Lebanon Uprising
The protests were remarkable for their scale and national ubiquity but also the absence of sectarian politics: only Lebanese flags were flown and chants denouncing the country's political class in its entirety were prevalent. It finally felt like Lebanon might have an answer to the sectarian status-quo that has effectively stymied any meaningful reform since the end of the civil war in 1990.
As the protests grew to topple the government of Saad al Hariri, they came under fire from the political parties of Lebanon's Shia sect Hezbollah and Amal and their allies, who have come to dominate Lebanon's political structure in recent years. At best this saw thinner crowds on the streets; at worst, violent clashes between protesters and counter-protesters. Supporters of the ousted Hariri added a further sectarian fracture on the designation by the Hezbollah/Amal led bloc of their choice of Prime Minister Hassan Diab.
Whether the protest movement can maintain its path and lead Lebanon away from sectarianism remains to be seen, and unrest continues as Hassan Diab works to name his new cabinet.
Shia Supporters Clash With Police in Downtown Beirut
BEIRUT - DECEMBER 17, 2019:
Supporters of Shia political parties clash with security forces in central Beirut. The clash began after supporters of Shia political parties attempted to attack an anti-government protest camp-site in response to a video of a demonstrator insulting Shia political leaders and religious figures.
Sectarian tensions, long a feature of Lebanese politics, were largely absent at the outset of the ongoing popular protests which, by this point had toppled the government of Prime Minister Saad al Hariri. With a power vacuum up for grabs these decades old community splits were leveraged by political parties, ultimately resulting in the nomination of Hassan Diab by Hezbollah and its political allies as the new Lebanese PM.