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Le Commodore Hotel Beirut, also known as the Beirut Commodore Hotel, Hotel Commodore, or simply the Commodore is a five-star luxury hotel located on Rue Baalbek in the Hamra district of Beirut in Lebanon.
During the Lebanese Civil War, the Commodore became the international news media's hotel of choice, providing a safe haven for many Lebanese and foreign correspondents and diplomats on assignment between 1975 and 1987. [1] When registering at the hotel, guests were greeted with the question "Artillery side or car-bomb side?" [2]
Unlike other foreign journalists, the late Robert Fisk, the Middle East correspondent for The Times who set residence at Beirut in 1976, [3] recently stated that he never stayed in the Commodore, describing it as a seedy hotel with extremely high prices, where he met regularly with colleagues from the Associated Press to have lunch with them at the hotel's restaurant. [1]
In mid-February 1986, a week of fighting between the Druze (PSP) and Amal militias took place. The PSP drove Amal from most of West Beirut, including the Commodore. The hotel was extensively looted for several days. Order was restored on 22 February by the arrival of the Syrian army, which entered West Beirut for the first time since being evacuated in August 1982. [4] [5] After the war, the hotel was demolished (demolition started in February 1987) and built anew. Hussam Boubess was among the investors of the new hotel. [6] It reopened in February 1996 and was affiliated with Concorde Hotels of France. [7]
The hotel consists of a rectangular seven-story building that features 203 spacious guest rooms and suites, some with private balconies. Three interconnected rooms, triple rooms and family suites are also available, as well as non-smoking rooms and floors. Other facilities include an outdoor swimming pool and assorted gym, a business center, a ballroom and a lobby lounge bar.
The hotel's dining facilities include the Benihana restaurant that specializes in Japanese cuisine, a restaurant featuring international cuisine and the La Brasserie pâtisserie., which serves breakfast buffets, sweets and pastries.
The Commodore Hotel is briefly mentioned in a scene of the 2001 action thriller film Spy Game , set during the War of the Camps in Beirut.
Robert Fisk was an English writer and journalist. He was critical of United States foreign policy in the Middle East, and the Israeli government's treatment of Palestinians.
The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and also led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.
Walid Kamal Jumblatt is a Lebanese Druze politician and former militia commander who led the Progressive Socialist Party from 1977 until 2023. While leading the Lebanese National Resistance Front and allying with the Amal Movement during the Lebanese Civil War, he worked closely with Suleiman Frangieh to oppose Amine Gemayel's rule as president in 1983. After the civil war, he initially supported Syria but later led an anti-Assad stance during the start of the Syrian Civil War. He is still active in politics, most recently leading his party, the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) in the 2022 Lebanese general election.
The Amal Movement is a Lebanese political party and former militia affiliated with the Shia community of Lebanon. It was founded by Musa al-Sadr, Mostafa Chamran and Hussein el-Husseini in 1974 as the "Movement of the Deprived." The party has been led by Nabih Berri since 1980. The Greek Catholic Archbishop of Beirut, Grégoire Haddad, was among the founders of the movement.
The War of the Camps, was a subconflict within the 1984–1990 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, in which the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut were besieged by the Shia Amal militia.
The Lebanese Forces is a Lebanese Christian-based political party and former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament and is therefore the largest party in parliament.
The Damour massacre took place on 20 January 1976, during the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. Damour, a Maronite Christian town on the main highway south of Beirut, was attacked by left-wing militants of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and as-Sa'iqa. Many of its people died in battle or in the massacre that followed, and the others were forced to flee. According to Robert Fisk, the town was the first to be subject to ethnic cleansing in the Lebanese Civil War. The massacre was in retaliation to the Karantina massacre by the Phalangists.
The Communist Action Organization in Lebanon – CAOL (Arabic: منظمة العمل الشيوعي في لبنان | munaẓẓamah al-‘amal al-shuyū‘ī fī lubnān), also known as Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL), is Marxist-Leninist political party and former militia in Lebanon.
