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Last nights at the Holiday
Inn
Litterature,
art and contemporary world:
narratives, history, memory
Colloquium papers, 16-17 May
2014
edited by Nayla Tamraz
Presses de l'Université
Saint-Joseph
ISBN 978-614-8019-08-1
Dernières
nuits au Holiday Inn
Littérature,
art et monde contemporain:
récits, histoire, mémoire
Actes du Colloque du 16 et 17
Mai 2014
sous la direction de Nayla
Tamraz
Presses de l'Université
Saint-Joseph
ISBN 978-614-8019-08-1
Publication
page on USJ website
Read
article online /
Lire en ligne
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Abstract
“It offers
lingering visitors
luxurious furnished
apartments with a lovely
sea view, right in the
middle of the best
hotels. Under the same
roof, anyone who chooses
to do so can live,
indulge in business,
exercise a profession,
get supplies, eat, drink
and enjoy himself. A
dream come true. In grim
contrast to its
publicity brochures,
Beirut's 26-floor
Holiday Inn last week
was more a nightmare
than a dream come true.”
(1)
On March 21, 1976, after
heavy shelling that
started at night,
squadrons from the
“Mourabitoun”, the
“Lebanese Arab Army” and
other organizations
captured the Holiday Inn.
The high-rise hotel had
been occupied by the
Phalange when combats
started in the hotels
district in October 1975.
On the following day,
Christian militiamen
struggled to take back
their former citadel. A
desperate attempt that
revealed to be
unsuccessful.
For the Lebanese Left and
their Palestinians allies,
the assault was a victory
over “isolationist” and
“imperialist” forces. At
the contrary, the defeated
Phalanges considered the
event as an act of heroism
of their isolated
defenders. Last, the
residents of Ain el
Mraysseh neighborhood
rejoiced of the end of the
deadly sniping from the
tower’s top floors.
The Holiday Inn attack is
a milestone in the
narratives of the Lebanese
War. From the time of
happening, it has been
subject to various and
contradictory versions and
generated tales that
incorporated collective
memory and trauma. Based
on archive, testimonies
and artistic and literary
works, this presentation
doesn’t pretend to offer
the definitive truth. It
rather apprehends a
specific historical moment
and its interpretations
through oral, written and
visual approaches.
(1) Karsten Prager,
"Beirut’s Agony Under the
Guns of March", Time
107, no 14 (5 April 1976):
31.
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related
projects:
Abandoned
dwellings in Beirut
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<<
abstract
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>>
selected articles:
Daniel
Hilton, Middle East
Eye, 26'11'2017
Samir
Frangié, L'Orient
Littéraire,
12'2015
India
Stoughton, Al
Jazeera,
30'12'2015
Delphine Darmency, Noun, 08'2014
Fifi Abou Dib, L'Officiel Levant, 06'2014
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