an agent for peace rather than division and conflict.
Have students break into partners and discuss the following questions:
● In what ways can you be an agent for peace in your school and local communities, rather than an agent of division?
● Have you contributed to a culture of division in the past? How might you change this moving forward?
Step 3:
● Bring students back together as a class to share key points from their discussion.
V. Closing through Journaling (5 min)
Using one of the following EQs, write an entry in your Imagine Journal.
● How do we allow our identities to create division? How does this division create instability and thus unmet needs?
● What is the connection between unmet needs and human rights? And how does this contribute to or detract from peace?
VI. Homework / Extension
Choose one of the UDHR Articles from above and draw an image to illustrate what it means to have this need met, and how it contributes to greater peace.
Resource Links
● UDHR Articles or this Simplified Version of the UDHR Articles
● Video explaining the current situation in Lebanon
