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I passed by this shop the other day in Ayn El Hilweh refugee camp, one of Lebanon’s poorest and most violent slums.

From the left: Palestinian flag, Turkish soap opera poster, the wanted fugitive Sheikh Ahmed Al Assir–who led a bloody battle with the Lebanese army this summer–and a faded sticker of Yasser Arafat on the Pepsi fridge. They also sell fresh Knafeh, a breakfast pastry, as indicated by the sign on the glass box.

The shop owner was happy to let me take pictures. He even showed off two black pistols under his belt. He wouldn’t let me take a picture of those though.

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Habib Battah is an investigative journalist and founder of the news site beirutreport.com. Battah has covered Lebanon and the Middle East for over 15 years and teaches journalism and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is a contributor to Monocle, The Guardian, BBC World, Al Jazeera and others, a former fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and two-time recipient of the Samir Kassir Press Freedom Award. Battah's investigative work was recently recognized for outstanding local reporting by the Columbia University Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting. Battah earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.A. in Near East Studies and Journalism from New York University.

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