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Thousands rally for justice on anniversary of Beirut port explosion

THOUSANDS took to the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut today as they demanded justice for the victims of last year’s port explosion. 

On the anniversary of the blast that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands more, victims and families led the demonstration, starting in Beruit’s Gemmayze district, making its way through the damaged buildings to the port.

Most shops and businesses in Beirut were closed for the day as the city paid its respects, with politicians from across the political spectrum united in expressing their grief and sorrow at the blast, the impact of which is still being felt today.

All political factions mobilised for the protest, holding banners reading: “My government killed our people and turned our city to dust.”

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on the eve of the anniversary that the investigations into the explosion, a devastating result of highly explosive ammonium nitrate fertiliser igniting, and those responsible would not spare anyone, himself included.

Volunteer relief worker Saeed said that his home was destroyed in the blast but he has yet to be rehoused, with the compensation going to the landlord. 

“I should be dead. I was in the destruction zone when the port exploded. I was thrown across the room and knocked unconscious,” he told the Morning Star.

“The next thing I remember is waking up in hospital with a broken arm and more than 40 stitches in my back and more on my leg.”

He angrily condemned the Lebanese interim government for failing to support the victims and survivors of the blast, many of whom also lost their homes.

But he said the country’s woes could not simply be attributed to “corrupt politicians,” which he said was “a lazy — and racist — Western orientalist view” of the Middle East.

“The people of Lebanon can’t take much more pain. We are hurting so much. But we are abandoned. Nobody wants to help us. Yes, there are criminals in the government of course.

“But we all know that what is happening is also because of the Americans. They are starving us and our economic situation is worsening daily.”

A Beirut social worker, who described herself as a non-politically aligned Sunni Muslim, said: “Today is just about letting off steam. Lebanon is like a balloon and today the politicians allowed a little of the pressure to be released.

“But what about tomorrow? All this will be forgotten and Lebanon will go back to normal, with the politicians continuing to cover up the truth. But we are all so exhausted that we cannot even go on the streets any more.”

Earlier this week Washington-based NGO Human Rights Watch hit out at Lebanese officials for failing to take action to prevent the explosion, saying they ignored a number of warnings over the unsafe storage of the chemicals at a warehouse in the port.

The organisation, which is an ardent supporter of US foreign policy, called for independent investigations and targeted sanctions as the “only path to justice.”

It has, however, remained silent on the US sanctions which are aimed at disarming Hezbollah’s armed forces but have actually pushed the Lebanese people to the brink of starvation and destroyed the country’s economy.

In May, the World Bank described Lebanon’s situation as the world’s worst financial crisis since the mid-19th century, with no prospect of a way out on the horizon. 

The currency has lost some 90 per cent of its value in the last 18 months, with the economy set to shrink by almost 10 per cent this year.

The Lebanese Communist Party issued a rallying cry for change to the country’s parliamentary system and the resurgence of the stalled movement for a democratic revolution, which emerged in October 2019 as mass protests rocked Lebanon.

Currently under Lebanon’s confessional state, seats in the chamber are divided along sectarian lines, supposedly relative to size, although figures are based on a 1930s census and have not changed since.

According to the Taif Accords, an agreement which ended Lebanon’s civil war in 1990, the prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim, the president a Maronite Christian and the speaker a Shi’te Muslim.

As the demonstration continued in Beirut, news came of Israeli shelling in the south of Lebanon.

Over 40 Israeli shells reportedly hit the Lebanese side of the border while Hezbollah fighters responded firing into the north of Lebanon.

Rumours of an imminent Israeli invasion have been circulating for some time, with intensified activity and drones flying over Beirut’s southern suburbs in recent weeks. 

Hezbollah supporters and many Lebanese people fear that disarming the Shi’ite armed forces would open the door to a potential bloodbath and another Israeli occupation.

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