The Port That Made a City:

 

In the five years since a devastating explosion rocked Beirut Port, the Lebanese people and victims of the tragedy have yet to secure long-awaited answers. For many, the pain of August 4, 2020, is as fresh a wound as ever — and now, just as then, accountability for the improper storage of the 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate that caused the explosion in Beirut Port’s Warehouse 12 remains out of reach.

 

If there is anything that can be said of the Lebanese resolve to endure, no matter the countless tragedies they face, however, it is that they can push through pain to seize justice and hope, even when obstacles block each step of the way. The recent exhibition, “Beirut al-Marfa,” serves as a testament to this willpower. Held at the Beit Beirut Urban Observatory, the exhibition is scheduled to run from November 5 to February 8, 2026, educating the public about the port's historical importance and presenting proposals for its future.

 

“Beirut was a port before it became a city,” says Hala Younes, an architect, researcher, university professor, and one of the exhibition’s several curators. In an interview with Anadolu Agency cited by Al Jazeera, she explains that while Beirut is indeed an ancient city with roots linking to the Phoenician and Roman eras, one of the pivotal turning points in the port’s modern history dates back to 1832 with Governor Ibrahim Pasha’s decision to establish a quarantine center adjacent to the port.* Beirut and its port became a mandatory passageway for regional trade, linking Europe to the East, as ships had to stop at the quarantine center to prevent the spread of the plague and cholera. The port underwent another major transformation in 1895 when the Ottoman Empire granted a concession to a private company to develop Beirut Port and operate railway lines connecting the city to Damascus, Iraq, and Tehran. “This is how the modern city grew, passing through multiple historical phases, and how it thrived especially after Haifa Port was shut down following the 1948 Nakba — until the 2020 explosion destroyed Beirut and its port and threw their future into uncertainty,” states Younes.

 

Before the creation of Israel in 1948, Haifa Port was the most important Mediterranean port due to its access to railways (the Haifa-Damascus railway) and modern docks that allowed for Palestinian exports, Iraqi oil shipments, and transit trade paths to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Beirut Port, though still a major player on the board, was secondary.

 

With the start of the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948, however, Arab states imposed a boycott, and Arab trade was diverted away from Haifa Port. Beirut became the primary port for Syria, Jordan, Iraq (non-oil trade), and the Gulf states. Lebanon became a major bridge between Arab markets and the West, and shipping lines relocated from Haifa to Beirut and Alexandria. By the 1960s, Beirut quickly blossomed into the free-market capital of the Arab world, bringing in a massive inflow of regional capital, including Syrian and Palestinian trade. Nationalization of private property by socialist regimes also led to a massive flow of Arab capital to Beirut. By the 70s, it would serve as the primary re-export center between Europe and the Arab East.

 

The Port’s operations changed with the onset of the Lebanese Civil War. Due to divisions between East and West Beirut, the port essentially became a dangerous frontline, its control contested over by factions. Alternative ports emerged — the east side of Beirut Port (which included the official port, docks, and customs zone) was primarily controlled by Christian militias (later the Lebanese Forces); West Beirut was controlled by Muslim-Leftist-Palestinian forces (PLO), who did not control the port itself but operated other harbors and informal landing points and attempted multiple times to advance eastward to seize the port to no avail. As Syria gained military control over parts of Lebanon, it also redirected trade routes to its ports in Tartus and Latakia.

 

Beirut Port’s importance declined during this period of the war; its operations were limited and were mostly replaced by smuggling and wartime trade. Control over the port shifted among Christian groups after the PLO was expelled from Beirut in 1982, from the Lebanese Forces or army units loyal to President Amine Gemayel or General Michel Aoun.

 

After the war, government rebuilding programs following the Taif Agreement led to the modernization of Beirut Port. Once again, the port regained its status as Lebanon’s major gateway. However, it did not regain the dominance it had previously held over trade in the region, due to the rise of competing ports.

 

When 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in the port on August 4, 2020, killing 218 and injuring over 7,000 people, including both locals and foreigners, the people demanded answers. The explosion was considered the 4th largest non-nuclear explosion in the world, measuring 3.5 magnitude, with costs for rebuilding and developing the damaged port estimated between 50 and 100 million USD. Then-President Michel Aoun had been aware of the chemicals’ improper storage in the port warehouse well before the tragedy, but did not act.

