The Palestine Hotel (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
: فندق فلسطين), often referred to simply as ''The Palestine'', is an 18-story
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
located on
Firdos Square
Firdos Square ( ar, ساحة الفردوس, Sāḥat al-Firdaus) is a public open space in central Baghdad, Iraq. It is named after the Arabic word ''Firdows'', which means "paradise". The site has been the location of several monumental artworks ...
near from Saadon, across from the
Ishtar Hotel. It has long been favoured by
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
s and
media
Media may refer to:
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data
** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising
** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...
personnel. The hotel overlooks the
Tigris
The Tigris () is the easternmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, the other being the Euphrates. The river flows south from the mountains of the Armenian Highlands through the Syrian and Arabian Deserts, and empties into the ...
on its eastern bank and is located several hundred metres south of the
Baghdad Hotel
The Baghdad Hotel is a large hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, favored by Westerners after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The hotel overlooks the Tigris on its eastern bank.
History
The Baghdad Hotel Bombing Terror Attack occurred on October 12, 2003, when ...
.
History
The hotel was built in 1982 by the Iraqi government and managed by the
French hotelier
Le Méridien
Le Méridien is an upscale, design-focused international hotel brand with a European perspective. It was originally founded by Air France in 1972 and was later based in the United Kingdom. Marriott International now owns the chain. As of June 202 ...
as the Palestine Meridien Hotel.
[Martin, Susan Taylor.]
In Baghdad, lap of luxury isn't all that comfortable
" ''St. Petersburg Times'', April 26, 2003. UN-imposed sanctions following the
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
led Le Méridien to dissociate itself from the hotel, which was subsequently renamed simply the Palestine Hotel.
[ Starting with the 1991 ]Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
and continuing through the 2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...
, this was one of several hotels foreign media used to cover situations that developed in Iraq, and it survived explosive attacks by various parties.["Foreign media suffer Baghdad losses,"](_blank)
April 8, 2003, ''BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
,'' retrieved September 11, 2022["Reporting From Baghdad During the War: NPR correspondent Anne Garrels describes what she observed and thought while reporting from Iraq,"](_blank)
book excerpts, Winter 2003, ''Nieman Reports,'' Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, retrieved September 11, 2022
April 8, 2003 incident
A controversial incident occurred during the 2003 invasion of Baghdad. On April 8, 2003, an American tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
fired a shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
on the hotel, killing two journalists, Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
cameraman Taras Protsyuk and José Couso of Telecinco
Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially launc ...
Spanish television. Three journalists were wounded. One of the survivor journalists was Japanese Mika Yamamoto
(26 May 1967 – 20 August 2012) was an award-winning Japanese video and photojournalist for the news agency Japan Press. Yamamoto was killed on 20 August 2012 while covering the ongoing Syrian Civil War in Aleppo, Syria. She was the first Japa ...
who died in Aleppo
)), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black".
, motto =
, image_map =
, mapsize =
, map_caption =
, image_map1 =
...
during the Syrian civil war on August 20, 2012.
On May 27, 2003, the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journ ...
(CPJ) published a report of their investigation into the tank shelling of the Palestine Hotel on April 8, 2003.["Permission to Fire?"](_blank)
May, 2003, Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journ ...
After interviewing "about a dozen reporters who were at the scene, including two embedded journalists who monitored the military radio traffic before and after the shelling occurred" the CPJ determined that the facts suggest that the "attack on the journalists, while not deliberate, was avoidable". The CPJ determined that the tank thought it was firing upon an Iraqi forward artillery observer when it hit the hotel. The report went on to say "CPJ has learned that Pentagon officials, as well as commanders on the ground in Baghdad, knew that the Palestine Hotel was full of international journalists and were intent on not hitting it."
A U.S. military investigation in August 2003 cleared Philip DeCamp and the other two soldiers concerned, Sgt. Shawn Gibson and Capt. Philip Wolford, of wrongdoing, saying they acted properly because they believed they were firing on enemy troops. According to the inquiry, American commanders reacted to the tank's firing on the building immediately with anger and consternation, with Lieutenant Colonel DeCamp, the battalion commander, berating Captain Wolford, his subordinate, for giving Sergeant Gibson clearance to fire. However the inquiry never clarified why he or anybody else were unable to prevent the attack from taking place.
