Bullet to an Amulet

Young Palestinians bristle with anger at the genocide. But that anger comes with paralysis

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BULLET holes in the walls of a Beirut street mean nothing. You would need an archaeologist to tell you when they were made, or a forensic expert—if there are any bullets left on the walls—to tell you who fired them. Henry Loussian of Henry’s Handmade, a jewellery shop in Hamra, gathers up old bullets and makes them into jewellery. Bullets take life and create enduring grief. Sensitive artists like Loussian transform them into something beautiful that brings pleasure and joy. Up above Beirut in Koubba in Batroun, Loussian has taken over an old house and is recreating it with the detritus of houses being demolished to build steel and glass towers for Saudi princes and Lebanese bankers. Alchemists like Loussian turn bullets into flowers.