Lebanon UnsettledArchivePerformative MappingIntimate LegaciesVideosAboutDownload spatial analysis
Intro
Timeline
Key moments
Images
Soundscape
Videos
Bibliography

The October 2019 Uprising

17 October 2019

The uprising of October 2019 is a historical event. It is often referred to as al-thawrah, the revolution. The protest was a horizontal movement with no clear leaders or demands, it spanned the entire urban fabric of the country and continued day in and day out for over three months. It mixed traditional revolutionary Marxist groups with liberals, religious conservatives with LGBTQ activists, the working class and middle class, and even supporters of Lebanon’s ruling parties.

The nationalist framing of the uprising, egregious acts by the ruling elite and the rage at the deteriorating social condition in the country driving this protest facilitated the revolt to coalesce. Divisions along political, class, gender, citizenship, geography and generation were evident from the start. The meaning of October 2019 is derived because the bottom-up mobilization occurred in the context of, and despite, these well-known fractures between the inhabitants of Lebanon.

Protesters achieved a unity of opposition to the sectarian system and the ruling elite, in a context in which many of those revolting retained loyalty to their politico-sectarian community (if not leadership). New political spaces, coalitions, and possibilities emerged that competed with – rather than overthrew - more established political divides, discords, and impossibilities.

The geography of the protest, the presence of the Lebanese flag and absence of party-political insignia, the proliferation of public forums and the slogans, are all articulations of the novel forms of political unity that October 2019 established. Protesters had created the spectre of hope in a country convulsed by despair. 

Demonstrators filled squares, blocked highways, and transformed everyday life in the country. The central squares of Beirut and the nearby seats of government power were, as is traditional, the centre of gravity for the protests. But critically and in contrast to previous contemporary revolts, other urban centres, towns and highways, throughout the country became notable sites of protests in their own right. In the north, protests erupted in Halba (Akkar) and Zaghrta, Batroun and Lebanon’s second largest city Tripoli, that would earn the moniker the “Bride of the Revolution” (‘Arus al-Thawrah).

In Mount Lebanon, in the Keserwan district (Zouq Mosbeh and Zouq Mikael), in the Metn (Jal el Dib) and Aley. In the south, Saida and Nabatieh. And in the Bekka, Baalbeck and Zahle. Lebanon had not experienced a protest on this scale and across such a large geographical breadth. October 2019 is as much a geographical event, as a historical one. October 2019 has made its mark on the historical geography of the country and its legacy continues to resonate to this day.

Timeline
February 9, 2019
Self-immolation
May
Worsening economic crisis
May 11
Bisri Valley protest
July
Palestinian Camps Revolt
August
Fitch downgrades Lebanon
September
Crisis in Basic Goods
September 30
The Hariri Model
October 13
Lebanon is on Fire
October 17
The Uprising Begins
October 18
Protests spread
October 19
Hassan Nasrallah Speaks
October 20
Changing Society by Changing Space
October 21
General Strike
October 24
President Aoun Speaks
October 25
Violence and the Vacuum
October 27
The Human Chain
October 29
Hariri resigns
November 3
Protests enter third week
November 9
Protests at Bisri Valley
November 12
Alaa Abou Fakher
November 13
President Aoun
November 14
Jal el Deeb highway
November 17
Melhem Khalaf
November 19
Protests against amnesty law
November 24
Amal and Hezbollah
November 25
Violence at the Road Block
November 26
Political party clashes
December 14
Police Clash
December 19
Hassan Diab
March 7, 2020
Default
March 15
COVID-19
March 28
The end

George Zreik dies after dousing himself with petrol and setting himself ablaze at Our Lady of Kaftoun secondary school in the Koura district of north Lebanon. Zreik took this action following a fee dispute with his daughter's school. Zriek's suicide provokes outrage. His death echoes the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi that sparked the 2011 Arab uprisings.

Key moments
January-October

The impact of the fiscal, debt and foreign currency crises, the rising unemployment and the increasing cost of living is making everyday life more difficult for the inhabitants of the country. Poverty rates are rising fast. In February, taxi driver, George Zreik, struggled to pay fees for his daughter’s private elementary school in Koura, North Lebanon. Following a dispute with the school’s director, Zreik walked to the grass courtyard of the school, doused his body in petrol and set himself ablaze. Zreik’s act is viewed by many in the country to represent the growing economic pressure and worsening social conditions rather than an isolated act of desperation. Zreik’s act results in comparisons with Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation that sparked the Arab uprisings in 2010. Strikes and protests are continuing to grow but remain sporadic.  

