and after denying allegations of war crimes, including torture and genocide in court, but he got li who heads the polish, sorry of front, wasn't taken into custody. as the court said that no evidence had been provided. he was allowed into spain last month to be treated for corona virus. his presence in the country has led to a diplomatic dispute with morocco, which rejects the western sahara independence movement. it's for to, to have led to a border dispute. ah, now the top stories on al jazeera countries in the european union have been urged to stop vaccinating young people until more people in poor countries are protected . the european center for disease prevention and control said, it says it's a luxury that states should avoid, while global supplies remain scarce. that message has been joined by a plea for more funding to help the global kovacs scheme. that's fine doses for

lower income nations. the head of the world health organization says richer countries need to show their support at a forthcoming donor conference. tomorrow. callbacks call it by god we said p and joe, alongside key implementation partner units f ames to raise critical new funds at its m. c. summit. to further diversify its portfolio and buy additional vaccines for low and lower middle income countries. fully financing callbacks and act is key to ending the increasingly to track fund to me and i tank the government of japan for hosting the mc summit. while the message from the w h o comes as restrictions begin across se, asia, several nations which had successfully controlled the virus in the early stages of the pandemic, are now seen cases surge. a 2 week lockdown has begun in malaysia with travel

restricted in vietnam, including a band on international flights at some airports. the conflict, and if you appears troubled northern p grade region is increased already high levels of hunger. the world food program says more than 5000000 people need emergency food aid. after more than 6 months of fighting. that's more than 90 percent of the population. the european union's envoy for the palestinian territories is calling for international support to rebuild garza after last month's 11 day bombardment by israel. more than 250 palestinians lost their lives and 2000 homes were destroyed. europe send voice says reconstruction work is a top priority. well, those are the top stories that stay with us. war hotels is coming up next. and my colleagues though, we'll have more news and you can watch are

english streaming live channels plus thousands of our programs. award winning documentaries and debt support. subscribe. you choose dot com. forward slash al jazeera english the control the holiday inn. and you control the region around, and that's why it was such a bloody battle. the important thing if you are walking around and a root was not to be in the line of fire from the holiday and the battle of holiday in completed the division of the root into 2 sectors. east and west beta worked the philosopher stuff for bellis and the shop for you

can plug them in from the most powerful building in the city. for me is the holiday yet? ah, more hotels are buildings that function as normal hotels, but often in the context of real instability. ah, ah ah, a route, once a jewel in the mediterranean, but then torn upon by war. this is the seafront of the lebanese capital today,

around 3 decades after the end of the civil war. the devastating conflict lasted for 15 years. this street was the green line, dividing bay route into east and west. dominating the front line was this concrete skeleton. what was once the holiday inn it's was still pattered by the scars of war, a grotesque witness to the years of separation, killing and destruction. ah, my name is tom young, i'm a painter and architectural activist from england. and i've lived in beirut about 8 years and particularly inspired by the memories

and the feelings, emotions that embedded in the walls of the buildings and bearing the most powerful building in the city for me is the holiday in this famous. and so i clinic, it's like a joint to me wish remains in the center of the city like an unresolved scar. the the holiday inn is still a stark reminder of movies that have yet to heal even today. oh the, the 13th of april, 1975 was the official start date of divine and but this was a proxy conflict fort during the cold war era on one side, lebanese right wing parties,

backed by the united states aiming to expel armed palestinian groups from lebanon on the other left wing parties, allied with the pillow and backed by the soviet union, who saw the right wing christians as an extension of israeli and american influence in lebanon. only 2 weeks off to be route here up to the south vietnamese, capital saigon fell to the communists, ending over 19 years of conflict in viet nam televisions. first war now came lebanon. the armies of reporters and war, photographers moved from southeast asia to the middle east. and began to occupy bay route hotel rooms filled up with a news crews. and a new chapter of the cold war began i, most of the correspondence,

