For more than a week now, hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people have taken to the streets to voice their anger toward their government, after decades of economic crisis. The movement was sparked last week by a proposed tax on messaging apps like WhatsApp, but has grown amid a wider set of anti-government grievances, following years of corruption, mismanagement, and growing inequality, and dissatisfaction with an austerity budget passed this summer. Lebanese troops have moved to reopen roads being blocked by protesters, and made numerous arrests. Earlier today, amid continued demonstrations, Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun said during an address that he was willing to meet with protesters.
Photos: Anti-Government Protests in Lebanon
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A Lebanese demonstrator—Cynthia Aboujaoude, her face painted as the DC comic book and film character the Joker, but using the colors of Lebanon's flag—takes part in a protest in Beirut's Martyr's Square on October 19, 2019. #
Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty -
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This combination of photographs created on October 22, 2019, shows Lebanese demonstrators in several different areas of the country carrying placards as they protest, demanding a sweeping overhaul of Lebanon's political system. #
Anwar Amro, Ibrahim Amro, Joseph Eid / AFP / Getty -
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A woman wearing face paint depicting a Lebanese cedar tree and the Arabic word revolution looks on during a demonstration on the sixth day of protest against tax increases and official corruption, in Beirut's downtown district on October 22, 2019. #
Anwar Amro / AFP / Getty -
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An anti-government protester with Arabic on his back that reads "I fight to live" makes victory signs in front of a roadblock made of burning tires during a protest against the government's plans to impose new taxes, in Beirut on October 18, 2019. #
Hassan Ammar / AP -
Riot police stand guard as anti-government protesters try to remove a barbed-wire barrier to advance toward government buildings during a protest in Beirut on October 19, 2019. #
Hassan Ammar / AP -
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Following a night of violence between police and demonstrators, female protesters stand between riot police and demonstrators during a peaceful protest in Riadh Solh Square in downtown Beirut on October 19, 2019. #
Sam Tarling / Getty -
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A demonstrator holds a Lebanese national flag as he sits atop a statue in Martyr's Square, with the Al-Amin mosque in the background, during an anti-government protest in Beirut on October 22, 2019. #
Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters -
This picture taken on October 24, 2019, in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli shows a boy passing by graffiti painted on a wall at al-Nour Square in the city center. The graffiti depicts two clasped hands painted in the colors of the Lebanese national flag; it was painted by a Palestinian refugee, Ghayath al-Rawbeh, who was originally a refugee in Syria but fled with the start of the Syrian crisis. #
Ibrahim Chalhoub / AFP / Getty -
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Children help Lebanese members of a civil-society group clear rubbish on a street in Beirut's downtown district, following a night of protests against tax increases and official corruption, on October 21, 2019. #
Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty -
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Lebanese protesters chant anti-government slogans during a broadcast by their president, in the town of Jal el-Dib, Lebanon, on October 24, 2019, as demonstrations for better living conditions and the ouster of a cast of politicians who have monopolized power and influence for decades continue. #
Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty
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