Israel's war on southern Lebanon has brought massive destruction, especially along the border region where around 70 towns and villages have been razed. Often with very short notice, residents have been forced to pick up whatever belongings they can and escape following Israeli evacuation orders, which often precede strikes.
Amid the chaos, one initiative is trying to save what can be saved. A group of librarians, writers, activists and volunteers are joining efforts to save libraries, precious artwork and manuscripts in war-torn areas.
The project, conceived as an open, nationwide civil initiative, is being spearheaded by Hadi Bekdash, head of the Beirut-based Dar al-Musawwir al-Arabi and Book Post publishing houses
Bekdash told The New Arab that the network aims to protect Lebanon’s cultural memory, particularly in areas affected by Israel’s military offensive since 2024.
Its work focuses on identifying, documenting and safeguarding threatened cultural heritage, including public and private libraries, family and institutional archives, manuscripts, historical documents, photographs, newspapers, stamps, and audio-visual recordings that form part of Lebanon’s collective memory.
Planning began in 2024, when Israel’s war on Lebanon dramatically escalated, after mounting evidence that libraries and archives had already suffered damage and faced further risk of destruction.
The initiative seeks to document, protect and where possible recover these materials as part of a long-term effort to preserve Lebanon’s cultural memory and restore what has been lost. From 'Dahyeh' to the south Bekdash explains that what began in Beirut’s southern suburbs (Dahyeh) as an effort to protect private libraries, manuscripts and personal archives quickly expanded as more people from the south joined the discussions.
"The issue of property deeds wasn't on our minds at the beginning. When we first started holding discussions, more and more people from the south began joining us. As the conversations evolved, our focus gradually shifted to southern Lebanon," he said.
The network now includes around 80 volunteers from across Lebanon. When they approached municipalities to assess damage, they were told local councils were already overwhelmed with a broader problem: the fate of government records and legal documents, including files held by Jaafari courts - Shia religious tribunals that govern personal status law.
Bekdash said many of these records had never been digitised or moved for safekeeping.
"We're librarians and archivists, so we couldn't tackle this work on our own. That's why we began working closely with municipalities and building joint efforts to preserve these documents."
In the early stages, volunteers helped relocate books and documents from libraries in Dahyeh.
"Right now, there’s relative calm in Dahyeh, so it helps us do our work easier here compared to the south." Books for entry fees The initiative is now preparing to expand its work, with Bekdash eyeing the National Library in Beirut as a possible venue to officially announce their network and launch a public fundraiser to help rebuild damaged libraries in the south.
However, he says they are still awaiting approval from the Culture Ministry.
"We requested to use the library – we don’t have money to rent somewhere else – so why not from there?" he said. "We requested two things: use the library to meet, but also storing books, documents, archives and other important materials from the south at the library in Beirut."
Neither the ministry nor the library has responded, he added.
Despite this, the fundraiser is scheduled for 4 July.
"The entrance fees to this forum will be to donate a book, which will then be moved to libraries in the south. If we consider that each university campus has around a thousand students, that’s a thousand books, which will help us a lot." Leaving it behind As well as risking their lives in southern Lebanon, volunteers are also having to work in discretion, fearing that cultural materials could be destroyed before they are recovered. There are some regions they are unable to access.
They constantly fear that Israeli troops might reach a certain library, gallery, mosque, or court before they do and destroy the building.
In one case, Bekdash said the team had identified rare manuscripts in Nabatiyeh, a city in the centre of southern Lebanon which Israeli ground forces are reportedly closing in on.
"We inform UNIFIL (the UN peacekeeping mission) to then inform the ceasefire monitoring committee to then inform Israel to let us access the area. What guarantees do we have that Israel won’t destroy them before we arrive?" he asks.
He said in previous invasions, Israeli troops would loot archives and other cultural materials – now they’re destroying them all together.
"During previous Israeli invasions, Israeli forces used to steal books, personal documents, private archives, artwork, etc. But they’re not stealing anymore, they’re just destroying everything, wiping it out. This is why a lot of our work is happening covertly," he says.
For residents, the loss is deeply personal.
"Some things are irreplaceable. Before leaving their homes after an evacuation order, many people have two choices: either take a bag full of their memories or carry a bag with only some essential items they’ll need when they’re displaced."
He also called on the Culture Ministry to do more, despite Lebanon’s economic crisis.
"The wounded are being admitted into hospitals for free, the government is trying to exert full state control over arms, UNESCO has increased the number of protected sites. That’s all very good, and this is what we want," he says.
"But is what we’re doing also not important? Is this not urgent? What do we tell southerner who has lost his own archives?" Olive trees and honeybees The initiative is organised into six parts, Bekdash said. It focuses on documenting damage to private libraries, preserving public and private archives, including manuscripts held in Husayniyyas - Shia congregation halls where religious texts are often kept.
He says the network is coordinating with the Ministry of Culture to protect public libraries, while gathering information from municipalities across the south to map the scale of destruction.
Beyond archives, the work has expanded into environmental and cultural heritage. Volunteers are documenting damage to centuries-old olive groves, a vital part of South Lebanon’s identity. Bekdash tells TNA that Israeli forces are uprooting these trees and moving them to Israel.
He also warned of what he called a potential "catastrophe" facing beekeeping in the region, saying losses to honeybee populations could have long-term ecological and agricultural consequences. A crisis waiting to happen For Bekdash, the destruction raises not only cultural concerns but also the risk of future legal disputes over land and property.
Asked whether residents could struggle to prove ownership if records are lost, he said the situation remains unclear.
"It doesn't appear that there is a central archive for these records," he said.
Municipalities have told him that most land documents have been digitised or moved to Beirut, but he stresses the word "most."
"When they say ‘most’, that means not everything," he said, warning that gaps could create serious legal problems when displaced residents return.
There is greater concern over the physical changes to the landscape itself, because of Israeli strikes. In some areas, bombardment has altered terrain so significantly that traditional boundary markers may no longer exist.
He pointed to the village of Qantara, where an alleged Hezbollah tunnel was destroyed on 28 April in one of the largest controlled explosions reported in southern Lebanon during the war. The blast reshaped the surrounding area , raising concerns that landmarks used to define property boundaries may have been lost.
Combined with missing records, Bekdash believes this could leave many residents unable to prove ownership of land and homes. A message of resilience It is still too early to fully assess the scale of damage, Bekdash says, as documentation work continues amid ongoing insecurity.
In cooperation with the Lebanese Library Association, the initiative is mapping losses and identifying at-risk collections.
"So far, in cooperation with the Lebanese Library Association, the initiative has documented a number of at-risk collections and helped protect or relocate some of them to safer locations. What has already been lost includes documents, archives and cultural materials that were damaged, destroyed or scattered as a result of attacks on buildings and the forced displacement of residents. The process of assessing these losses is still underway," he says.
"The danger extends far beyond the loss of buildings or physical objects. It threatens part of the Lebanese people's collective memory… material that will be impossible to replace if it is lost."
Bekdash says the work he and his team are doing gives people hope and shows them that someone is attending to them, and that they are not abandoned.
"These 80 people do not agree on the same politics; there are 80 opinions. But on protecting our national heritage, we are one," he tells TNA .
"We’re giving hope to people that they are going to return to their homes in the south. One man said to me ‘before you try to retrieve these books and documents, let us return first to our villages.’ But I told him this sends a message of steadfastness to the Israeli enemy.
"We are telling the Israelis: What you have destroyed has already been revived."