Reconstruction of destroyed southern Lebanon villages .. Is it difficult?

The “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed” website published a new report in which it said that the issue of redrawing the features of the border villages in Lebanon raises great challenges in front of the new Lebanese government and municipalities and the unions of the municipalities concerned, and the Syndicate of Engineers and specialists in the civil organization, space and real estate affairs, in terms of preserving its borders, spirituality and memory, and rebuilding them away from the quotas and customers, knowing that the comprehensive destruction is also the length of the non -border towns.

He added: “Since the clashes began on the southern Lebanese border on the eighth of Sherine I 2023, the Israeli occupation army has regretted and destroyed the border villages systematically for more than a year. As the aggression expanded in September 2024, the Israeli forces fell in the bombing of these villages and towns, and wiped them from geographical maps.

He continued: “Likewise, the Israeli forces overthrew the borders, buildings, fields, public and private properties in those towns, even churches, mosques, and archaeological monuments were also not delivered.”

The researcher at the “International Information Company” (an independent studies and research company) Mohamed Shams El -Din, assures “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed”, that “the border strip with occupied Palestine from Naqoura in the west to the east, with a length of 120 km, includes 29 villages and town, and it was almost completely 22 of them, including Mays Al -Jabal, Aita Al -Shaab, Kafrkla, Adeza, Al -Adra, Thirty. ”

He added: “Likewise, the number of destroyed housing units has completely reached about 22 thousand units, including palaces in the towns of Yaroun, Al -Time and Mays Al -Jabal, and therefore the losses are great.”

For his part, the coordinator of the “National Initiative to address the results of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon 2024”, Habib Ibrahim Sadiq, explains to “Al -Arabi Al -Jadeed” that “the area south of Litani was subjected to and is still a comprehensive destruction and eradication of urbanism in many villages, towns and cities, which is a case similar to the 1948 meal in Palestine, and the Israeli forces’ occupation of the seven Lebanese villages and fully destroyed them.”

He continued: “The goals are just clear, as happened in the city of Khayyam during the invasion of the year 1978, where the city was destroyed and unloaded from its residents after a massacre committed by the Israeli occupation. Likewise, the largest part of the border villages and towns are not real estate and does not possess construction systems, but rather is subject to the unorganized areas.

He points out that “the national initiative brings together the relevant ministries and the Syndicate of Engineers and Universities, in order to develop visions, perceptions and strategies for the reconstruction of towns and the preservation of heritage and urban fabric, in proportion to each municipality, its social reality, its local economy and its capabilities. As for the re -identification of spaces, real estate and property boundaries, it needs to be re -surveyed for these areas according to the municipal plan, the engineers and specialized teams, in conjunction with a legal administrative process based on the identification of properties by the mayors and owners of property, with the recognition of neighbors and the local community.

He continued: “So, the process is not complicated and does not need satellites, and it has already occurred in the old area of ​​the city of Bint Jbeil, which was one real estate after the July 2006 war, so it was re -cleared and real estate determined and the statements were issued to each house owner by the mayors. However, the conflict between the plan and the needs of citizens, and between securing shelter and attention to heritage, emerged at the time, so the success of the experiment was limited to 30% or less. It is possible that we are inspired today from previous models for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of cities and towns that were destroyed.

Sadiq believes that “the reconstruction constitutes an opportunity to reorganize and arrange these areas through a detailed plan for each town, its public facilities, squares and religious centers, thus improving the road network and infrastructure and preserving the local urban fabric, and determining the number of floors, building systems and green spaces.”

He continued: “But the most important thing is that the individual interest is achieved within the public interest and the public right, and that the issue of reconstruction does not become a station for a kind of customer and random construction, which leads to urban chaos.”

He continued: “It is important to re -construct and qualify the destroyed villages within their size, pattern, relationship of squares and lanes with gardens and green spaces, in a way that preserves the memory of the place by accumulating its time, raising the level of life and enhancing the services network and pushing towards investing in local economies. The issue is not merely reconstruction and rehabilitation in a way that distorts the place, but rather an integrated process of urban heritage with its people, customs, traditions, production and livelihoods, which re -draw the story of places, as an essential component of the foothold of these people. The urban and heritage fabric was incubating real social fabric, life, economy and memory. (The New Arab)