tv crews and photographers checked into this hotel, the commodore a safe haven in the west of the city in every day. they would set off from here for downtown bay route for the main hotel district, where the holiday inn was the front line. the in the holiday inn was a war hotel in the sense that it was part of an urban battle. a battle between 2 factions of the strategic heights, but it was appraised her tail. so none of the journey was covering the warning. bitter stayed in the holiday and the holiday in became one of the 1st significant physical manifestations of the, of the conflict. my name is kenneth morrison. i'm a professor viewed a p and history. one of my key research interests in the history of war. hotel war hotels are buildings that function as normal hotels,

but often in the context of real instability. so i looked at numerous hotels. saudi was holiday in beta, it's commodore but also the hotel you'd open belfast, for example, the leader palace in cassey a cyprus, all of these hotels have continued to function through this period of instability. some are with in the real midst of an urban conflict. a war hotel emerges out of a history where journalists over a long period before was start of somehow find it a congenial place to be a watering hole convenient. near the center of activity in the city where the politics happens, where the culture happens, where you meet people, the hotels which made a route to the tourist center of the middle east. i'm john, who will be and i've long been a reporter reporting more over the world. and therefore i been in was the most memorable amongst these was the experience of reporting from the lebanese civil war

in the 1970s. this was once the richest part of the richest city in the middle east . i 1st went to lebanon in 1972, as a young reporter. my very 1st article from magazine here called the new statesman in which i effectively said, this place is waiting to blow. all it needs is a spark because of the complexity of this very small country, surrounded by competing nations, ah, from the 1950 to the early seventy's. they root was a magnet for the international pleasure seeking a lead they route hotel district was at the heart of its luxury tourism economy making its favor, jet set destination. the

one we speak about bay roots, golden age. as the switzerland, the middle east, we are actually talking about an area, the hotel district, that is the very specific product of a precise geopolitical project. my name is sarah for nathan. i'm a political geographer, voice based at the university of birmingham. i am interested in hotels and urban conflict. holiday inn came quite late in the day. in 1974, it was opened. it came quite late in the day into dis, or tell district which was considered a playground for celebrities and politicians, and diplomats, and spies. the hotel district started life in the 1920s when the st. george

opened for 4 decades. it was one of the most prestigious hotels on the mediterranean. during the cold war, in the 19 fifties and sixties, the bar of the st. george was described as a revolving door of information. the british double agent came philby was a regular. he operated on the cover as a foreign journalist. and on the 30th of january, $963.00, was spotted for the last time at the bar in the saint george. before disappearing in beirut, and reappearing a few months later in moscow. with more smart hotels sprang up, including the phoenician even more luxurious than the saint george. but when the holiday inn arrived in 1974, it was not only the toilet, but also the last to open before the civil war broke out. i

remember the experience of the phoenician and i went to the holiday in different scales of hotel, but both of them pretty luxurious hotels. the phoenician was very grand indeed the holiday inn was a holiday and but a very up market holiday. and so there was plenty of rome, plenty of silver, plenty of gold colored drapes. it was done very much in the style that the arab world likes. morning can you see is denisa san jose on us on how to sell to the hartford holly will. i let me come out over there to how to build li liability. i mean, i'm sorry on the invoice, timothy race fund or literally they in the and he came suddenly z. the bill of name, mom or fund was a fair amount of battle. mr. bell. i'm the see can hailey,

how does it get hello and to show them and be they had a bill and he came from one s i b the li, b elaborately bridge or can i but as a whole lot on the whole lot of tier. but son, i can live channels that are contaminated because ali, who will let mr. shader medical. where to him as him at home. i'm going to show you can nominate them in a grade level on a shot. if been, if someone can and i'm a hold, then i will not approve the creation of a sealant to see that even on the walk on i b, b, they all just told me young wanted to get inside the building today. but to do that, he had to get permission, not only from the owners, but from the lebanese army, which still controls it as a strategically sensitive location. young wanted to indulge his passion painting.

