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Protesters staged anti-Israel demonstrations around the world on Wednesday, particularly in the Middle East. While many of these protests were peaceful and aimed at delivering a clear message against Israel’s war on Gaza, Lebanon unfortunately witnessed violent protests and acts of vandalism that only harmed the Lebanese.
The protests aimed to express outrage over the latest Israeli shelling of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which killed hundreds of Palestinians in the deadliest incident in the besieged strip since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7.
In Lebanon, protesters waved Palestinian and Lebanese party flags, including those of Hezbollah. They headed to protest and express their anger in different locations by buses, cars and motorcycles.
They gathered in Awkar, near the US Embassy, to vent their fury at the US government for its political and military support of Israel.
Protesters threw rocks, water bottles and firecrackers at the security barricade set up on the road leading to the embassy. Security forces responded with tear gas to disperse the protesters.
However, the demonstrators failed to reach the embassy and instead took it out on shops in Dbayeh and Awkar, which were vandalized and set ablaze.
In a harrowing live television report, a Lebanese shop owner watched his livelihood go up in flames. Overwhelmed by the destruction, he emphasized that such actions did nothing but undermine the Palestinian cause.
“This is not freedom of expression; this is barbarism. These are people’s livelihoods. Show some mercy,” Shady Hage, a shop owner in Awkar, told This Is Beirut.
Wednesday night witnessed more violent acts in Beirut as protesters ransacked a Starbucks branch in Rawche and a McDonald’s in Ain el-Mrayse, forcing both franchises to temporarily close their doors.
Furthermore, a video circulating on social media showed protesters on motorcycles damaging light bulbs and road signs outside the American University of Beirut (AUB).
It’s worth noting that AUB was among the very few, if not the only international university to take a clear stance against Israel’s violent attacks, which targeted hospitals, killed civilians, including children, and deliberately targeted journalists.
“We at AUB are constant in our values and beliefs. We are not neutral on the subject of targeted assassination. We are not neutral to 75 years of continuous Palestinian suffering,” President Fadlo R. Khuri said in a statement at AUB’s Medical Center after observing a moment of silence for the bombed hospitals in Gaza on Wednesday.
The attack on AUB provoked outrage. Several people including AUB students and alumni took to social media to condemn these acts of vandalism. One alumnus questioned, “How is this helping the cause?”
Another AUB alumnus, Salah Halawi, said in a tweet on “X”: “Yesterday, the American University took a noble stance in solidarity with the Palestinian people and Gaza, a stance rarely taken by an American institution. As an act of gratitude and loyalty, hooligans went out at night and vandalized the university’s property.”
Halawi added that “it is imperative that arrests are made today if the relevant parties are not involved (which is my belief) or if they are a fifth column.”
Sources told This Is Beirut that after the protest, “some AUB students arrived on campus at midnight to repair the damage themselves.”
“The act of resisting this sort of wanton injustice and ignorance of facts is to work, to care for people, to educate them, and teach them to be better than the examples we are getting from the West.”
President Fadlo R. Khuri at AUBMC after observing a moment of silence for Gaza. pic.twitter.com/oSbjFGDHti— American University of Beirut Medical Center (@AUBMC_Official) October 18, 2023
اخدت مبارح الجامعة الاميركية @AUB_Lebanon موقف نبيل تضامنا مع الشعب الفلسطيني وغزّة، نادراً ما اخدته مؤسسة اميركية.
وكشكر ووفاء، توجه الغوغائيين بالليل وقاموا بتكسير املاك الجامعة.
ضروري اليوم يتم اعتقالن اذا كانت الاحزاب المعنية براء منهم (وهيك اعتقادي) او كانو طابور خامس. pic.twitter.com/owUXyPEShe
— Salah Halawi (@Salah_Halawi) October 19, 2023
