Farmers’ Resilience In War Zones – A Case Study of Wazzani : A Geopolitical Village on The Lebanese-Occupied Palestinian Borders

Abstract

This thesis investigates the resilience and recovery strategies of farmers in Wazzani, a Lebanese village situated on the border with occupied Palestine. For decades, Wazzani’s agricultural life has been repeatedly disrupted by Israeli invasions, aerial bombardments, and scorched-earth tactics targeting fields, orchards, and irrigation infrastructure. Despite recurring devastation, farmers consistently return, rebuild, and sustain their agricultural livelihoods, embodying practices of sumud (steadfastness) and adaptive resilience. Using Wazzani as a case study, this research examines the historical and contemporary mechanisms that enable farmers to persist and return under conditions of war, displacement, and environmental destruction. Qualitative data were generated through semi-structured interviews with ten farmers, complemented by two interviews with agricultural engineers from the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture (South Governorate) to contextualize institutional constraints and support mechanisms. These testimonies were triangulated with document analysis of governmental reports, NGO assessments, media archives, and academic studies. The study contributes to scholarship on agrarian resilience in conflict zones by centering farmers’ voices and by adopting a decolonial lens that frames war not as a neutral “conflict” but as ongoing aggression, occupation, and land theft. Findings highlight agriculture as both a livelihood and a land-based practice of endurance through which rural communities resist erasure.