ABSTRACT
During the Civil War (1975-1990), Beirut was a divided city, divided along sectarian lines. Today, it is a fragmented city, with a political center in lockdown, divided by physical walls reverberating traditional separation lines. Security walls and urban barriers concealed the state’s legislative and executive institutions, the Parliament and the Grand Serail, while suppressing dissident voices resisting political corruption. In response, protestors appropriated the wall, painting their demands on their side and turning the urban apparatus of hiding into a canvas for political expression - a site of revelation. This chapter recounts the circumstances around the 2015 political movement, where the first wall erected stood in Riad el-Solh square for 24 hours. The chapter takes a historical turn to describe an urban palimpsest that came to light with the recent discovery of the ruins of the Roman walls near the Wall of Shame. The partial reconstruction of a genealogy of walls in (historical) time and (political) space reveals the wall as a defensive, concealing and oppressive apparatus of spatial violence in Beirut. Finally, the chapter maps the erection and dismantling of city walls and how they contribute to the rise and fall of the political city.
