Disgusting: Portraits Of Blast Victims Deliberately Painted Over

The portraits memorializing the victims of the August 4 blast, which were installed by artist Brady Black back in 2021, are currently being painted over.

Drawings of murdered victims of the Beirut port explosion being deliberately erased from our public spaces, now.

This is exactly what the regime wants: Erasing our public memory of its crimes and victims. pic.twitter.com/F5otqoMUBC

— Karim Safieddine – (@safieddine00) January 19, 2023

Back in June of 2022, the portraits were briefly taken down and replaced with advertisements for the company District S only to be restored shortly thereafter.

The hand-drawn portraits were placed on the 9-month anniversary of the blast. Apart from the demolished port silos, these portraits are some of the only available visual mementos of the hundreds of lives that perished due to governmental negligence. Nearly two and half years since the devastating event, there seems to be an deliberate attempt to erase the government’s crimes from public memory.

Earlier this week, families of the victims gathered to demand justice and denounce impunity, which resulted in the arrest of William Noun, the brother of August 4 victim Joe Noun. He has since been released but is under house arrest.

#وليام_نون: # pic.twitter.com/mO6tzAiPyB

— Sola Chalhoub (@SolangeChalhoub) January 13, 2023

William Noun was released and will have to remain home for the foreseeable future. A sort of house arrest when all the summoned MPs and security officials enjoy their freedom despite the killing of more than 200 people and the destruction of Beirut two years ago. #

— Georges Haddad (@Georges__Haddad) January 14, 2023

Judicial investigations have been fruitless so far due to the recurring stop-start process and consistent political interventions.