I am from southern Lebanon. I am Lebanese by origin and a school leader by profession. And I want to visit Haifa.

In the region I come from, that sentence alone is enough to raise suspicion. To some, it signals weakness. To others, betrayal. Wanting peace has been reframed as something dangerous, while escalation is treated as inevitable.

This reversal of values has cost all of us dearly.

I want to walk through an Israeli city without fear. I want to visit Israeli schools, speak with principals and teachers, sit in classrooms, and observe how schools are led. I want to meet Israelis not as political abstractions or media narratives, but as people. As an academically engaged school leader, I also want to be able to visit Israeli universities and engage in conversations about education, research, and the future of our region. This is not an ideological statement. It is a human one.

Yet even imagining such a visit feels forbidden. As a Lebanese, my freedom to think in these terms has been taken hostage.

For years, Lebanon has been dragged into repeated cycles of confrontation by a heavily armed non‑state actor that answers neither to voters nor to state institutions. This is not a policy chosen by the Lebanese people. It is the steady erosion of sovereignty........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)