In August, the financial crisis escalates. The rating agency Fitch downgraded Lebanon to “CCC” indicating a real possibility of the government defaulting on its maturing debt obligations. The growing economic deterioration has increased existing stresses on the provision of basic urban services exacerbating the urban crisis in the country. The long running electricity crisis, for instance, is further exacerbated. Rolling blackouts range from three to 17 hours per day.

South African court documents, later picked up and published by the New York Times at the end of September, show that Prime Minister Saad Hariri gave a South African bikini model $16million. This report sparks further outrage in Lebanon.   

In tandem to the economic and governance crisis, Lebanon is facing ecological stresses provoking anger among the country’s inhabitants. Protesters gathered in the Bisri Valley to object to the proposed construction of the (World Bank-funded) Bisri dam. On October 13, forest fires break out across the Mount Lebanon region. The absence of a response by the government to the fires and the widespread destruction and burning that resulted, causes consternation amongst the public.

October 17

The Government holds a cabinet session to discuss several measures to increase state revenues in the face of the financial polycrisis. Thirty-six items are discussed that focus on austerity and tax rises. Notably, included in these discussions are an increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) and a plan to charge US$ 0.20 per day on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls. The fee to use VoIP would have meant a $6 monthly fee to use (otherwise free) popular apps, such as, WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, Facebook and Facetime. This VoIP tax became known as the “WhatsApp” tax. 

Media reports about the cabinet session’s plans provoke protest in downtown Beirut. A small group of protesters gather in downtown Beirut (Martyrs Square and Najmeh Square), as well as Harma Street, to protest the new proposed taxes, in particular the "WhatsApp Tax" but also the general decline in living standards. Protests grow around the country and protesters block major highways and roads. The roads around the Parliament and the Serail in downtown Beirut are closed by protesters and state security forces and protesters clash. Protesters block the Minister of Education Akram Chehayeb’s convoy from exiting the parliament building. Chehayeb’s bodyguard fires into the air to disperse the crowd. This act sparks outrage amongst the protesters and on social media (including the infamous image of the "kick queen") further fuelling the intensity of the protests. Protests spread throughout the country from the north to the south.

The slogan of the Arab uprisings of 2011, "The people want the downfall of the regime" is chanted by the protesters in many of the different locations. Demonstrators gather in Lebanon’s second city of Tripoli and in Akkar in the north. In the coastal towns of Jbeil (also known as Byblos) and in Baalbek in the eastern Bekaa Valley. In the southern town of Nabatieh demonstrators gather in front of the homes of local parliament members, including Yassine Jaber and Hani Qobeissi of the Amal Movement and the leader of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, Mohammed Raad. This is the first time that mass mobilizations have taken place in regions with a Shi’a majority in which protesters accused Amal-Hezbollah along with the rest of the political class of corruption and extractive practices. By midnight protesters have blocked key highways and roads throughout the country with many internal roads also obstructed. A de facto general strike had been undertaken by the protesters, drawn from various regions, classes and sects in the country. At 11pm the telecommunication minister Mohammed Shuqair cancels the proposed "WhatsApp" tax.

The October Uprising, or Revolution (Thawra), has begun.

October 18

Protests continue to grow in size and breadth. The whole country is convulsed into protest with all the main highways blocked.

October 29

After two weeks of continuous protest in Lebanon, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri (and his cabinet) resigns announcing that he had reached a "dead end" on finding a way forward to address the demands of protesters angry about economic decline and government corruption. Hariri is the third Arab leader, following Algeria and Sudan, in 2019 to leave office following demonstrations. Protesters are attacked at "the ring" in Beirut where they had set up mattresses, tents and a football pitch.

November 25

Two die in a car crash after hitting a Lebanese army roadblock near a protest camp in Jiyyeh. Hezbollah and Amal supporters accused protesters who had been blocking roads of killing the victims and sectarian tensions rose. This episode resulted in many of the road blocks by protesters being removed. The protests are now reduced and begin to dissipate.

December

Michel Aoun nominates Hassan Diab, a Professor at the American University of Beirut, as the next Prime Minister on December 19. Diab is part of a proposed technocratic government that is branded as a concession to protesters demands. This results in further protests rejecting his nomination.

