Lebanon’s Protests: Some Thoughts After the 2nd Day
It’s been a rough couple of days on the streets. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve been to Riad El Solh and Martyrs’ Square to protest anymore. It’s a bit eery how familiar that has become: the back and forth with riot police, the stampedes, where to buy water, what the security forces do before they charge and even where best to park for a quick and safe exit.
However, this time a lot of things are different, and I can feel it in my bones and during every conversation with both strangers I’ve never met, and old friends I’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with the countless times we were gassed before.
Organized or Unorganized?
This leaderless, unorganized unrest has never happened before. Even with the garbage crisis protests, it wasn’t the same. People are taking the initiative, no one has a microphone, no schedules are set. This might be frustrating to some participants who prefer a more “under control” format, but it’s also a nightmare for the political class: they don’t know what to do or how to stop it. That’s something good for this grassroots movement.
Another question is whether this loose coalition of people from every walk of life and background, would get the message clearer if there was consensus and sticking to a script. I disagree. Most of the people on the streets have many things in common, but also differ greatly on other topics. Trying to unite might hurt, not help.
What’s certain is that they are all fed up with the status quo. What’s unanimous is that these vicious new taxes, including the ill-advised “Whatsapp tax” with absolutely no reforms and the perks of the ruling class left untouched, are something everyone is against and wants to fight.
So, at this stage, with protests from Nabatieh to Tripoli, Bekaa to Keserwen and everything in between, something amazing is happening. Places that never saw protests have people coming out, expressing their outrage and finally adopting the idea that the entire ruling class needs to leave.
Setting ground rules in a country as segregated and diverse and Lebanon, is sure to alienate many if not most. So, its unorganized nature, is the forte of this movement at the moment. Which brings us to the question many people asked me these two days: what’s next?
A Seismic Shift
The moment that made me get in my car and drive down to protest, was seeing men and women in Dahieh and Nabatieh coming out and showing clear dissent towards the Shia duo of Hezbollah and Amal. Who can forget when some protesters criticized Hezbollah and its leader, and were coerced the next day to go on TV, holding Nasrallah’s photo, and apologize?
This hasn’t happened this time. The situation of the base of these two parties has become so dire, that the usual top-down mechanism of controlling the streets isn’t working anymore. At least not as swiftly and decisively as before.
Personally, I see this as a seismic shift, where the wall of fear has finally crumbled for many of our Shia brothers and sisters. I can think of a similar moment in Lebanon’s not-so-distant history: 14 March 2005. When the Future Movement’s Sunnis abandoned their mostly friendly, or at least symbiotic relationship with the Syrian Occupation, and joined the traditionally persecuted Christian factions demanding Assad withdraw his forces after 29 years of occupation.
This is significant. The chokehold that the Amal-Hezbollah had on their communities duo has faltered. The situation has become bad enough that people cannot excuse the rampant corruption and the absence of any prospect of progress: only more taxes and less rights.
Growing Pains
It’s clear that this somewhat rare mingling of Lebanese from different backgrounds and sects is still tricky. On the one hand, you have the scooter-riding young men with huge Imam Ali swords on their necks, on the other you have yoga instructors who speak mostly French and are strictly gluten-free.
You see this tension when the second group calls the first thugs, or agents of destruction. You see it when the first group yells homophobic slurs like “looteh” to the gluten-free camp. This unfamiliarity has led to the downfall of many grassroots movements in the past. However, this time, it has somewhat dissipated. The different groups (not just these two of course, these were examples I chose) are realizing that they are all in the same mess, and are all certain of who is to blame.
This is beautiful. Lebanon, whether we like it or not, is heavily segregated into mostly homogeneous communities. Your neighbors are probably the same sect, you probably went to a school run by the religious establishment of your sect and you will probably fall in love and marry a person from that community. Outside of a few pockets in Beirut, especially campuses like AUB, it’s rare to have these communities mingle, understand and even empathize with each other. This is happening to a certain extent in the protests. When some would recoil in fear at the scooter motorcades, today they cheer for them, with some even yelling “ija el da3em” (the support has arrived).
Don’t Fall for the Tricks
With this unprecedented, organic movement, those in power are mostly silent, unsure what to do. Their electronic militias though are hard at work, and taking pointers from Trump and Brexit, they are working hard on misinformation.
One example is the disturbing image of bound citizens stacked on the ground, their faces on the asphalt and their phones on the side. An image circulated purporting it was a fake, showing a screenshot of a Facebook user’s profile saying it was from Tripoli’s Beb El Tebbeneh in 2018. Of course, I reverse-searched the imaged, and couldn’t find it, and the alleged 2018 post on the screenshot was public, yet I couldn’t find it. I even recognized one of the detainees. Hours later, the user shared that the photo was doctored, and he never shared such a photo. You can see it below:
This shows the tactics the sulta is adopting to confuse and scare people. That, coupled with the narrative of “civilized vs uncivilized”, “violent vs peaceful” have worked well in the past. So have claims that these are conspiracy with “foreign hands” involved, etc. However, this time it doesn’t seem to be as effective. No one’s taking the bait, and those that are, are being challenged with the facts by more alert protesters, showing how this is a tried and tested tactic of the sulta: divide, share fake news and shatter people’s trust in an honest, grassroots movement trying to make life less horrible for Lebanese.
