Beirut, Lebanon – Myra Aragon tosses chicken wings into a large cooking pot. She stirs them and then adds garnishes and spices.“These are bay leaves,” she says, pouring in a handful. “These are anise stars and this is black pepper.”Today, she’s making chicken afritada, a classic chicken stew from her home country of the Philippines. Her kitchen and community centre, called Tres Marias, in a suburb just north of Beirut, feeds about 200 people every day. Most of them are migrant workers.Amid the war and a massive displacement crisis, some migrant workers have stepped up to serve their community.Migrants “face so many different restrictions,” says Abdel Halim Abdallah, a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) project coordinator in Lebanon, speaking to Al Jazeera. “They show love and affection and solidarity through food. It is a unifying thing.”Bombs and discriminationOn March 2, Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel for the first time in at least a year. The group claimed it was in response to the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28 and 15 months of unanswered Israeli aggression, which included more than 10,000 ceasefire violations.Israel responded by forcing the displacement of at least one million people across Lebanon, including from the entirety of the south and Beirut’s southern suburbs. Israeli forces have …
