Tag Archives | war

War Hotels – The Holiday Inn and Le Commodore Beirut Episodes

By Rami on December 30, 2018 in Documentaries, War

“War Hotels” is a documentary series showing on Al Jazeera that tells stories of iconic hotels that were associated with recent warfare, and two episodes that were aired earlier this month explored the stories of the Holiday Inn and Le Commodore hotels in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War that starte in 1975.

The Holiday Inn opened in 1974 but unfortunately turned into a war only a year later as it became part of the Battle of the Hotels. During that time the fighting militias got into fierce battles to control a group of hotels in the area of Saint-George and Ain El Mrayyseh including the Phoenicia and Holiday Inn.

On the other hand, Le Commodore became famous for being a safe haven for world journalists covering the civil war. Aside from its relatively safe location in Hamra at that time, what also helped was the available of communications lines to allow journalists to report their stories.

The two episodes are quite informative and have very interesting testimonies. You can either watch them on Al Jazeera website here and here or through the below two YouTube videos.

What Al Murr Tower Was Supposed To Become

By Rami on March 28, 2018 in Architecture, Uncategorized

I was searching for some info about Al Murr Tower last night when I stumbled upon some interesting stuff about it. I actually always knew the structure was built by Michael Al Murr back in the 70s but I never knew Solidere had plans for it in the90s.

According to this article from The Daily Star in 1999, Solidere claimed the tower in exchange of shares from Michael Al Murr as part of the reconstruction plan for Beirut cnetral disctrict, and was originally intending to demolish it and replace it with another high-rise building to house their headquarters in addition to office spaces for other companies and a rooftop restaurant on the last two floors.

The whole thing however was called off when Michael Al Murr felt unsatisfied with the terms of the sale and asked for his tower back. You can read all about it here.

Other sources on Facebook also claim that the reason nothing was done with the tower during all the past years is basically due to the damage incurred to the building structure during war days which probably can’t allow for further works to be performed, but I’m not sure how credible is that.

I know the everyone simply just got used to the tower its area was even named after it, but with all the fancy buildings nearby, it looks really ugly now and I don’t mind having it demolished. Doing it with explosives would make a good I guess! Otherwise, allowing graffiti artists to take it over would also be a cool idea.

Second photos via Beiruti Atik FB Page

Hollywood Made a Bad Movie About Beirut – So What?!

By Rami on January 16, 2018 in Movies

Everyone and their mother seems to be upset about Jon Hamm’s new movie, titled “Beirut”, because of its bad portrayal of our Beirut city and all the stereotypes that appeared in the trailer.

The movie is written by Tony Gilroy (author first four films of the Bourne series) and tells the story of Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm a former U.S. diplomat who is called back into service to save a colleague from a terrorist group that was responsible for the death of his own family 10 years earlier.

As the trailer shows, the movie is gonna give quite a gloomy picture of Beirut, and with everything bad going around us in the region right now,western people will unconsciously associate us with terrorism after watching it. But then again, you can’t just blame this movie for the bad publicity we have abroad… We have been ruining our country for over 40 years now and have made enough headlines so far for the whole world to judge us without the need to watch any movie about Lebanon!

And what are you expecting from Hollywood in the first place? A promotional tourism movie about Lebanon? In a world where everyone has a different point of view, why can’t we take their side for a second? We treat them as invaders but they simply regard themselves as our white saviors… Ever knew about the 1985 TWA Flight 847 that was hijacked by Lebanese people and rerouted to Beirut with 85 American passengers on-board? How about the 1983 barracks bombings in Beirut? Regardless what your political views might be, these are acts of terrorism to them and the average American had every reason to think of us as terrorists back then…

Even worse, back to our side, how do you label 15 years of civil war? We butchered each other, mass killings were nothing unusual over that period, and minors did join militias back then. Go read or watch some Lebanese war documentary to learn all about it… Do you only feel butthurt because an American is mentioning it now?

Instead of whining about the movie, just let it be and move on, if it’s really bad then it will eventually be a box office flop. If anything, you can probably brighten the country’s image by simply replacing the warlords that have been ruling the country since the civil war era and are the ones responsible for Beirut’s bad publicity everywhere!

Remembering the Lebanese Civil War Day by Day

By Rami on April 13, 2016 in Lebanon

Today marks the 41st anniversary of the Lebanese civil war which lasted 15 years from 1975 to 1990 resulting in 150,000 people killed and thousands of disappeared.

On this occasion I thought it would be good to share with you an interesting group on Facebook called “La guerre du Liban au jour le jour” where Georges Boustany and Kheireddine El-Ahdab share on a daily basis old videos, images, and news articles from war time to recollect both major and tiny events that happened during those 15 years.

I highly recommend you join the group not only to learn more about the Lebanese civil war but also because Georges and Kheireddine sometimes shares rare videos that were not shown in the released war documentaries so far. I once saw a video showing the neighborhood we used to live in during the 1980s, so you never know what’s in it for you!

