Beirut (Lebanon) (AFP) - 163 publishing houses and more than 90 seminars are participating in the Beirut International Arab Book Fair, which will be held this October, in what the organizers see as an achievement and a challenge to the harsh conditions in Lebanon and the region.

Published on: 02/10/2026 - 16:02

Salwa Siniora Baasiri, head of the Arab Cultural Club, which is organizing the exhibition, told AFP on Friday that holding the exhibition in the circumstances that Lebanon and the region are going through is “a challenge to what exists” and “proof that culture is not something that can be dispensed with in times of adversity, but rather is a factor in raising awareness.”

The sixty-seventh session of this ancient cultural event in Lebanon, which was first held in 1956, will be held between October 9 and October 18.

The exhibition is being held this year while Lebanon is experiencing the repercussions of the recent war between Hezbollah and Israel, which caused massive destruction in large areas in the south of the country, and in the wake of an unprecedented economic crisis it has been experiencing since the fall of 2019.

This also comes in light of the war in the Middle East and its repercussions on the Gulf states in particular and on the global economy.

In addition to the participation of 163 publishing houses, nearly a hundred seminars will be held during the exhibition, in which about 250 participants will speak on various topics, from history, geography, politics, economics, novels, poetry, theater, literature, artificial intelligence, and university education, which Baasiri describes as “an achievement under the existing circumstances.”

Seminars focus on “what archaeological and heritage sites lost in southern Lebanon” as a result of the recent war.

Earlier, Lebanese Culture Minister Ghassan Salama told Agence France-Presse that three of the five ancient castles classified by UNESCO on the list of threatened heritage are effectively under Israeli occupation, while a fourth was damaged.

The exhibition includes pavilions specific to the book industry, from the history of printing, color sorting, binding, craft design, and covers. Seven universities with branches in the field of graphic art are participating, and their students submit designs for book covers, in an effort to provide “contact between the student and the labor market, and build a bridge between them,” according to the organizers.

The Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020 prevented the exhibition from being held that year, after it was also absent in 2019 due to the widespread protest demonstrations in the center of the capital and other Lebanese regions. It was also unable to be held in 2021 due to restoration work, and it resumed in March 2022.

Baasiri said, "In light of the great challenges in Lebanon and the Arab world (...), the exhibition constitutes confirmation (...) that Beirut masters the language of culture, and what it needs is not the language of fighting, but the language of communication."

© 2026 AFP

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