Collective Action

BEIRUT: Several dozen protesters marched to the construction site of the Free Patriotic Movement’s proposed headquarters Sunday morning, condemning the project’s negative environmental impact.

The site is located in the historic Nahr al-Kalb valley – an area of archaeological significance that UNESCO placed on its Memory of the World register in 2005.

Protesters say the authorities have granted construction licenses to the FPM without necessary studies having been carried out.

The head of environmental group Terre Liban, Paul Abi Rashid, told Lebanese media Sunday that “the private building project of the FPM is not based on any environmental impact study, despite the area’s archaeological importance.”

The group demanded the immediate halting of construction “in respect of the laws and in order to avoid the continued violation and sabotage” of the area in a press release Saturday.

It added that the project “builds on the ruins of a Crusader-era tower, and is adjacent to the Nahr al-Kalb valley ... in which there are around 24 inscriptions and monuments dating back to 2000 BC.”

The FPM says it has “all the necessary licenses from the relevant ministries” to go ahead with construction, which began in August with ground excavations.

The party slammed opposition to the construction as politicized, describing it as “a systematic campaign targeting [the FPM],” in a statement released by its media committee Saturday

The statement denies that the project will have any negative impact in the area, or that it will “infringe any archaeological, environmental, natural or historical sites."