The Popular Nasserist Organization – PNO is a Sidon-based Nasserist party originally formed in 1973 by Maarouf Saad, a Sunni Muslim pan-Arab politician and member of Parliament (MP) later killed by the Lebanese Army during a February 1975 dock strike held in that port city.
The Toilers League, also designated the Workers League is a Lebanese left-wing political party founded in Lebanon at the late 1960s and currently led by former Chouf MP Zaher el-Khatib.
The Sixth of February Movement or '6th FM' was a small, predominantly Sunni Nasserist political party and militia active in Lebanon from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The 4th Infantry Brigade (Lebanon) was a Lebanese Army unit that fought in the Lebanese Civil War, being active from its creation in January 1983 until its destruction in September that year, in the wake of the Mountain War.
The 7th Infantry Brigade (Lebanon) is a Lebanese Army unit that fought in the Lebanese Civil War, being active since its creation in June 1983.
The Battle of the Hotels was a subconflict within the 1975–77 phase of the Lebanese Civil War that occurred in the Minet-el-Hosn hotel district of downtown Beirut. This area was one of the first major battles of the war that began in April 1975. The battle was fought for the possession of a small hotel complex, the St. Charles City Center, adjacent to the gilded Corniche seafront area on the Mediterranean, in the north-western corner of the downtown district of Beirut, and it quickly spread to other areas of central Beirut. The often fierce battles that ensued were fought with heavy exchanges of rocket and artillery fire from the various hotel rooftops and rooms. Sniper fire was commonly utilized.
The Mountain War, also known as the War of the Mountain, was a subconflict between the 1982–83 phase of the Lebanese Civil War and the 1984–89 phase of the Lebanese Civil War, which occurred at the mountainous Chouf District located south-east of the Lebanese Capital Beirut. It pitted the Christian Lebanese Forces militia (LF) and the official Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) against a coalition of the Druze Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and the PNSF's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), Fatah al-Intifada and As-Sa'iqa backed by Syria. Hostilities began when the LF and the LAF entered the predominantly Druze Chouf district to bring back the region under government control, only to be met with fierce resistance from local Druze militias and their allies. The PSP leader Walid Jumblatt's persistence to join the central government and his instigation of a wider opposition faction led to disintegration of the already fragile LAF and the eventual collapse of the government under President Amin Gemayel.
The Lebanese Resistance Regiments (Arabic: أفواج المقاومة اللبنانية, romanized: ʾAfwāj al-Muqāwama al-Lubnāniyya, or أَمَل AMAL), also designated Lebanese Resistance Battalions, Lebanese Resistance Detachments, Lebanese Resistance Legions and Battalions de la Resistance Libanaise (BRL), but simply known by its Arabic acronym أَمَل ʾAmal which means "Hope", were the military wing of the Amal Movement, a political organization representing the Muslim Shia community of Lebanon. The movement's political wing was officially founded in February 1973 from a previous organization bearing the same name and its military wing was formed in January 1975. The Amal militia was a major player in the Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1991. The militia has now been disarmed, though the movement itself, now known as the Amal Movement (Arabic: Harakat Amal), is a notable Shia political party in Lebanon.
The Holiday Inn Beirut is a ruined hotel in Beirut, Lebanon on Omar Daouk Street in the central Minet el Hosn neighborhood. The Holiday Inn was in operation for less than a year before the Lebanese Civil War broke out in 1975.
The 5th Infantry Brigade (Lebanon) is a Lebanese Army unit that fought in the Lebanese Civil War, being active since its creation in January 1983.
The People's Liberation Army – PLA, also known as the Armée populaire de libération (APL) in French or Forces of the Martyr Kamal Jumblatt, was the military wing of the left-wing Druze Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), which fought in the Lebanese Civil War. The PSP and its militia were members of the Lebanese National Movement (LNM) from 1975 to 1982.
The Le Bristol Hotel Beirut was a famous 5-star luxury hotel located in the Verdun neighborhood of Beirut, Lebanon. It opened in 1951 and was famous for both its architecture and guests it hosted. The hotel closed permanently in 2020.