i finally got the chance to go inside and my, my, my media feeling was one of just overwhelming emotion. i felt sad. i felt, i felt horror, but i felt amazing. ah, when i started my project for the holiday inn. and so i started painting it from the outside from many viewpoint, and then i discovered that the parents of a very good friend of mine, i had that still refer her parents, sammy and finance. dad. actually, not only live next to the holiday inn and have a fantastic view of it from the balcony. and that possibly one of the very few

people in lebanon, who had the wedding reception, dinner in the holiday, in the family, had those at a 140 and then ah, there wasn't, let me you out about 7 can. it's how do you all holiday and be i need the on, i'm a half lee. i shut off and i bought my gentlemen as the way is when i was not with them bought one half leak in it half the henry on the last 2nd. can it would that could had work for me as i was in tone. my head with 2 guns, very simple mckenna, mazda, and had that had been on this when she shot on the machine in, was it going to this on the bar?

ah, holly about russia nation has an additional idea on the ship that that can have that comes here in 10 and not getting the muscles in and can min oh it initially. yeah. and you can, and when i said, remember only the n y, that even the cod credited the nail, but the men will hold it in me seeing the building from it. if you understand the context within the city and what it must have meant in the civil war, i use this very bright red, which expresses this, the blood that's been spilled and the violence and the fire and the hate and the anger. and every time i flash it the, the paint, it's

a way of going through that anger and that violence and honoring that. and i also raise it as if that itself is the erasure of memory. the, when the civil war started in april 975, the p a low when the lebanese national movement for the maronite christian for lunch party, the violence was triggered by the so called, buff incident on the 13th of april. when fighters from the for lunch party opened fire on the bus, carrying palestinians as it drove through their stronghold of 18 o romani 26 palestinians were killed and dozens wounded, unleashing what became a living hell on the streets of the roof, which spread rapidly throughout lebanon there was street fighting and shilling there was snipe than kidnapping. i'm sick,

terry and massacres across the religious divide. the, the christian for lungess militias were based in east bay route, but gradually took control of the main downtown streets in the west of the city. the strategic port and the hotel district, including the saint george, the phoenician, the hilton, and the holiday inn. on the 24th of october, 1975 left wing muslim militias and palestinian. all the groups under the umbrella of the national movement launched a massive offensive to try and regain control of the hotel district which straddled east and west with the battle of the hotels, 975970 6, was, was simply a battle for control of the strategic heights, he who controlled the strategic heights could essentially dictate terms so

controlling these buildings in the hotel district, the hide ice buildings became extremely important for the militias. i had a magic can be de soto with mr. kayla from the spanish had to hold an old lady. well well, but that one always had been a son. george will be nice. the munition fighters started moving upwards and they started going on top of towers. one ease bush on more. another one is only day in the news. a few days in to the battle of the hotels. the guests had completely abandoned the entire district and evacuated to the neighboring mediterranean island of cyprus.

soon after the upper floors of the holiday inn was set on fire by intensive shilling. the fighting on the ground spread into what was called sector for where the free lunches had begun. using the help of the sniper base in the days leading up to the start of the civil war, the bay roots hilton had been preparing for its grand opening. but that never took place. instead, militias, on both sides checked in before any v i p guests. this rare archive video shows the moment when left wing fighters seized the lobby of the hilton after the free lunches had withdrawn to their positions in the holiday. in the important thing, if you were walking around in beirut was not to be in the line of fire from the holiday. and yes,

my name is tim went and i was the bbc's middle east correspondence in beirut in the seventy's, eighty's and ninety's. i was in beirut during the much of the lebanese civil war. i remember once trying to get down to the holiday inn to try and make some sort of effort to get into it, to interview the, the lunches. and just as i was getting to the point in an area code, i mariah i see where you would come right. rand aqona into the face of the hotel gunfire started. i scuttled back, there was a dead body lying up the streets. it was all rather sinister. i fled back to the hotel. i'm afraid it wasn't one of my brave days. but did some people did get across to the holiday inn? on the 20th of march, 1976, the so called lebanese and palestinian joined forces launched their strongest attack. yes,

