The impacts of the Israeli war on the city of Tyre today are sparking various discussions about the urgent need to assess damages, clear rubble, and work diligently towards reconstruction and recovery. However, while people are preoccupied with the war’s repercussions and these critical priorities, the attention is diverted from another local issue that appears to be pushed through discreetly.
This issue involves an influential contractor constructing an investment project for the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. This project comprises an officers’ club, various restaurants, cafes, and shops on private state-owned properties within the city, situated adjacent to the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve. Construction work, including the removal of vegetation and sand, already began on a section of the project last September, before the Israeli war escalated, which forced a temporary halt to operations. With the ceasefire, work quickly resumed at an accelerated pace and continues to this day, sparking a widespread wave of objections from residents and activists.
In this article, we delve into the different aspects of this controversial investment and development project. We start with its details and components, move through the legal and environmental problems surrounding it, and finally reach the escalating wave of objections it has faced, which have even reached the courts. We also question the nature of this investment on private state-owned property and its timing given the current circumstances Lebanon is experiencing, especially since the proposed project is located very close to a natural site of paramount importance to the city and the entire region.
Read the full Article in Arabic.