The Commodore Hotel in Beirut was the ‘safe haven’ home for the world’s media during some of Lebanon’s toughest war years, but the journalists living there also endured some of the toughest days of the long war. International war correspondents and photojournalists were based at the Commodore in the civil war years of 1975-1987 and during the Israeli siege of Beirut during its 1982 invasion. The hotel owner, Yousef Nazzal, became known as the Godfather of the international press. When things got tough, he provided food, drink, electricity, communications and security for the world’s media, and even payed the salaries of some journalists. The hotel was bombed 3 times and in 1982 the owner was arrested by the Israelis, who were unhappy with the stream of international media coverage of the war coming out of the Commodore. But in 1984, the Commodore witnessed a new, grim phase of the war when foreigners were increasingly kidnapped. By 1987, the owner was forced to close the hotel, after a fierce militias’ street fight for control of the hotel. The Commodore was ravaged, severely burnt and all but destroyed during those years.