 

According to findings published by Timour Azhari in Al Jazeera immediately after the explosion, the ammonium nitrate arrived at Beirut Port in September 2013 on board a Russian-owned, Moldovan-flagged cargo ship named the MV Rhosus.** The report states that the ship, bound for Mozambique, came from Georgia and was abandoned by its owners and crew in Beirut. On June 27, 2014, then-director of Lebanese Customs, Shafik Merhi, sent a letter requesting a solution to the cargo. Customs officials went on to send at least five more letters warning of the material’s dangers on December 5, 2014, May 6, 2015, May 20, 2016, October 13, 2016, and October 27, 2017, as Badri Daher, director of Lebanese Customs, told LBCI, cited by Azhari. 

 

Investigations and attempts to hold responsible parties accountable have been at a standstill for years. In the immediate aftermath of the blast, Judge Fadi Sawan was chosen to lead the investigation in August 2020, but was constantly sidelined after calling “notable politicians for questioning,” writes Justin Salhani in “Beirut Port Blast Victims Say Five Years Later, Justice Feels a Bit Closer,” published in Al Jazeera.*** Sawan was replaced in February 2021 by Judge Tarek Bitar, who remains the lead investigator of the case despite numerous obstacles impeding the investigation. Bitar called several political figures in for questioning and issued arrest warrants for them. Among those being summoned are Amal and Hezbollah-affiliated officials, including Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeiter, who still refuse their summons to this day. Bitar’s investigations provoked a threat in 2021 from high-ranking Hezbollah official Wafiq Safa to “usurp” the judge, as reported by Tamara Qiblawi in CNN.**** Stuck at a standstill for years, Judge Bitar’s efforts to uncover the truth were impeded, and internal security forces refused to execute his warrants. Public prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat ordered the investigation halted.

 

However, new developments have changed the trajectory of the investigation, possibly a turn for the positive — Lebanon witnessed, after all, the election of its new president, Joseph Aoun, and prime minister Nawaf Salam at the beginning of 2025, sparking a hopeful reaction from many. Their inaugural addresses expressed intent to find justice for the victims of the blast. President Joseph Aoun states, as cited by Salhani, “My commitment is clear: We must uncover the whole truth and hold accountable those who caused this catastrophe.” Aoun met with the families of victims killed in the blast on July 17, and on July 29, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam issued a memorandum declaring August 4 a day of national mourning.

 

Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation in January 2025. Meanwhile, the public prosecutor, Oueidat, was officially replaced by Judge Jamal Hajjar in April 2025. Hajjar reversed Oueidat’s decisions in March, allowing Bitar to continue his investigation unhindered. However, recent reports relating to Hezbollah’s potential involvement in the explosion have surfaced; on December 2, 2025, posts on the platform X made by IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee claim Hezbollah’s Unit 121 eliminated several Lebanese individuals and officials who had threatened to expose Hezbollah’s involvement in the Beirut Port explosion. The reports are pending investigation.

 

Now that hopes for closure and answers are rekindled, the recent “Beirut al-Marfa’” exhibition opens a discussion about the future of Beirut. Architect, director of AUB’s Neighborhood Initiative, and exhibition coordinator Mona El Hallak explains, “The exhibition aims to introduce people to the history and present of this city, and to make them feel they have a role in its future.”

 

Opening on November 5 at Beit Beirut, the exhibition drew over 400 attendees, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, ministers, municipal officials, and figures from Lebanon’s cultural and academic communities. The exhibition is dedicated to showing the relationship between Beirut and its harbor throughout the Ottoman era (1299-1923), the French Mandate (1920-1943), independence, and leading up to the August 4 explosion. Some of the contributors include the Nicolas Sursock Museum, Institut français du Liban, Foundation for Art and Psychoanalysis, Art Design Lebanon, Arab Center for Architecture, AUB Neighborhood Initiative, Lebanese Association for History, and many others. The exhibition includes historical maps and a 3D video illustrating the scale of damage inflicted on the city and port after the explosion. As Al Jazeera writes, “The organizers — a group of architects, researchers, and university professors — seek to remind the public of the port’s history since 1830, in an effort to pave the way toward envisioning its reconstruction and development in ways inseparable from Beirut’s history and culture.”

 

In the words of Hala Younes, as quoted by Hiba Sinno in an article for the American University of Beirut, “This historical moment will not return…We lived through August 4 — and Beirut and its port lived through it as well.”***** Sinno writes, “Beirut al-Marfa’ is not only about memory. It examines how the port might be rebuilt, and what that reconstruction means for Beirut’s identity and public life. Visitors encounter the different proposals developed for the port’s recovery — each tied to a different vision of Lebanon’s economic and geopolitical future.” She adds: “Moving between archival material, urban research, testimonies, proposals, and personal reflection, Beirut al-Marfa' invites visitors to consider how rebuilding infrastructure also requires repairing trust, public life, and the city's capacity to imagine its future.”