Lebanese Forces reassert Lebanese identity of Pen League writers
The Foreign Affairs Department of the Lebanese Forces Party issued the following statement:
Attempts to present the writers of the “Pen League” in New York as “Syrian writers,” or to place them within a broader framework tied to “Greater Syria” without a clear and explicit acknowledgment of their Lebanese identity, constitute a distortion of documented historical and cultural facts and risk erasing a fundamental part of Lebanon’s cultural heritage in the diaspora.
Gibran Khalil Gibran, Mikhail Naimy, Elia Abu Madi, Rashid Ayyoub, Afifa Karam and other pioneers of diaspora literature hailed from well-known Lebanese towns and villages. Through their literary and intellectual contributions, they carried Lebanon into the world and helped establish its cultural and human presence on the international stage. They were among the figures who introduced Lebanon as a space of freedom, thought, and creativity.
Referring to the geographic or administrative context that existed during the Ottoman era neither negates the national identity of these writers nor justifies overlooking their clearly established Lebanese roots. Lebanon was never merely a transient geographic expression, but a deeply rooted cultural, intellectual, and political identity reflected throughout the writings and journeys of these literary pioneers.
Accordingly, the Foreign Affairs Department of the Lebanese Forces Party asserted that it is undertaking the necessary contacts in New York and Washington to correct what it described as an error in the cultural landmark established in New York. The department added that resolving the issue remains a priority for the Lebanese presence in the United States and across the diaspora, in order to preserve cultural integrity, uphold historical truth, and prevent any attempt to appropriate Lebanese heritage or subsume it into broader narratives that, it believed, do not reflect historical realities or Lebanon’s literary and cultural legacy.