Tensions are high and in Tripoli supporters of Hariri block attempts by protesters to create new roadblocks. Protest camps are burnt down in Nabatieh, Saida and Baalbek and violence is reported between protesters and partisans of Hezbollah and Amal. Diab is appointed Prime Minister on January 21, 2020 and holds office until September 2021. The outbreak of COVID-19 and first lockdown of March 15 effectively ends the already dissipating protest movement. The military moves in to dismantle remaining protest camps in Beirut and Tripoli.

Images

The October 2019 uprising was a distinctly urban one. It involved the active transformation of urban space by protesters who put up tents and created discussion forums in the middle of highways, reclaimed privatised public space, and established “popular markets” in areas dominated by luxury brands. Protesters mobilised to change the city in order to change society.

October 2019 resulted in some of the largest mass mobilizations Lebanon has experienced. While protests centred in the heart of Beirut this protest movement was marked by its geographical diffusion. Significant protests emerged across the country, in urban centres such as Tripoli and Saida, but also along highways and intersections. Photograph by Hasan Shaaban, November 2019

A map by Antoine Attallah of the protest space created in downtown Beirut on October 27, 2019.

One of many debate tents held in Martyr’s Square in downtown Beirut. Photograph by Nadim Kobeissi, 2019 (Creative Commons)

An important practice for the protesters was cleaning the streets and claiming the city as theirs. The idea of a “right to the city” of claiming the city back from the elite was present in the protest movement. Photograph unknown, 2019 (Create Commons)

Protesters block the Ring Bridge. Photograph by Antoine Attallah, 2019.

Protesters created an atmosphere of play at the Ring Bridge. Photograph by Antoine Atallah, 2019

Protesters moved quickly to block highways and major roads at the start of the protest. This protest tactic emerged as one of the distinctive features of the protest. It resulted in highways themselves being transformed into sites of protest. Here is a video of protests on the Jal el-Dib highway by Christina Karam.

Protests on Jel el-Dib highway. Photography by Christina Karam, 2019

Protests did not just take place in and around Lebanon’s dominant metropolis Beirut. Tripoli, Lebanon’s second city, became known as the “Bride of the Revolution” was also an important protest space where public forums were also held. Here Obedia Tikriti, a prominent activist in Tripoli, holds a public forum in his home city. Photograph by Khalil Issa, 2019

Burning tyres on the highway was a keyway in which roads were blocked. Photograph by Hasan Shaaban, 2019

A important slogan of the protest was “peaceful” that stressed the importance that this was a non-violent revolt. Nonetheless, there were many instances of direct clashes between protesters and state security forces. Photograph by Hasan Shaaban, 2019

The Soundscape of the October 2019 Uprising
By Sarah Yassine, 2022 

From October 2019 to March 2020, the streets of Beirut became a rich soundtrack, composed of protest songs, rap songs, call and response, slogan chanting, cursing, and banging on metal structures, all rhyming together forming this soundscape. 

Megaphones circulated amongst protestors and with time, some became known as “chanters” (هتافين) for leading slogans and encouraging the crowd to respond. Chanters composed new songs reflecting daily incidents, the progression of the demands, and the push and pull between protesters and security forces.

On the streets protestors chanted Lebanese political songs by Marcel Khalife and Ziad el Rahbani, historic songs such as ‘Bella Ciao’ (the Lebanese version), and some slogans from the 2011 Arab uprising, the 25 January Egyptian Revolution and the Syrian Revolution. The notable chant from the Arab uprisings, “The People Want the Fall of the Regime,” was frequently used. 

During the early days of October, we heard the song ‘Thawra 2011’ by rapper Rayess Bek blasting from protests square. We also heard chants from the 2015 ‘You Stink Movement’, such as Kellon yani Kellon’ [ كلن يعني كلن], “All of them means all of them”. As well as slogans from the 2005 ‘Independence Intifadah,’ namely ‘Askaar aa’la Min’ [عسكر على مين]. Chants also gave homage to ‘The October 17th Martyrs’ those who lost their lives during the protests, and those who lost an eye, after being injured by rubber bullets used by parliamentary police and general security forces.

October 2019 was notable for its uncensored chants, including curse words directed at notable politicians. Sometimes chants felt like duals between the protesters. Tensions would rise at times. But the violence of the security forces and the slogan “All of them means all of them,” acted as equalizers.

The chants were dependent on time and space, changing according to day and location. Protestors marched for better representation, diversity and equality, organizing marches for women’s rights, migrants workers rights, displaced political asylum seekers rights; and LGBTQ rights and chanted against homophobia and transphobia.