against the for lunch in the hotel district. their aim was to control all key positions. but especially the highly strategic holiday in control the holiday in. and you control the region around. so you, you took the holiday in, if you possibly could. and that's why it was such a bloody battle the holiday and then it surrounds blames for 3 days as opposing militias by the control. no one knew which way the fighting was going. not even the lebanese and foreign journalists who reported on the national movement 1st incursion into the hotel lobby. fair to earlier to learn what i before, and i'm a little behind last effort. now my own foot man, and i can, i'm in short, i'm going to be on i'm in the

a small group of christian for lunches. she managed to hide inside the hotel, killed a senior national movement commander before making their way up to the top on the 24th floor. by the fall, the hay philosopher sauce for bellis, under the steps to you. and i would love to have it in the house was saudi is out of feedback, and i'm not sure for the loan or what i'm a little bit out of our show any, any luck on some subtle to say otherwise. thought i keep what we do, the on the, on the images of the sniper dropping 24 floors to his death on the

street under the militia, celebrating for the cameras have become symbols of the fall of the holiday in the me through what happened? the room by room floor by floor stair by stair. the battle of holiday in completed the division of the route through the green line into 2 sectors, east and west beta. and these partition remained over the course of the following days. and it passed by the already no one will ever know how many heroes died here in the holiday in. the battle lasted 3 days and 3 nights and there were no prisoners at the end. jonathan nimble, be reported on several overseas, was for british commercial broadcaster i tv. and was one of the 1st foreign journalists to enter the holiday inn and document the aftermath of the fighting

there. smouldering ruins of what had been this very popular resort hotel. and he looked at him, thought, this is what we do to one another as hotel. and now it's a shelf total show. light bulbs hanging down off of the wall. wall wires, chairs smashed up a piano that was in there somehow. it's was born as survived the chandeliers, all like this broken, this sort of looking bizarre. li like gargoyles staring down at what humanity had done to itself below the vision, it will not be surprising vision. but it was surprising that that could happen in beirut. oh i

the green line, of course, in the civil war was the place where the flowers and trees grew abundant. and so i was a reference to that. but it's also a way of envisioning some brighter future kind of sense of hope that might spring up in the ruin of the past. i today around 3 decades on from the end of the civil war. the complexity of lebanon's sectarianism and the geo politics of the region means the country and its people are still struggling to recover from its effect. the majority of the hotel district has been rebuilt. oh, the enormous shell of the holiday inn still towers over downtown,

awaiting its fate. no more green line for it to look down on today. but the monument to 15 years of struggle continues to attract visitors, historians, artists, and filmmakers. all seeking to understand the events of the seventy's and 18. ah, more than any of the ravaged building, surviving the conflict. it surely deserves the title war hotel. i june 9676 days that re drew the map of the middle east. record a victory of the early army in that war was the greatest tragedy in the history of his 50 years later, i'll just explore the events leading to the war and its consequences,

which had still felt today. but we tried everything, we went to the united nations. we tried to mediations contact 3 different countries, and it was clear that all this was to know every the rule in june. from talk to al jazeera, we can, the army were attacking ring, and now they're attacking everyone in me on my do you regret words like that? we listen. absolutely. nigeria with a woman present, it would be great. we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on sera june, on a judge who will take kassandra honeys, place will bring you the latest runs presidential election. on june 18th, the bottom line returns to discuss current developments in us politics and how they affect the world member state to gather in the u. k. on june 11th for talks on key issues at the g 7 summit, a new series portal brings 0 award winning digital content to our tv audience.

and the sentencing of derek children will be handed down on june the 25th join us for lloyd coverage at the historic us court case. richard a conclusion june on our jazz ah, joe biden becomes a fast sitting president to visit tulsa to remember the massacre. black american say 100 years ago. i come here to help fill the silence because his silence rooms deepened. ah, hello there, mr. k. and this is out of their life and are also coming. the united nation says more than 9.