Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, together with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has filed a civil complaint in France calling for an investigation into Israeli authorities’ bombing of a residential building in Beirut in November 2024, which killed seven civilians, including the artist’s mother and father.
The complaint, filed on April 2 with the French War Crimes Unit against unknown perpetrators, draws on a reconstruction and analysis of the attack by Forensic Architecture (FA) and Amnesty International. Reviewing footage of the aftermath, FA reported identifying remnants of GBU-39 munitions—extensively documented as used by the Israeli air force.
The strike hit four floors of the residential building, including the apartment belonging to Mahmoud and Nadira Cherri, as well as their domestic aide, Birki Negesa. A digital reconstruction of the aftermath shared by FA shows the completely blown-out façade of the ninth floor, where the artist’s parents lived, with rubble strewn across it. The eighth and seventh floors were also destroyed.
Based on digital reconstruction work by FA, supported by documentation from Amnesty International, Cherri’s complaint denounces “the targeted nature of the attack,” which “demonstrates the Israeli army’s responsibility in it.” The building is located in the residential neighborhood of Noueiri in Beirut. Because it is a civilian object, the attack could constitute a war crime under French criminal law and international humanitarian law.
Cherri is an internationally renowned artist whose two-decade-long sculptural and moving-image practice explores how political violence haunts places, people, and objects. His work has been circulated through influential institutions including the Vienna Secession and the Swiss Institute, and feted on contemporary art’s most prestigious stage: he won the Silver Lion Award at the 59th Venice Biennale for the sculpture series Titans (2022) and the video installation Of Men and Gods and Mud (2022).
“As a son, a citizen, and a victim, it is my duty to ensure that this war crime committed by the Israeli army is recognised for what it is, so that it may be brought to justice—for my parents and for all the civilians killed that day. Cherri said in a statement shared by FIDH. “Justice cannot undo death, but seeking justice means refusing to let impunity lead to the destruction of other lives.”
The November 2024 bombing of Noueiri was one episode in Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon; this latest escalation began in October 2023 and has been marked by increasing violence in the broader US–Israel–Iran war this year. Israel has justified its attacks on Lebanese residential areas as necessary to the goal of neutralizing the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah, which fired rockets into Israel in March. The FIDH reports more than 4,300 Lebanese deaths since 2023, while figures from the conflict-monitoring group ACLED estimate that Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,000 people and displaced another million across the country.
Wadih Al-Asmar, co-founder and president of the Lebanese Center for Human Rights said in a statement: “In a context marked by persistent impunity, this complaint constitutes the first initiative to bring before judicial authorities the crimes committed by the Israeli army on Lebanese territory, of which civilians were the primary victims.”
ARTnews has contacted the artist for further comment.
