This image, from BBC news, shows what Al Jazeera claims to be about 800,000 demonstrators who gathered in front of the governmental building in Beirut. The massive protest took place after Hezbollah's chief Hasan Nasrallah called "all Lebanese, from every region and political movement, to take part in a peaceful and civilized demonstration on Friday to rid us of an incapable government that has failed in its mission."
In response, Lebanon's Prime Minister Mr. Siniora "has vowed to resist what he called an attempted coup." His strong words against the "peaceful and civilized demonstration" came as a result of the recent events in Lebanon.
The political situation in Lebanon has worsened since Hezbollah's five ministers resigned from the Lebanese cabinet [the MajlisAlnuwab] 2 weeks ago, claiming the government has stopped following the people will. The five ministers were Shia Muslim, who also represent one of the three majors sections of the the Lebanese population, all required to be represented equally by the government. Hezbollah and other opposition forces now claim the cabinet misrepresent the Lebanese population, after losing five Shia ministers.
Another major factor is Pierre Gemaye's [a Maronite anti-Syrian politician, who served in the Minster of Industry] assassination last week. Lebanon's Maronites took to the streets in large anti-Syrian protests, believing Syria is behind the assassination.
The massive rally shook the already deteriorating country, with its different sects marching toward another civil war.
It should also be noted that even though Hezbollah's well-organized rally was not violent, Hezbollah itself is a well trained militant organization which controlled South Lebanon for seven years since Israel's withdrawal. The organization's popularity increased among Shiites and Arabs ever since the July war with Israel. With Hezbollah's popularity on the rise on one hand and Lebanon's government power decreasing from the other, Siniora indeed has a reason to fear of a coup.
Update: Another Image, from the L.A. Times, showing Lebanese soldiers watching the protest.
Update (12/2/06): In Beirut, hundreds of demonstrators spent the night in the streets next the government's building, marking a the second day of the protest. The demonstrators "will stay [in the streets] until the fall of the government which is under the tutelage of the United States.* "
Mustapha posts a letter from one of the Shiite demonstrators in Beirut, in a reply to his previous post. "I cannot accept that you remove our democratically elected Prime Minister the way you're trying to." His blog now presents a film about a Hezbollah supporter removing a Lebanese flag and hanging a Hezbollah one instead.
Little Green Footballs calls the two day demonstration "terrorist tent city," and offer links to other blogs with a similar agenda.
1 comments:
Am I reading fox news here or the newspaper of the Lebanese prime minister? You lack so much knowledge of the problem in Lebanon that I think you are unqualified to comment on it. First Hezbollah is not by himself, he has to his side a big part of the Christian Lebanese, small part of the Sunnites. If all the people shown in the picture are terrorists, you have a big problem in the whole world not just Israel. Little bit of perspective here, the demo is about political problems but also about the failure of this government that did nothing since the departure of the Syrian occupiers. This government did nothing to help the Lebanese refugees created by your country's AGRESSION on civilians.
This government is punishing people because of their belief; whether it is for Hezbollah or for the Michel Aoun a Chritstian opposition. This government diod not get any back up calls from inside the country during these demonstrations. However, Saudi Arabia called, USA, Egypt, and almost Israel called. Please when you want to write you have to write objectively.otherwise, you are just like the US media and if you think that hte US media is not biased, ignore my whole post.
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