The right to the city is an application of the right to ​​access housing and city spaces while answering other spatial needs, through the recognition of the importance of the space’s social role. It is also a political role of confronting the commodification of land, which derives its legitimacy and value from the need of the most disenfranchised, not from land’s financial value in the real estate market. And it is, in one way or another, what makes the city a living space and not a fenced property.

Today, in one of the beautiful buildings of Hamra (Abd el Baqi Building), a number of displaced people are trying to apply the concepts of the right to the city and housing by taking possession of the abandoned floors and transforming them, for a period ending by the end of the war, into safe housing for them. After the owner of the building sent an expulsion request to the public prosecutor about a month ago, the residents are now living in a state of anxiety.
Through this building’s story, we hope to open a serious discussion about squatting, especially in times of war, the priorities that drive such an issue, and the balance of power that it reveals, especially since this building is not an exception and squatting has become a necessity and a reality during the war.

Read the full article in Arabic.