Survivors of Israel’s siege of Beirut see history repeating itself in Gaza
Al Jazeera
Residents of Beirut see parallels with Israel’s tactics 42 years ago and today’s campaign on the Palestinian enclave.
West Beirut, Lebanon – As poets and writers flit in and out of Sleiman Bakhti’s bookshop and publishing house in Beirut’s Hamra neighbourhood, he greets each one as an old friend, often handing them the latest book release.
He has been a “Hamrawi” for decades – living through Hamra’s peaks and troughs, including the dark days of the civil war, which, despite their harshness, brought people together.
“There was resilience and solidarity and hope for freedom against the enemy that wanted to destroy Beirut,” Bakhti, now in his 60s, tells Al Jazeera in his shop.
That atmosphere of “light and hope”, Bakhti says, stands in stark contrast to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza today, where each day new horrors are relayed to the world by the few remaining journalists on the ground.
Long seen as a Middle East cultural and intellectual hub, Hamra had everything from movie theatres to publishers, to cafes full of political dissidents or exiles from around the region in the years leading up to the Lebanese Civil War.
