The parties and municipalities in the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut have treated public spaces, especially green spaces, as mere aesthetic decorations that can be abandoned in favor of building party facilities and investments.

Since Lebanon’s independence in 1943, the cultivation of hashish and opium in the northern Bekaa Valley has constituted an illegal economic activity, involving local networks that include farmers, traders and agents, within a shadow economy paralleling the absence of the state.

One of the most prominent problems facing the council is the erosion of its relative independence from political alignments. Instead of remaining a unifying authority equidistant from all forces, it is sometimes seen as part of the existing political balances, which has weakened its national and religious credibility among broad segments of the Lebanese population.

Calls to rebuild the Nabatieh market began from the first day of the return of displaced people, following the announcement of a ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel, but these calls have arguably failed so far.

The shops, the old stores, the stone staircases leading to the upper shops, the covered passageways, the only hotel building in the city, "The Flower of the South," the sidewalks, the entire memory of a group of people who inhabited this country, were leveled to the ground and turned to ash in moments.

Some government departments in the governorate's capital, Nabatieh, have begun to experience institutional vacuums and vacancies in several sensitive positions due to administrative bureaucracy and the near-paralysis that has restricted the role of the Civil Service Council since 2017. This has negatively impacted the management of employee affairs and delayed the completion of their administrative...

The call to support and promote cultural life in Jabal Amel seems urgent, to resume what was once an active cultural life. This mountain has always been a stage for thinkers, writers, poets, and researchers well-versed in matters of science, and the private libraries in a number of Shiite religious houses were a haven for...

The process of building a state for all its citizens in a country like Lebanon, which is dominated by pluralism, diversity, and sectarian affiliations at the expense of national belonging, is a difficult process, but not impossible. The impossibility lies in the proposals of each authoritarian party that seeks to build a “mini-state” to its...

The southern suburbs of Beirut, whose name carries significant political weight and points to a complex identity, are now awaiting reconstruction. Before the recent war with Israel devastated it, and before it witnessed one of the greatest manifestations of defeat, both morally and militarily, with the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and the party's...

What kind of urban development do we want after the last war? A rapid, haphazard return? Or an urban development that establishes a new contract for citizenship, making housing a right, memory a resource, and public space a daily stage for coexistence?