A man takes a stroll on Ramlet al-Baida beach, Beirut’s only remaining public beach, September, 2022. (Credit: Sally Abou AlJoud/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The seasonal return of beach days and sunsets along Lebanon’s shoreline reveals the ever-increasing encroachment of private property on public access to the Mediterranean.As prices rise at private beach resorts, and people flock to the little space left for them along Lebanon’s majority-privatized coastline, various activists and environmental groups are drawing attention to projects they say unlawfully block off the sea.Among at least half a dozen ongoing cases that are attracting public debate is the newly constructed villa in Kfar Abida, northern Lebanon, belonging to prominent Lebanese-American journalist and political analyst Raghida Dergham. Activists and legal experts point to a row of recently planted cacti and cement blocks that cut off access to the shore in front of her property for beachgoers and fishermen. Read...
BEIRUT — The seasonal return of beach days and sunsets along Lebanon’s shoreline reveals the ever-increasing encroachment of private property on public access to the Mediterranean.As prices rise at private beach resorts, and people flock to the little space left for them along Lebanon’s majority-privatized coastline, various activists and environmental groups are drawing attention to projects they say unlawfully block off the sea.Among at least half a dozen ongoing cases that are attracting public debate is the newly constructed villa in Kfar Abida, northern Lebanon, belonging to prominent Lebanese-American journalist and political analyst Raghida Dergham. Activists and legal experts point to a row of recently planted cacti and cement blocks that cut off access to the shore in front of her property for beachgoers and fishermen. ...
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