A few days after the April incident, DeCamp was quoted in the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' as saying "I'm sorry to say it, but I'm the guy who killed the journalists. I'm really sorry, and I feel badly for their families, but I had no choice. My soldiers' lives were in danger."
In February 2004, the NGO Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
, after undertaking their own investigation, called for the reopening of the inquiry into the incident of 8 April 2003. The NGO stated that the soldiers on the ground, including Philip Wolford, Philip DeCamp and Shawn Gibson, could probably not be held responsible for their lack of information about the function of the Palestine Hotel. Reporters Without Borders, however, demanded that the responsibility of higher commanding levels be investigated, as they withheld the crucial information from their lower ranking officers that the Palestine Hotel was used by journalists.
In 2008, former military intelligence linguist Army Sergeant Adrienne Kinne revealed to ''Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
'' that she had seen secret US military documents that listed the Hotel Palestine as a potential target.
A Spanish judge has indicted three US soldiers in 2009 in the killings: Sergeant Shawn Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant Colonel Philip DeCamp. The three men were charged with homicide and committing a crime against the international community.Shawn Gibson, Philip Wolford y Philip De Camp s/ homicidio (Jose Couso case)
/ref>
Postwar history
Being a soft, highly visible target, the hotel periodically came under attack by the Iraqi insurgency Iraqi insurgency may refer to:
* Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011), part of the Iraq War
** Iraqi insurgency (2003–2006), 2003–2006 phase of the Iraqi insurgency
** Iraqi civil war (2006–2008), multi-sided civil war in Iraq
* Iraqi insurgency (20 ...
. The Palestine was not located in the fortified Green Zone
The Green Zone ( ar, المنطقة الخضراء, translit=al-minṭaqah al-ḫaḍrā) is the most common name for the International Zone of Baghdad. It was a area in the Karkh district of central Baghdad, Iraq, that was the governmental ...
, so it is susceptible to mortar and rocket
A rocket (from it, rocchetto, , bobbin/spool) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely fr ...
fire. On October 24, 2005, a cement mixer
A concrete mixer (often colloquially called a cement mixer) is a device that homogeneously combines cement, aggregate such as sand or gravel, and water to form concrete. A typical concrete mixer uses a revolving drum to mix the components. For ...
truck bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
detonated beside the hotel after breaching the defensive wall. The blast destroyed the lobby.
Gallery
Image:Palestine Meridian hotel and Ishtar Sheraton hotel.jpg, Palestine Hotel on right, Cristal Grand Ishtar Hotel on left
Image:Bagdad, invasión de irak 2003.JPG, Journalist Olga Rodriguez on the balcony of a room at the Palestine Hotel, 2003
See also
*Al Rasheed Hotel
The Royal Tulip Al Rasheed Hotel (sometimes spelled ''Al-Rashid'') (Arabic, ) is an 18-storey hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, often visited by journalists and media personnel due to its location within Baghdad's Green Zone. It is named after the eighth ...
*Baghdad Hotel
The Baghdad Hotel is a large hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, favored by Westerners after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The hotel overlooks the Tigris on its eastern bank.
History
The Baghdad Hotel Bombing Terror Attack occurred on October 12, 2003, when ...
* Ishtar Hotel
References
External links
Jose Couso
In Baghdad, lap of luxury isn't all that comfortable
U.S. Marines Raid the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad: We Go to the Iraqi Capital to Speak with a Reporter Inside the Hotel - DN! 4/16/03
Hotel Palestine: Killing the Witness - Documentary Exposes Truth Behind the Attack 3/23/05
Fmr. Military Intelligence Sgt. Reveals US Listed Palestine Hotel in Bagdad as Target Prior to Killing of two Journalists in 2003
Democracy Now!
''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...
May 13, 2008
{{coord, 33.3152, N, 44.4183, E, scale:1250, display=title
Organizations based in Baghdad
Hotels in Iraq
Buildings and structures in Baghdad
1982 establishments in Iraq
Hotels established in 1982
Hotel buildings completed in 1982