Saint Hoax’s take on the war on Gaza

By Rami on July 24, 2014 in Lebanon

Saint Hoax is a Beirut based activist who was best known for the series of posters that went viral a while ago, showing Disney princesses being forcefully kissed by their fathers to raise awareness at statistics around rape and incest.

Below are his latest posters showing his take on the ongoing war on Gaza nowadays. You can’t but respect his spot on work!

You can stay up to date with Saint Hoax’s work by following him on Facebook and Twitter.

The ugliest side of the clashes in Tripoli

By Rami on May 27, 2013 in What the fuck!

How sick is this?

Tannoura Maxi – Heels of War

By Rami on May 4, 2012 in Lebanon

Tannoura Maxi is a new Lebanese movie that debuted in theaters yesterday, and tells the story of a priest about to be ordained but falls in love of a high-heeled girl.

Regardless how good this movie might be, it is yet another Lebanese movie with a story taking place during the war, and I guess people are fed up with this repetitive pattern in Lebanese movies. I mean we’ve enjoyed the first few ones like West Beirut, but the topic has been used and abused! Wouldn’t you prefer to watch Lebanese movies of other genre?

Flash mob commemorating the Lebanese civil war

By Rami on April 14, 2012 in Lebanon

An NGO called CitiAct conducted this flash mob at Hamra street on the commemoration day of the Lebanese civil war yesterday.

A couple of drivers pretended they’re fighting in the middle of the road when people around them suddenly started dropping dead, which pretty much resembles to the situation during the days of the civil war when innocent people were dying for the warlords who are now ruling the country.

Tenzekir w ma ten3ad… nshalla!

Worrying news from South Lebanon

By Rami on August 3, 2010 in Lebanon

We’re currently receiving VERY worrying news from the south! From what I’m reading on news websites and twitter, it seems that Israeli soldiers were trying to cut some tree at Adayseh village in order to install some surveillance camera when the Lebanese army stopped them.

Following that, an Israeli tank bombed an LAF base and an exchange of fire erupted between the two on the borders. Now there are some news about Katyusha missiles fired at north Israel… let’s hope it wont get any worse than that!

Via Naharnet

12:43pm OTV: 10 artillery rounds fell in Adeisseh, one of which near a Lebanese army post.
12:40pm Future News: A Lebanese soldier and another civilian were injured in the fighting.
12:38am VDL: The clashes erupted after the Israeli army tried to cut some trees inside Lebanese territories.
12:36pm LBC: Israeli tank hit a house in Adeisseh.
12:34pm NNA: Exchange of gunfire between Lebanese and Israeli soldiers along the border town of Adeisseh.
12:31pm MTV: An Israeli tank fired an artillery shell on a Lebanese army position on the outskirts of Adeisseh.

Via Now Lebanon

12:42   Al-Arabiya: Two Katyusha missiles fired at North Israel
12:31   MTV: LAF base at Aadaiseh village bombed by Israeli tank
12:29   AFP: Exchange of gunfire between Lebanese and Israeli soldiers along border

Via Tayyar.org

12:55 الجيش اللبناني يرد على العدو الاسرائيلي باطلاق قذيفتي RPG ورشقات نارية (المنار)
12:46 سقوط 10 قذائف اسرائيلية على بلدة العديسة بالقرب من مركز للجيش اللبناني (OTV)
12:42 جريح من الجيش اللبناني وآخر مدني في الإعتداء الإسرائيلي على العديسة
12:35 اشتباكات بين الجيش اللبناني وجيش العدو على الشريط الشائك تتمة
12:30 دبابة اسرائيلية اطلقت قذيفة باتجاه مركز للجيش اللبناني عند مدخل بلدة العديسة واصابته اصابة مباشر

Update (8/3/2010 2:38PM):

Via Tayyar.org

14:36 Two Lebanese army soldiers were killed in the Israeli shelling on Al-Aadaiseh.
14:32 A high-ranking Israeli army officer was killed in the shelling and Israeli soldiers were trying to pull him out. (Al-Manar)
14:30 Israeli troops called through loudspeakers on the Lebanese army to halt fire so that they can evacuate the wounded.
14:02 UNIFIL urged Lebanon and Israel a maximum restraint. (Future News)
13:55 Apache helicopter fired two missiles on the hill of Al-Aadaiseh. (NTV)
13:35 Two houses are burning in Al-Aadaiseh village. (Future News)
13:21 Israeli snipers are firing at the Adassieh- Kfar Kila road. (AL-Manar)
13:20 A Lebanese soldier identified as “Hasan Nazzal” and a civilian “Ibrahim Abboud” were injured in the clashes at Al-Aadaiseh. (MTV)

Update (8/3/2010 7:11PM):

The situation is calm again in the south for more than 3 hours now, god bless our soldiers and may our martyrs that fell today rest in peace.