IMG_2839

Last year, we were allowed inside Beirut’s only major park for just one day. This year,  (tomorrow May 16) we will be standing outside at the gates demanding to be let back in. This because the municipality of Beirut–and specifically the mayor–has repeatedly claimed the public is not ready, not clean or too wild.

Many Beirut residents beg to differ. They say the people need a park and all the park needs is a simple maintenance crew with regular cleaning schedule. They also question why the mayor has failed to deliver on his promise (recorded on youtube three years ago) to open the park in 2012. The municipality has plenty of money (at least $1 billion in reserves) to get this done.

Yet while they have been making excuses, the park remains shut. Here is what we have been missing:
IMG_2816

IMG_2807

IMG_2781

IMG_2784

IMG_2785

IMG_2903

The park is so big its difficult to sum it up in a few pictures:

IMG_2889

There’s a botanical garden toward the middle:

IMG_2904

Where last year, the activists organized yoga sessions:

IMG_2876

There’s a great sandpit, where kids can play:

IMG_2818

And so many quiet corners to enjoy:

IMG_2836

I was happy to see families defying the municipality’s ridiculous signs prohibiting people from sitting in the grass:

IMG_2831
IMG_2838

IMG_2825

Interestingly, we noticed a new Range Rover pull into the park despite the fact that it’s supposedly closed to people traffic, let alone cars.
IMG_2752

IMG_2866

They were taking wedding pictures:
IMG_2864

It seems the park is only open to special VIPs, including Western foreigners as one tourist found out:

The guards were blunt about letting (white) foreigners in because Lebanese as well as Palestinians and Syrians are uncivilized, “stupid” and “disgusting”

Do you think this space should be open to the public? Then come join the peaceful protest tomorrow at 2PM. They will not hear you unless you make your voice heard.

Also, the activists request you bring a blonde wig to look like a “foreigner” in protest of the discriminatory–and crudely Orientalist– entrance policies.

IMG_2736

 

***

UPDATE: Citizens gather outside, army and police block the entrance. See pictures.

UPDATE 2: Protest success. After much wrangling and phone calls, municipal police opened the gates and let protestors inside. But no cameras were allowed in for some odd reason.

 

0 Shares:
2 comments
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like