Why Israel targets Beirut's Dahiyeh and what the suburb means to Lebanon

"Dahiyeh's growth, however, accelerated after 1975, when the Lebanese civil war broke out. People displaced from other parts of Beirut moved south. The subsequent Israeli attacks and invasions in 1978 and 1982 drove more people to the edge of the capital. In that sense, Dahiyeh was not just a destination for migrants. It was also a refuge for the uprooted, the poor, and those repeatedly forced to start over."

"While many moved there in search of work or housing, most of the others were pushed there by wars, political unrest, evictions and a general sense of being neglected by the Lebanese state. The social geography of Lebanon, which gained independence from French colonisers in 1943, began to be transformed in 1948 when Israel's establishment saw the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their land."

Dahiyeh, southern Beirut's dense suburban belt, grew from villages and informal housing into a major city extension through migration and displacement over fifty years. The suburb's formation accelerated after the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, the 1967 Israeli occupation, and the 1975 Lebanese civil war, which displaced residents from across Beirut. Subsequent Israeli invasions in 1978 and 1982 further drove populations southward. Rather than a planned development, Dahiyeh became a refuge for the displaced, poor, and marginalized—those repeatedly forced to restart their lives. The suburb's extraordinary history reflects Lebanon's social geography transformation and the state's systematic neglect of peripheral populations.

Read at www.aljazeera.com