The Ministry of Culture delisted lot number 243 in the Ain Mreisseh district (Beirut) from the general inventory list of historical buildings is a striking decision, considering that this year the Ministry has been actively adding new properties to the list, a first in recent years. This contradiction raises questions about the motives behind the decision. Since the property’s contents were not mentioned in the decision text, we investigated and discovered it is the site of the “Beirut Theater.”
In this article, we review the details of the property and previous attempts to protect it, revealing the alarming correlation between the theater’s removal from the inventory list and the escalating threats of mass eviction in the adjacent buildings, and we analyze the implications.
Read the full policy watch in Arabic.
