Despite violent repression, national unrest and a state of emergency in Beirut, the nation’s capital, the people of Lebanon are still taking to the streets and demanding revolution.
At least 178 people were killed in the Beirut port explosion on August 4, with thousands more injured and an estimated 300,000 displaced from their homes. Beirut mayor Marwan Abboud has estimated the damage at $ 10 billion to $ 15 billion.
In the wake of the destruction, the young people of Lebanon are spending their days repairing the damage.
‘We clean the rubble, we sort the glass, we sort the wood, we sort the aluminum. We are just trying to help as much as possible, “said Raymond Tyan, 26, who has spent the past two weeks repairing damaged homes.
But at night, Tyan and his friends take to the streets to protest.
“We want to be like the West. We do not want to be like Iran like these countries. We want to be a fair democracy, ”Tyan said.
Protests have been raging in Lebanon since October, when Lebanese from multiple sects rallied to express their anger against a proposed charge on WhatsApp calls. Lebanon’s cabinet has decided to withdraw the tax proposal, which would have paid 20 cents a day for internet-enabled voice calls.
Lina Hamdan, a former strategist for the United Nations Development Program, said the focus of the protests had recently shifted to the negligence of the government which is widely blamed for the explosion.
“This great disaster comes from neglect, due to lack of responsibility on the part of the government,” Hamdan said. ‘People are angry. They no longer want a peaceful revolution. ”
The explosion was triggered when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate set on fire. The extremely flammable material had been there since arriving on a wrecked ship six years ago.
Lebanese people from across the cultural and religious spectrum have united in their demand for answers on how such dangerous material could be left sitting in a populated port in the heart of downtown Beirut, without preventive measures.
“I have friends who were hit with live ammunition and rubber bullets when they protested,” said Tyan, who sent NBC News pictures of his friend Ghady Dagher who apparently showed injuries caused by rubber bullets. (The Lebanese Internal Security Force refused to fire bullets at Protestants.)
The Protestants have called for a new government, demanding that President Michel Aoun and others be ousted from power so that new votes can begin to rebuild Lebanon. On August 10, Prime Minister Hassan Diab, who had only been in power since January, stepped down with the rest of his cabinet.
Elias Saade, a 26-year-old activist, told NBC News that the change in practice was meaningless and that the Protestants “would not return home soon.”
“The resignation of the government does not mean everything, because it has never been in a position of power,” Saade said. “All members of the government are puppets for this parliament and until we lack the parliament itself, there will be no change in this country.”
Hezbollah, which holds 12 seats in the Lebanese parliament, has not escaped public outrage. The figureheads of the Shia militia group have been among those targeting the call for reform, with protesters burning an effigy of the group’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Saade compared the government to a ‘mafia system’ that has damaged Lebanon, run by a political elite that pulls its own pockets through backend deals.
He said the demands of his and his fellow Protestants were as simple as “electricity, infrastructure and water” – basic programs that are in short supply.
“It’s not just a physical explosion that happened,” Saade said. “The explosion is a symbolic manifestation of all the corruption and incompetence that is happening in our government.”
Despite a new lockdown announced on Monday due to a spike in coronavirus cases, Lebanese Protestants are still taking to the streets. “During the coronavirus, some people say, ‘We’re dying of hunger, what is it? [this] to do with us? “People are ready to give their lives for this cause,” Saade said.
But amid the chaos, Hamdan says the people of Lebanon are not afraid of the future.
“We are Lebanese, Lebanese are never afraid. We have been a civil war, so many wars, so many obstacles, ”she said. “Now we hope that the next generation will have a real Lebanon, a fairly independent and prosperous Lebanon.”
