AR

Post-Burial Displacement of the Dead: An Anthropological Reading of Israeli Violence against Cemeteries in Lebanon

Volume 15|Issue 58| Autumn 2026 |Special Issue

Abstract

This article examines Israeli violence against cemeteries in Lebanon through two cases: Rawdat Shuhada’ Ainata in southern Lebanon and Al-Radouf cemetery in Burj al-Barajneh, Beirut. It asks what happens to the dead when the place in which they have been laid to rest is targeted after their burial. Adopting a visual and material anthropological approach, the article draws on field observation, interviews, photographs, archival photos, and aerial imagery. It proposes the concept of post-burial displacement of the dead to examine the destabilization of relations anchoring buried bodies in established funerary places, even in cases when bodies remain in place. The comparison shows that this destabilization varies according to the organization of funerary space and the scale of damage, and that restabilization forms part of the history of violence against such spaces.

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Zeinab Ali Khazem (Corresponding Author)ORCID

​PhD researcher in Anthropology at the Doctoral School of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Lebanese University.​

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