Bassima Fawaz

Bassima Fawaz was interviewed in UN Post 2-45, UNIFIL, South Lebanon for the Military Archives Oral History Project. Bassima Fawaz’s interview is part of a series of interviews recorded to mark forty years of Irish service in Lebanon with UNIFIL. Bassima grew up with Irish soldiers living in her parents’ house in Tibnin and she began working as an interpreter with UNIFIL around 1985. She has worked mostly with Irish battalions but has also worked with various other nationalities who have served in or near Tibnin.

Arrival of Irish troops to Tibnin

Bassima Fawaz
Interviewed for MAOHP - 06/03/2018
Location(s): Tibnin

Length: 3.12

Bassima Fawaz speaks about her childhood, growing up in the village of Tibnin with one older sister and two younger brothers. She recalls after the United Nations came to Lebanon some Irish officers came to her family home and asked her father if they could rent out part of the...

Working with UNIFIL (Part I)

Bassima Fawaz
Interviewed for MAOHP - 06/03/2018
Location(s): Tibnin Naqoura

Length: 2.48

Bassima Fawaz speaks about her work with Irish battalions which began in 1985 or 1986. She explains how this came about; her sister had been working there and Bassima took over working in the Irish Medical Aid Post in Camp Shamrock, Tibnin, when her sister got married. She discusses her...

Working with UNIFIL (Part II)

Bassima Fawaz
Interviewed for MAOHP - 06/03/2018
Location(s): At Tiri

Length: 2.37

Bassima Fawaz speaks about the Irish connections to the occupied villages of At Tiri and Rshaf and recalls walking with Irish doctors to the villages to do medical clinics. She speaks about one occasion where the Lebanese resistance had attacked an Israeli compound. The compound fired back while Bassima and...

Impressions of UNIFIL

Bassima Fawaz
Interviewed for MAOHP - 06/03/2018
Location(s): Tibnin

Length: 0.50

While discussing the differences between the United Nations Security Council Resolution 425 of 1978 and Resolution 1701 of 2006 regarding UNIFIL, Bassima Fawaz speaks about the different impressions that different generations of Lebanese people have of the Force. She says her perception of UNIFIL was that the force was there...

Repeated experiences of military actions in Lebanon

Bassima Fawaz
Interviewed for MAOHP - 06/03/2018
Location(s): Tibnin

Length: 1.52

In this clip Bassima Fawaz speaks about the impact of repeated military actions in Lebanon. She refers to each of the conflicts that she has lived through and describes the war in 2006 as the worst. She draws comparisons between Operation Grapes of Wrath in 1996 and the 2006 war....

Ali Saad

Bassima Fawaz
Interviewed for MAOHP - 06/03/2018
Location(s): Tibnin

Length: 0.42

In this clip Bassima Fawaz speaks about meeting her husband Ali Saad, who has also been interviewed for the Military Archives Oral History Project.

Re-union with Irish soldiers

Bassima Fawaz
Interviewed for MAOHP - 06/03/2018
Location(s): Tibnin

Length: 2.10

In this clip Bassima Fawaz tells a story which illustrates the length and nature of the relationship between the Irish and the South Lebanese. She recounts her memory of working with a female Irish doctor, Mairead Murphy, twenty-three years ago. She describes her as a good friend who attended Bassima's...