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Violent clashes between protesters and sympathizers of the Shiite Amal and Hezbollah movement erupted on the night of Sunday, 24 to Monday, 25 November, near downtown Beirut. These clashes occur in the wake of an outcry provoked on social networks after the arrest of several young Lebanese, including three minors.
From our correspondent in Beirut, Paul Khalifeh
These are the most serious incidents since the start of the protest movement on October 17. Significant reinforcements were deployed by the army and the police to keep the partisans of the two sides, who have clashed for hours with stones and various projectiles.
This rise in tension comes after an outcry provoked on social networks after the arrest of several young Lebanese, including three minors, accused of tearing posters of the Free Patriotic Current, the party founded by the president of the Republic.
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The incident occurred in Hammana, a town in Mount Lebanon, where five young men, including three minors aged 12 and 15, were arrested by the municipal police and handed over to the military police, on the order of a prosecutor. After being heard and detained for several hours, they were released in the night from Saturday to Sunday.
Vivid emotion on social networks
This affair provoked a stir on social networks, where Internet users were unleashed against what they have described as inadmissible repression. Some rejected what they called the dictatorship, like the journalist Kim Ghattas, who denounced in a tweet that the security services serve a party and not an institution.
Others have drawn parallels between these arrests and the arrest, at the beginning of the Syrian crisis, in 2011, of several teenagers who had slogans hostile to the Syrian president on the wall of a school in the city of Deraa.
A call was made for the posters of all political parties, rejected by the protest movement, to be torn all over Lebanon. This initiative was launched by one of the protesters, Nizar Saghiyé, on his Facebook page. This lawyer, who has been very active since the beginning of the protest, has summoned leaders and political parties to withdraw their own photos and posters, accusing them of illegally occupying the public space.
If they do not, thousands of children will do it. His post went around the Web. Already, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, protesters had systematically ripped off hundreds of portraits of leaders and notables who covered the walls of the city.
Integrity of minors
However, associations have criticized the way in which this incident was approached on social networks and treated by some media. The Kafa association , which fights against the violence and the exploitation made to the children, denounced the publication of the photos of the arrested teenagers. She called on Internet users to respect the integrity of minors, as stipulated in the international conventions on the protection of children's rights.
The advocacy group of the protest movement also asked that the names of the teenagers not be published, out of respect for their private life. This did not stop thousands of Facebook, Twitter and social media users from sharing portraits and divulging the identity of young boys.