The controversial project underway in a sensitive area of the city of Sour. (Photo taken from the Green Southerners' Facebook account)
The ecological association "Green Southerners" announced in a statement Tuesday that it learned from the legal affairs office of the Ministry of Justice of a decision by the Ministry of Culture to order the halt of construction work on a project in the Shouakir area of Sour, "due to the presence of very important relics, and because the land in question is on the national inventory list of historic buildings." The NGO said that it mentioned the presence of major relics in this area in a message sent to the ministry. The ministry earlier confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour that it had "taken charge of the case."
This construction project with unclear outlines is located on land allocated by the state to the Ministry of Defense. It began in September 2024, a few weeks before the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, in their recent war in Lebanon, intensified and reached Sour. It was halted a few months before resuming after the cease-fire came into effect on Nov. 27, 2024. According to information shared by the Lebanese Committee for the Safeguarding of Sour, the project included an officers’ club but was largely commercial and spans 400,000 m², on land not only rich in relics, but also adjacent to the city's marine reserve, which it has already encroached upon the buffer zone.
A complaint filed with the duty judge of Sour by Green Southerners bore fruit: Judge Yolla Ghotaimi decreed the halt of the works on March 14 and appointed an environmental expert to inspect the site. However, many local activists told L’Orient-Le Jour that the work has not ceased.
According to the Committee for the Safeguarding of Sour, beneath the plots currently under construction lie, according to many previous studies, the remains of one of the three Phoenician ports of the city, the one historians call Palea-Tyre, which formed the link between the mainland and the island of Sour, which later became a peninsula.
For all these reasons, Green Southerners welcomed the ministry's decision.
"This ministry notified the Ministry of Defense of this decision to halt the work by sending a copy of the text, and the latter is expected to respond within the next few days," the statement added.
According to Hisham Younes, president of Green Southerners, "the importance of this decision is that it enshrines the illegal nature of the work which does not respect the heritage protection constraints, especially since five of the eight lands encompassed in this project are on the national inventory list of historic buildings."