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Ahram Online
Schools, universities and many shops were closed in Lebanon following a general strike by public transportation and labour unions on the worsening economic conditions on Thursday.
Protesters rejected hiking fuel prices due to lifting of government subsidies. The blockage began on major highways and main city roads at 5 am. Taxi and truck drivers used their vehicles to block roads. In the capital Beirut, many roads were blocked by giant trash bins and vehicles.
Nationwide protests, dubbed a ‘day of rage’, were scheduled to last 12 hours, but appear to have dispersed by early afternoon. Only a small number of protesters took part in the strike.
The protest action comes as the Lebanese pound continued to tumble against the US dollar. About 80% of people in Lebanon are living in poverty, after the Lebanese pound lost more than 90% of its value in the past two years.
“The clear indifference of Lebanese policymakers to the suffering of the population amid one of the worst economic crises in modern times borders on the criminal”, said Aya Majzoub, a researcher at Human Rights Watch in Lebanon.
“Corrupt and incompetent Lebanese authorities have deliberately plunged the country into one of the worst economic crises in modern times, demonstrating a disregard for the rights of the population”, the HRW said in its World Report 2022, published on Thursday.
Majzoub urged the international community to use “every tool at its disposal to pressure Lebanese policymakers to put in place the reforms necessary to pull the country out of this crisis”.
