More Than a Million Lebanese Take to the Streets

October 24 marked the eighth day of protests since the Lebanese government announced a tax on calls on WhatsApp and other free online applications in order to raise revenue during a fiscal crisis. According to Al Jazeera, these protesters are fighting to end government corruption and nepotism and are calling for the entire government to resign. They hope to change Lebanon’s sectarian government structure, which they claim has divided Christian and Muslim groups, fostered clientelism and quid-pro-quo corruption, and hindered development. 

Sectarianism has plagued Lebanon since its independence, Al Jazeera reports. The original Lebanese National Pact, the unwritten constitution, mandated that the president, prime minister, and speaker of parliament must be, respectively, a Maronite Christian, a Sunni Muslim, and a Shi’a Muslim, while giving Christians a 60-50 majority in Parliament. Thirty years ago, Lebanon’s government signed an agreement called the Ta’if Accord ending the country’s civil war created a 50:50 ratio in Parliament between Muslims and Christians while calling for a gradual end to its sectarian structure. 

However, Karim Makdisi, a professor at the American University of Beirut, argues that this accord was unsuccessful, saying instead that "politicians of all affiliations are deeply committed to political sectarianism, no matter what they preach or say, whether this commitment be out of greed, fear or to maintain the status quo."

Although the Lebanese government quickly reversed the taxes, the protests have continued. The Lebanese economy, with one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world, is stagnating: the Carnegie Middle East Center reported that, from 2014 to 2015, the top one percent of the Lebanese population held more than 25 percent of the national income. Economists believe that Lebanon has reached the brink of economic collapse, and the Lebanese people have felt this pressure through increasing taxes on various services. Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on October 21 that there would be a 50 percent reduction in government salaries, financial assistance for low-income families, improvements to electricity infrastructure, and the creation of a corruption-fighting body. However, this news did not quell the protests. 

Hassan Ballout, sixty-five, claims that the protestors no longer trust the government because it has broken promises in the past: "I don't believe that what he promised will be done." When asked to describe their ultimate goal, 29-year-old protestor Michael Chamoun said, “we want to get rid of the entire government.” In Beirut, protestors graffitied “everyone means everyone” in Arabic across walls all over the city. 

According to Time, the protestors have singled out Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil with their most piercing chant, “Hela, Hela, Hela Hela Ho, Gibran Bassil kes emmo,” which is a vulgar reference to his mother’s genitals. The chant’s vulgarity demonstrates the intense hatred these protestors feel towards Bassil. “This is a next-level insult, that’s how angry the people are,” said Chamoun. The protests in Lebanon have united the Lebanese across religious and ideological divides and put the Lebanese government on notice.