Lebanon Pupils Skip Schools to Join Demos against Political Elite

W460

In a first since the beginning of the demonstrations on October 17, Lebanon’s school students flocked to the streets on Wednesday joining the country’s revolution against the political class.

Refusing to return to class before the demands of a nearly three-week-old protest movement are met, students from north to south Lebanon skipped classes gathering outside the schools’ premises and chanting angry slogans at an “incompetent authority.”

In the capital Beirut, dozens gathered in front of the education ministry, brandishing Lebanese flags and chanting slogans demanding the removal of the political class.

“We have no future to build under this political authority. They (officials) claim to work for the new generation but in practice they are doing nothing. They must all go,” one pupil told LBCI reporter.

“I am working hard and studying harder but in the end I know that no work opportunities are available for me here. I don't want to leave my parents to work abroad. I want to work in my country,” another pupil told the reporter angrily.

“All the deputies know well that we, the youth, have no opportunities here in Lebanon. That’s why they have sent their children to study and work abroad,” he added.

In the largest pupil-led protest, crowds streamed into a central square in the southern city of Sidon, demanding better public education and more job opportunities for school leavers, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported.

In a school in the resort town of Jounieh, just north of the capital, pupils mobilised against school governors accusing them of banning particpation in the protests.

Other pupil-led protests took place in the southern cities of Tyre and Nabatieh, the eastern city of Zahleh and the northern city of Byblos, according to NNA and other Lebanese media reports.

But demonstrators, who have kept up their protests since October 17, were not blocking key roads on Wednesday morning.

Banks were open and classes resumed at most schools after a two-week gap.

But demonstrators gathered around key state institutions for a second day in a row, in what appears to be a new tactic replacing road closures.

The most significant in the capital was around the Palace of Justice, where hundreds demanded an independent judiciary and an end to political interference, an AFP correspondent reported.

"We don't want judges who receive orders," read one placard held aloft by the crowd.

A smaller group of protesters gathered near the central bank, accusing it of aggravating the country's economic crisis.

Pressure from the street prompted Prime Minister Saad Hariri to resign last week. He remains in his post in a caretaker capacity while rival politicians haggle over the make-up of a new government.

The protesters have expressed mounting frustration with the slow pace of the coalition talks.

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