Lebanese News Anchor Wassim Oraby Resigns on Air and Declares He Is Leaving Lebanon: "I Can No Longer Stay in a Land That Is a Cemetery for One's Dreams"

Wassim Al-Oraby, a news anchor at the Lebanese public network Télé Liban, resigned live on air at the end of the August 15 evening news bulletin. Al-Oraby, who had worked for the network for the past 11 years, during which he covered "mostly sad" news, said he was leaving the country because he "can no longer stay in a land that is a cemetery for one's dreams." Al-Oraby added that he had no problem finding a job, but that he was "leaving because I am sick and tired of you, or rather, because I don't see a country here." He concluded by expressing hope that one day there will be a country for him and all the people who have fled Lebanon to return to, so they won't have to return to their homeland only in order to be buried in it.

Wassim Al-Oraby: "I will conclude this news bulletin with the words of [Lebanese singer] Fayruz: 'In the end there is an end.' This was the last bulletin I delivered to you after 11 years in this national TV channel. Unfortunately, the events I have covered in these 11 years were mostly sad, and like many other people, these events are etched in my memory: Explosions, assassinations, attacks on the borders in the south and the Beqaa Valley, internal wars, and everything in between. Today, my journey here ends - not because the channel has no need for me. I can no longer stay in a land that is a cemetery for one's dreams. I am not leaving this land because I cannot find a job. On the contrary, I have two or three job opportunities. But I am leaving because I am sick and tired of you, or rather, because I don't see a country here. You have done as you wished with this country. In conclusion, I thank from the bottom of my heart, any person who supported me, as well as any person who did not support me, because both make one stronger. For the sake of all who have left the country, I hope we will once again have a country to which we can return to live in dignity rather than [to live] in humiliation or to return as corpses just to be buried here. As always… Goodbye."