New Zoning Plan for Jobar Raises Expropriation Fears

The Damascus Governorate is overseeing the completion of a new zoning plan for the Jobar district of Damascus, which was almost entirely destroyed during the Syrian war and saw its residents forcibly displaced. The plan aims to regulate the area and prevent informal construction, but fears are rising over the possible expropriation of the destroyed properties. While returning displaced persons are working to reclaim their rights by forming engineering committees to propose alternative solutions, the debate continues about the nature of the zoning plan and its role in the reconstruction of the area. This comes amid visits from foreign delegations and concerns that rumours of potential foreign real estate investments could eventually contribute to residents losing ownership of their properties.

Originally, Jobar was a small agricultural village in East Ghouta, incorporated into Damascus in 1968 as part of the Ecochard expansion plan. It contains significant religious and historical landmarks, such as the Al-Omari Mosque and the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue. Since the 1970s, the district has seen significant unregulated urban growth, becoming a densely populated area with about 300,000 inhabitants before 2011. From 2012, the district became a stronghold for the armed opposition and was heavily bombarded by the regime, resulting in near-total destruction. When regime forces regained control in 2018, its residents were displaced northward to other parts of Syria, and the area remained almost deserted until the fall of the Assad regime at the end of 2024.

In June 2022, the Damascus Governorate issued Detailed Regulatory Plan No. 106 for the district, aiming to zone and rehabilitate it under the provisions of the Urban Planning and Development Law No. 23 of 2015, which allows administrative units to take up to 50 percent of a private property for free in provincial capitals. The plan redrew the administrative boundaries between Damascus and its surrounding countryside, expanding the district’s area from around 250 hectares to 304 hectares.

Image of the destruction in Jobar. (Source: The Syria Report)

After the fall of the Assad regime, the governorate’s urban planning directorate began studying the new zoning plan and presented it to the governorate’s executive office. Although the plan has not yet been formally approved, it “seeks to preserve property rights for residents, at least partially,” a source from the governorate told The Syria Report.

A Syria Report journalist visited Jobar and described it as resembling a “ghost town.” Just a few kilometres from Abbasid Square in the heart of Damascus, the district appeared frozen in time, its buildings reduced to rubble by the bombardment it endured during the war years. The journalist noted that despite being aware of the district’s destruction and having heard years of shelling, entering Jobar for the first time was a profound shock.

When the journalist asked a minibus driver at Abbasid Square whether he passed through Jobar, the driver responded in astonishment: “Jobar? What are you going to do in a place where no one walks? Even animals are afraid to enter.” Upon entering the district and asking again if they had arrived, the driver replied, surprised: “This entire area is Jobar, where do you want to go?” The journalist got off the bus to wander through an abandoned district, devoid of any signs of life. Its streets were empty, its buildings completely destroyed, and the only car he encountered was wrecked and left by the roadside—a silent witness to what had occurred. He added that he spent an entire hour walking without seeing a single person, until one solitary car passed on the main road, with its driver glancing at him in bewilderment, as if to wonder what a lone person was doing in such a place.

Sources from the Damascus Governorate told The Syria Report that around 1,500 families from Jobar (approximately 45,000 people) have returned to Damascus. The Damascus and Rural Damascus governorates collaborated to allocate hundreds of housing units in the Al-Areen residences in Qudsaya, Rural Damascus, to the returnees, while some families opted to rent homes in other areas. Al-Areen residences had been designated for regime military officers, similar to many social housing sites in Damascus and its countryside. After the Assad regime’s fall, residents of these units either voluntarily left or were, in numerous instances, compelled to vacate.

Meanwhile, in April, returning displaced Jobar residents formed a committee of 40 engineers to submit non-binding alternative proposals to the governorate’s urban planning directorate. The committee presented two proposals: the first involves building modern housing while preserving the old city, ensuring the area is regulated in a contemporary manner while respecting Jobar’s traditional architectural character. This proposal aims to strike a balance between urban modernisation and preserving Jobar’s historical identity. The second proposal suggests reverting to Jobar’s pre-2011 regulatory plan, rehabilitating the area in line with its pre-war demographic and urban reality, and allowing residents to repair their homes rather than demolish them.

The Syria Report met with some returning displaced residents and noted differing opinions among them, with a minority supporting the idea of regulating Jobar under Decree No. 66 of 2012, but a majority opposing it and calling for permission to restore their homes rather than demolish them.

Furthermore, since the fall of the Assad regime, the district has seen repeated visits from official foreign delegations, reflecting international interest in its situation. In February 2025, a delegation of Syrian Jews residing in the United States visited the district to inspect the historic Jobar Synagogue, which was destroyed during the war, as well as other sites of historical and cultural significance. In March, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited the district as part of the reopening of the German Embassy in Damascus, affirming Germany’s commitment to continuing humanitarian assistance to Syria and linking the start of a new political chapter between Europe and Syria to guarantees of freedom and security for all Syrians. In April, a U.S. congressional delegation visited the district as part of a tour assessing the situation in Syria after the regime’s fall.

These visits reflect international interest in Jobar’s reconstruction and in preserving its cultural and religious heritage, and they open the door for discussions about the district’s future and the role of the international community in its recovery. However, these visits have sparked rumours of foreign real estate investments that could lead to residents losing ownership of their properties. Some rumours linked the Jobar Synagogue to the possibility of turning the entire area into Jewish religious endowments, which could shatter residents’ hopes of returning. It appears these rumours stem from a severe lack of reliable information and widespread misinformation, fuelled by certain brokers seeking to buy up destroyed properties at low prices, covertly hoping for a rise in property values after the area is zoned. Some observers have warned that coercive sales in areas like Jobar could disproportionately harm female-headed households, particularly those lacking formal ownership documents or stable income—highlighting the need for strong legal safeguards in any reconstruction framework.

In a place like Jobar, it is essential to capitalise on the high level of international attention to ensure fair and comprehensive reconstruction, without any forced expropriation and without discrimination between original landowners, licensed and unlicensed property holders, occupiers, and tenants. This process should include establishing a new residential suburb equipped with modern infrastructure and services, implemented by the state in cooperation with international partners to ensure project sustainability and fairness. Regulating the area without adopting a reconstruction vision, and imposing even partial costs on returning displaced residents through the free expropriation of their properties, is unjust—especially after the suffering endured by residents over years of war and displacement.