What’s Next?
No one knows. If anyone says otherwise, they are not being honest. One thing we all know though, is we can’t continue with the current situation. Crises are raining down on us each week. Shortages in fuel, foreign currency, even bread and medicine have shaken people’s faith, and memories of the Civil War chaos immediately boil up to the surface.
The ruling class has done absolutely nothing to show us they will change their now 40+ year pattern of behavior. They didn’t touch their own benefits, but stripped what little benefits an average citizen had, while hiking up taxes on basic commodities, with unemployment at record highs and an optimistic projection that growth in Lebanon this fiscal year was 0% (it’s probably much worse than that though).
Can we handle another 50-day theater piece like the Kabrchmoun incident? Can we spend another few months on quarreling over seats in a cabinet that needed to be formed quickly? No, we can’t.
Is vacuum better than what we are in now? Who knows. What I am convinced of is that of the millions of Lebanese, I am certain we have better and more qualified people to run our government. People who are actually knowledgeable in the cabinets they hold, not just appointed as a favor or to ensure dominance on what they see as a cash-cow. People who think about their jobs, not going on TV or what their tweet of the day will be to their mostly bot followers, amplified by their cyber militias retweeting each other to make a hashtag trend and make it to the evening news of whatever TV channel is close (or owned) by them.
One thing that is definitely worse, is a military coup and rule. We love our soldiers, and support them when they defend us against ISIS and Israel, but we also can’t deny their terrible human rights record when it comes to dealing with civilians. Even though it might not be as horrifying as the ISF’s, it would only take a quick glance at the Military Tribunal, and their behavior towards unarmed protesters, refugees and detainees to understand that we definitely should not be under military rule.
Ideally, a transitional cabinet without the unnecessary 12 or so extra ministries we have now might solve our dilemma. Professionals, people like Ziad Baroud or Damianos Qattar, who have shown how adept they are and are untarnished by the stench of corruption. Both did fantastic jobs, but were hindered by the political class and their efforts thwarted or even reversed when their term ended, or they resigned in protest.
Early elections might help too, with Lebanon as a single electoral district, one vote per citizen, and voting aged lowered to 18 instead of the unjustifiable 21 rule.
Truth is, I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone else does. What I do know though, is this is it, we have reached our breaking point. The proverbial camel’s back has finally broken. The day most people wished for or dreamed of, seems to be here.
Shame on the Government and Armed Forces
Being gased two days in a row is a new record I’m not happy to add to the long list of unfortunate events growing up and living here. Without warning, using aggressive tactics and attacking indiscriminately is shameful and unacceptable. It also wore off really quick. The second night, the blitz of teargas rounds didn’t end the protest, but people waited till the toxic fumes dissipated and kept returning.
That’s when the army was brought in, and extreme force was used. Protesters were detained and beaten without any reason. They were chased into small alleyways and streets. Bystanders having a drink in the few places that were open were assaulted, threatened at gunpoint and verbally abused by soldiers. We also saw plain-clothed personnel masquerading as protesters, join in this free-for-all attack on citizens, with obvious orders to end the protest at any cost, no matter what, after the prime minister’s convoluted 72-hour ultimatum which people are still trying to decipher.
Rayya El Hassan has been a huge disappointment. The first female interior minister seemed like an improvement, removing unnecessary road blocks and even talking about restarting a push for civil marriage. The past two days, we saw indiscriminate violence and disregard for Lebanese lives and their safety, as well as rights, trampled on so much that Machnouk seems like an angel now.
Police and soldiers who have been caught on camera beating, choking and trying to run over citizens with their cars need to be arrested and taken off the streets. They are a risk to public safety, and mustn’t carry the weapons and have the powers they enjoy. They are thugs in uniform, and an extension of the corruption and lack of accountability that is the root of all of our seemingly endless problems in Lebanon.
Final Thought
Be kind to each other. Talk to people you don’t know at the protests in the coming days. Empathize with them. If this is the first time you share a street with a scooter-rider, don’t be afraid, understand how hard his life must be to want to bash an ATM machine in anger. Imagine how difficult their decision was to finally stand up to Amal and Hezbollah, despite the risks. Embrace them, don’t ostracize them. Welcome them to the side of the people, help them realize it was the right decision, not feel discarded like they did with their political parties for years.
Take care of each other. We are facing a group of warlords who will do anything to stay in power. Lie, beat, kill, torture and try to gaslight you.
I love you all. And thank you. This took so much energy out of me, but I had to write this down before I could get a couple of hours sleep before going back down to protest.
