The Government Legalizes Violations and Complicity in Environmental and Housing Damage:
The Issued Decree Authorizes Industrial Expansion in Kfour, Despite Pending Court Challenges
The government has legalized a harmful industrial expansion in Kfour, neglecting environmental and health threats and ongoing legal objections. Residents and civil society are calling on the government to withdraw Decree 1962 before more damage is done to their health, homes, and land.
A law proposal to establish a separate cadastral zone for the municipality of Saadiyat, submitted by MP Bilal Abdullah, represents a pivotal point for a deeper discussion around the history of these areas and their evolving social boundaries. In the case of Damour and Saadiyat, the area became a symbol of the profound political crisis brought about by demographic changes in the Chouf coastal region, resulting from transformations and repeated waves of displacement to and from it.