Mona Khneisser

The author, a PhD student at a US university, examines the Lebanese movement in its fourth week. She summarizes its origins, immediately after fire destroyed over 3,000 acres of woodland in the country, as a reaction to new taxes on online calling apps, fuel, cigarettes and consumer goods,

and notes how it developed to challenge corruption and the nature of the regime. She argues the movement's scale (about 2 million protesters on Sunday October 20) its national spread, including to sectarian strongholds, and its inclusion of different religious and class groups, made the protests unprecedented in recent history.  As a result of demonstrations, strikes in schools and universities, and blockades the government abandoned its tax plans and the Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, announced his resignation on 29 October.