BEIRUT:
Activists and locals Saturday rallied in Beirut’s Ramlet al-Baida and
the northern city of Tripoli to denounce the lack of government action
to protect public properties along Lebanon’s coastal line. Demonstrators
marched in Ramlet al-Baida against the construction of a private resort
in the area, holding placards and signs that denounced what they claim
were attempts to make the public beach a private property.

The
protesters chanted slogans against the resort project, holding a large
banner that read “Who removed the signs of trespassing and no
construction on the real estate?” A civil campaign in Beirut
called “The Beach is for Everyone” issued a statement saying that the
resort called “Eden Rock” was being built on public land and that the
protest was an act of “self-defense” in a battle to protect public
property.

They demanded Beirut’s Governor Ziad Chebib,
municipality, the Interior Ministry and Public Works Ministry to take
action and halt construction work at the site. Meanwhile,
activists and locals in Tripoli protested the construction of a parking
lot on a stretch of the northern city’s public beach, against which
Tripoli’s Mayor Abdul Qader Alameddin had said Friday legal action would
be taken if the project continues.

The protests come few days
after several protesters demonstrated outside Beirut Municipality
against what they claimed was the “privatization” of the Lebanese
capital’s only public beach.

The We Want Accountability movement,
which rose to prominence during the anti-garbage protests in 2015, has
been the main force behind the recent demonstrations.

Governor
Chebib has made assurances that the Ramlet al-Baida beach would remain
open to the public and the Municipality of Beirut issued a statement,
saying that “the location where digging and building has begun … is
located outside the premises of the public beach and more than 300
meters south of it.”

The statement also added that the land in question had been private property since 1932.

In
1966, the state endorsed a decree that allow owners to build on their
seaside properties if their plans were approved by the Lebanese
government and served touristic or industrial purposes.

In June
last year, Beirut Judge of Urgent Matters Zalfa al-Hasan reversed a
decision to allow private real estate companies to block the entrances
to Beirut’s only public beach.

Hasan’s previous order granted the
companies permission to cordon off the sections of beach they owned,
blocking public access to roughly 28,000 square meters of Ramlet
al-Baida.

The matter had stirred fears among locals, who
complained that investors were trying to take away the only public coast
in Beirut, a city where public spaces are few.

The Ramlet Baida
coast is Beirut’s only sandy public beach. Most of Lebanon’s coast has
been claimed by developers for private projects.