Several Lebanese political parties believe there is a mastermind behind the protests in Tripoli. Some of these parties are busy analyzing the legitimacy of the unrest, in which jobless and hungry protesters are rising up to protest the unbearable living conditions.
PM-designate Saad Hariri, who was known to have many supporters in Tripoli, warned that behind the moves in Tripoli there may be parties that want to send political messages or take advantage of the people’s pain.
Lebanese activist and filmmaker, Lucien Bourjeily, responded to Hariri saying, “There is one thing behind the moves in all regions of Lebanon: your corruption and catastrophic failure!”
Bourjeily noted that during the three times Hariri was prime minister Tripoli became the poorest city in the Mediterranean.
In another attempt to delegitimize the protest, a newspaper known to be affiliated with Hezbollah claimed that the protesters in Tripoli were being paid to cause chaos.
Most Lebanese, however, seem to agree that politicians making conspiracy theories to invalidate the true reason behind the citizen-based protests are doing so to dismiss their own accountability, again.
Not only have they brought the country to that state of misery and chaos but they have also been numbed and deaf to the pain and suffering of the people.
There has been a cry of hunger and pain across the country for a long while now, and not only from Tripoli, without the ruling politicians budging to assume their responsibilities towards the people they are meant to serve.
The situation was logically up to explode, with the deprived and the hungry hurling out of their imposed confinement to protest.
Now, men, women, and children in the streets of Tripoli are protesting not only the extended lockdown and lack of government funding but the system that has brought upon them such harsh, unbearable living conditions.
“My parents can’t afford to feed us anymore. We’re eating za’atar and cheese every day,” said a child to a local media station.
Another complained that having lentils every day was becoming unbearable. Yet, food is only one of the problems these protesters suffer on a daily basis.
They have no money for water, electricity that is already faulting, medicine that has been also lacking, and education. With nothing more to lose, they are leading the poor people’s revolution against the state.
Consequently, protests have been growing in size every day despite the use of heavy force from the security forces to stop people from attacking the Tripoli Serail – their way of expressing anger towards the government.
Tripoli’s protests have since sparked a wave of solidarity protests across Lebanon.
In Beirut, people rallied outside the house of caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi, calling him a “thug” after a protester in Tripoli was killed by the ISF live ammunition.
The events taking place now are a continuation of the October 17 Revolution that has been demanding reforms to open the door to not only a liveable Lebanon for all but a better and more prosperous one.
