ABSTRACT
On one of my visits to the villages and towns in Southern Lebanon that suff ered terrible destruction during the July 2006 war, I arrived in the town of Bint Jbeil. It was midday, the town was buzzing and the streets were crowded with cars and people who had managed to make it back immediately aft er the ceasefi re.1 There, I met the enemy: a bulldozer was at work demolishing beautiful old stone structures (fi gure 4.1). I stopped to inquire. I approached workers and local residents to ask why; who authorized this and on what basis? I then took these same questions to the Municipality. The answers varied from the argument that the buildings were too damaged to save, to arguments that bulldozing would widen the street, that it was to build a bett er building, to erase the scars of the war, and to get full compensation. The answers stemmed from various political frameworks and two dominated: one saw in the reconstruction project a need to rebuild rapidly and effi ciently to convey ‘resistance’, while the other saw in the reconstruction an opportunity for development: a brand new city with towers and wide streets.2 Within this politically charged environment, there was no regard for saving the built heritage. Though heavily bombarded by Israeli air strikes, one could still see between rubble mounds partially destroyed stone structures clustered around courtyards and culs-de-sac, refl ecting the distinct local social fabric and spatial practices of extended families who dwelled there (fi gure 4.2). I realized there
Figure 4.1. The bulldozer at work in Bint Jbeil demolishing houses damaged during the July 2006 war.
