Sit-ins, Protests Across Lebanon

Photo Credit: AFP

Various demonstrations occurred across Lebanon this week in protest of power cuts and the massacres in Syria. In Qibbeh, protesters gathered in solidarity with the Syrian people and called for the expulsion of Syria’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel-Karim Ali. Additionally, demonstrators brought traffic to a halt in Sidon while conducting a sit-in to demand the disarmament of Hizbollah. Followers of Salafist Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmed Assir piled tents, chairs and mattresses, in the middle of the road, claiming they wouldn’t leave “until Hezbollah is disarmed and its weapons are handed over to the state.” However, local MP Fouad Saniora was critical of the open-ended sit-in, saying, ”blocking roads violates the people’s safety and it goes beyond the acceptable forms of freedom of expression.” Traffic was also stopped in Beirut when protesters, tired of rampant tire-burning protests, rolled decorated tires across a road and held up a banner reading “We are tired.”