On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers as part of an ongoing campaign to free thousands of Arab political prisoners from Israeli jails. On that same summer day, Israel attacked Lebanon in a violent military campaign which left over 1,200 Lebanese civilians dead, large parts of the national infrastructure destroyed and southern Lebanon covered in over one million unexploded cluster bombs. An Israeli military campaign of collective punishment unleashed on the people of Lebanon continued for 33 days until a UN-brokered ceasefire on Aug. 14, 2006.

As bombs fell on Lebanon, social justice and human rights activists took the streets throughout the world from Johannesburg, to London, to Cairo, to New York and on the streets of Montreal.

The Canadian government issued multiple public statements of support for the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon, which Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper labeled a “measured response,” and Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff “didn’t lose any sleep over.” In Canadian media, a questionable debate over what constitutes “citizenship” emerged as a predominant concern as thousands of Lebanese-Canadians sought diplomatic avenues to flee the conflict zone.

In spring 2007, Toronto-based photographer John Pinel Donoghue visited Lebanon. His images document a population still recovering from the aftermath of last year’s war. Donoghue, whose photographs tell the untold story of the victims of war-ravaged parts of the world, explained that he saw a familiar echo in his recent visit to southern Lebanon:

“On an individual level I saw the same emotions, the same suffering, the same clarity of what was wrong. These people have suffered. People who are going along in their lives find themselves caught up in an historical tragedy. When I was in Nicaragua I went to a support group meeting of women who lost family to to contra. In Guatamala and in El Salvador I met mothers of the disappeared. … The similarities of what I’ve seen in the eyes of the women there and in southern Lebanon are striking.”

This photo essay begins with image of a woman mourning her sister, who Donoghue chanced upon on her sister’s birthday anniversary. Donoghue explains, “sometimes when I try to speak about what I’ve seen, I find it challenging to find the words to express it. To say that these people have lost their ‘dignity,’ or to say that they ‘suffered,’ these words do not describe the truth of what I’ve seen.”

Photographer John Pinel Donoghue is exhibiting his collection of photographs titled Lebanon: The aftermath of the 2006 summer war at Tinto Coffee House from July 26 to Sept. 2, 89 Roncesvalles Ave., Toronto. A reception will be held on August 9 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Call 416-530-5885 for more information.

More images are available at the rabble.ca photo gallery.