Last September, 300 Syrian residents, many of whom were children, faced forced eviction from the Agha Building in Ras El-Nabeh in Beirut due to complaints about their involvement in littering and the deterioration of the neighborhood. This eviction was aligned with a larger anti-Syrian refugee campaign led by the Lebanese authorities and the mainstream media, blaming Syrian refugees for the economic crisis and various challenges in the sectors of electricity, housing, water, waste management, etc. Allegedly, the “Wakeel ” of the building’s owner deliberately delayed informing the tenants about the eviction notice for a period of three months to profit from rent collection, and informed them 15 days before the eviction deadline. This situation underscores systemic biases against Syrian refugees. This is what geographer Ash Amin calls “telescopic urbanism”, which is a way to eliminate solidarity and communal support amongst urban communities, and create the selective and thus exclusionary right to occupy the city.
Read details in Arabic here.
