With all the toxic rhetoric in the past few weeks, the major missing ingredient was actual numbers and solid facts.

Below, I’ve embedded 33 facts published as part of the effort by professor Nasser Yassin as part of the #AUB4Refugees “Fact of the Day” initiative. You can find a lot more here.

Some facts are heartbreaking and disheartening, but others are also very enlightening and contradict the false information pushed by Lebanese politicians to pit Lebanese host communities, against Syrian refugees, instead of against their corrupt politicians.

Inform yourselves, and act accordingly. The refugee crisis is the worst one to hit the world in our lifetimes, and it’s extremely hard to turn the tragedy and conflict into something manageable and positive in the long run.

What’s certain, is that violence and hatred will not solve anything, and with the fighting winding down in Syria, many refugees are already leaving, with others packing up and getting ready to go back to their destroyed towns and homes.

In an ideal world, Lebanon’s host communities would get funding for much-needed infrastructure projects, like roads, electricity, public transport, health and environmental services, which working-age refugees could voluntarily execute with the money they make helping them restart their shattered lives at home, and their presence in Lebanon leaving a positive impact that our own Lebanese government has been unable to do for the past 4 decades.

Please calm down. Violence is not the answer, and the dire effects of the crisis is putting strain on the entire world, and our region and country especially. Finding solutions that will benefit both sides can happen, and is happening in many instances. Picking fights and letting sectarian and xenophobic urges get the best of us will do nothing but plunge us into worse conditions, and push more people into the arms of extremism, instead of away from it.