Beirut Report

24/07/2024

Ramlet el Baida, once a gorgeous landscape, now a concrete jungle with a tiny patch of sand. Is private real estate—and privatization in general—a good business for Lebanon? Who profits and who pays?

28/06/2024

A film based on the Isr invasion of Beirut in 1982 and a legendary act of resistance to occupying forces.

07/06/2024

"We found that white phosphorus was used in at least 17 municipalities stretching from southwest Lebanon near the Mediterranean all the way to the southeast near the occupied Golan Heights. And in five of those municipalities, we identified the use of white phosphorus munitions over populated residential areas."

Israeli forces have illegally dropped white phosphorus munitions on densely populated residential areas in southern Lebanon, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch. White phosphorus, which poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering, was dropped by Israel over at least 17...

20/04/2024

"The newest embassy arrives amid these major regional and global developments. But the questions it raises are far from new. Since the mid 20th century, successive US embassies in Lebanon tell the story of US commercial and strategic interest in the country and how the space of the embassy has increasingly blurred the lines between militarization and diplomacy.

…before the attacks, the (old) embassy had operated from the heart of the Lebanese capital. Situated next to the verdant campus of the American University of Beirut, it occupied three conjoined towers on the seafront. Staff could walk to work along the corniche. At the time of its construction in the early 1950s, downtown Beirut was a hub for regional US intelligence and economic activities. US companies like Pan Am, then the world’s biggest airline, Chase Manhattan Bank and American Life Insurance all had iconic administrative buildings in the city. US Navy ships regularly docked at Beirut’s port for fleet week, and US sailors strolled the streets. “This embassy is the finest listening post in the whole region,” a CIA agent, played by disco-era hero “Shaft” (Richard Roundtree) leans back in his chair and tells the US ambassador to Lebanon in the 1972 film, The Embassy. (The film—one of several cinematic depictions of the US Embassy in Beirut—is notable for having actually been shot in the city.)

Not only did the United States prop up successive Lebanese regimes with weapons and US troop deployments, the US embassy published thousands of columns of anti-union propaganda in Lebanese newspapers and even vetted cabinet appointments.

During the 1960s and 1970s, west Beirut was a hub for the Arab left, and the embassy and diplomatic staff attempted to work with various factions. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), for example, agreed to provide security assistance to the US embassy, as detailed in the 2014 biography of Robert Ames, The Good Spy, by Kai Bird.[5] A former Lebanese embassy staff member recalled being “annoyed” that Palestinians were standing guard with US Marines. Although the Reagan administration publicly labeled the PLO a terrorist organization, according to Ames’ biography, Beirut’s CIA station, which was based out of the embassy, had covertly been training Yasser Arafat’s elite security force, Force 17.[6]
One of the force’s members, Imad Mughniyeh would later be blamed for both the 1983 attack on the embassy and the attack on the US Marine Barracks later that year. "

At over 40 acres the new Beirut embassy, a 19-structure ziggurat that dwarfs any government facility in Lebanon, is the second largest in the world after Baghdad’s. Its billion-dollar estimated budget rivals the cost of the US embassy in London, and it is about four times its size, despite Britain...

18/04/2024

Fascinating discoveries as part of the Ain el Mreisseh Research project, including ancient linkages between Beirut and Gaza.

17/04/2024

Missed a spot…

07/03/2024

Decades ago, Antelias cave was home to one of the earliest and least understood civilizations to inhabit modern Lebanon. It was destroyed around the time this old Antelias photo was taken. Full story: https://beirutreport.com/race-against-time-how-luxury-developers-are-wiping-out-ancient-beirut/

04/03/2024

Beirut Airport 1982.

Source: James Case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beirut–Rafic_Hariri_International_Airport #/media/File:Beirut_Airport_1982.jpg

23/02/2024

Old photos show us what came before, in this case a church and cemetery were located behind the Chaker Owaini building seen in the 1960s photo. Today the trees and cemetery have been replaced by the large glass facade UN building, seen in more recent photos. We have also seen old cemeteries disappear near Zaitunay Bay, transformed into glass towers. How many cemeteries were moved in Beirut to make way for urbanization and private real estate and who benefited from moving the dead?

19/01/2024

It just occurred to me that a Roman-era wall of ancient Beirut, which was discovered and dismantled a few years ago, ran almost parallel to today’s Ring Road (Avenue Fouad Chehab). Today this road divides rich Beirut (Solidere) from poor Beirut (Khandak Al Ghameek). Maybe the Romans had their own type of Solidere, keeping a wall up between those who were in and those who were out! See my post about the original wall here: https://beirutreport.com/roman-city-wall-removed-from-beirut-site/

02/12/2023

Is it nostalgia or colonialism when your best memories of your country are in a different language? And when the best remembered places were at an income level only a minority could afford? Who enjoyed the ‘Paris of the Middle East?’ beyond a small expat Western bubble and their local clients and servants? And what has changed today- are the good times over for the rich in Lebanon or are they only getting better with more fancy foreign places opening every day ?

28/09/2023

Hard to believe that in this lifetime, Ras Beirut was a real village with plentiful farmlands. Now we have real estate and plentiful concrete.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/9568295833/permalink/10159045742180834/?mibextid=S66gvF

02/08/2023

Clouds under Mount Lebanon.

Photo by Philippe Germanos

30/07/2023

How often were we told that old Beirut could not be fixed? The souks needed some plaster and paint, but instead they were totally leveled to make way for a “modern” space, empty of people, that cost the country billions.

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/100064057868320/posts/676076044537652/?mibextid=cr9u03

09/07/2023

Hard to imagine Beirut roads had a view of the sea… Now all road views are obstructed by towers.

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/100002193669823/posts/6308462645903462/?mibextid=DcJ9fc

01/07/2023

Where does the airport smell come from? And are you sure you want to know?

22/06/2023

18/06/2023

They paved paradise and put up a Movenpick hotel. ‏سويسرا الشرق 

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/9568295833/permalink/10158871457480834/?mibextid=DcJ9fc

17/06/2023

One beach liberated from an illegal chalet. To many more. Photo via Farid Abi Younes

16/06/2023

Towers in the front to shade the poor?

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/groups/9568295833/permalink/10158872765815834/?mibextid=DcJ9fc

15/06/2023

There’s always been a disconnect between fantasy and reality in Lebanon. As Gibran said, “you have your Lebanon and I have mine.”

09/05/2023

Finally a look inside the old Holiday Inn during its heyday.