Police Break Up Protest near U.S. Embassy after Fierce Clashes

W300

Lebanese security forces on Sunday fired rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators near the U.S. embassy in Awkar as they protested Washington's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Several people were injured by rocks, tear gas, and rubber bullets as security forces arrested around ten protesters who refused to disperse after fierce clashes.

The protesters had gathered early Sunday hundreds of meters outside the heavily-guarded embassy to reject the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

After a rowdy start, the protest drew several hundred people and became more peaceful, with demonstrators chanting and singing.

The clashes resumed in the afternoon after organizers announced the end of the protest. Some protesters refused to leave the site and instead pelted security forces with stones.

Security forces intervened forcefully at this point, chasing the remaining protesters and arresting and beating up a handful of them.

Demonstrators were blocked from reaching the complex by a metal gate sealing the road leading to the embassy.

Waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags, and sporting black-and-white checked keffiyeh scarves, protesters chanted slogans against U.S. President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

A group of demonstrators set alight an effigy of the U.S. president, whose decision has upended decades of American diplomacy and an international consensus to leave the status of Jerusalem to be resolved in negotiations.

The demonstrators included members of Palestinian parties, as well as Lebanese leftists and Islamists.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has called for a mass demonstration against Trump's decision on Monday in the group's southern Beirut suburbs stronghold.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, including those who fled or were expelled from their homes after Israel's founding, as well as their descendants.

Israel occupied southern Lebanon for 22 years before withdrawing amid armed resistance in 2000, but the two countries remain technically at war.

In 2006, Israel fought a devastating war against Hizbullah in Lebanon that killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 120 Israelis, most of them soldiers.

Comments 1
Thumb _mowaten_ over 6 years

If they want to have their embassy in Jerusalem, then let us close the one in awkar. Sick and tired of having these hypocrites and backstabbers strutting around on the proud land of Lebanon