This is a selection of five recordings with an accompanying literal translation from Arabic, they are part of a larger ongoing archival project about the October 17th Revolution.

Recording #1: ‘Irhal’

DATE: October 18, 2019

Location: between Marty’s Square and Riad el Solh through Gouraud Street

Duration: 04:56 minutes

Squares across Lebanon were filling up with protestors, where there was no public space they created one, roundabouts or voids under bridges that become protest squares appropriated by the people.

What was happening on the streets was described as a Revolution ‘Thawra’ by the people, they called it the October 17th Revolution.

Protestors were fearless, cursing all politicians, and calling them out.

Audio transcript

‘Leave, leave you are not everyone's father’ (referring to former president Michel Aoun’s statement I am the nationa’s patriarch - ‘I am everyone's father’)
‘Thawra’
‘Gebran Bassil - leave’
‘Samir Geagea - leave’
‘Nabih Beri - leave’
‘Suleiman Frangieh - leave’
‘Hassan Nassrallah leave’
‘Saad el Hariri leave’
‘Walid Joumblat leave’
‘A state of pimps’

‘All of them means all of them (Kelon Yaani Kelon)’
‘All of them means all of them (Kelon Yaani Kelon)’
‘All of them means all of them (Kelon Yaani Kelon)’

‘Leave , leave your mandate made every one hungry’
‘All of them means all of them (Kelon Yaani Kelon)’

‘Gebran Bassil - leave’
‘Samir Geagea - leave’
‘Nabih Beri - leave’
‘Suleiman Frangieh - leave’
‘Hassan Nassrallah - leave’
‘Saad el Hariri - leave’
‘Walid Joumblat - leave’

Recording #2: ‘Thaw Thaw Thawra’

DATE: December 6th 2019

Location: The Meeting of 3 marches passing through Bank’s Association a the intersection of the Ring and  George Haddad Street 

From the National Museum to Martyr’s Square along the former Green Line

From the Central Bank to Martyr’s Square

From the house of resigned MP Hassan Diab in Verdun to Martyr’s Square

Duration: 23:476 minutes

This long audio piece 23:47 minutes starts at the National Museum along the former Civil War Demarcation Line (The Green Line) and intersects with two other marches at the Ring.

It reflects the spectrum of the protestor’s political affiliations, anarchists, people calling for riots, communist party slogans chanting against the class system and capitalism, and other protestors calling for a nonviolent revolution, they all gather in unison chanting against the political oligarchy ; the word ‘thawra’ revolution and the slogan ‘all of them means all of them - kellon yaani kellon’ acts an equalizer.   

It is also recorded at the turning point during the protests, when the former President Michel Aoun asked to negotiate with Revolution representatives, the response was through this chant on the street ‘We the people demand, we do not negotiate الشعب يطالب و لا يفاوض’.

It also reflects the lack of trust of protestors in newly appointed Prime Minister Hassan Diab to form a government, after Saad el Hariri stepped down on October 19th 2019, the audio is dated December 06th 2019, Diab was appointed officially on January 21 2020, and he won the parliament’s vote of confidence on February 11th 2020, despite massive protests violently repressed by parliamentary police, and the Lebanese army injuring hundreds according to AP.

Google Pin: https://goo.gl/maps/2ZZERWJJdcCpU9AdA (from Museum) 
https://goo.gl/maps/LnYieUKCnatrbARt9 (from Central Bank)
https://goo.gl/maps/LnYieUKCnatrbARt9 (from Hassan Diab House in Verdun)

Audio transcript

‘Protest protest protest until the regime falls
Going going going on
This Revolution is going on
Raise your voice don’t give up your rights
Raise your voice until your lose it
This regime will fall
Those who of you  sitting in the cafe join us
Join us, join us so we go on
Thieves thieves the parliamentarians are thieves
The central bank is a thief
Those who are sitting in the cafe stop smoking shisha
Those who are standing on the balcony join us

Raise your voice this regime wants to kill you/us
We know what happened our civil servants are businessmen
They sold the Lebanese pound in dollars
Tak tak takiyeh ( hat in Arabic no significance just to rhyme) we don’t want sectarianism
Tak tak takiyeh we want a secular state

Come on, leave regime
Come on, leave regime
We are fed up of repeating and of talking
We will escalate, we will escalate
Lebanese it’s time to understand that we must all become secular
Leave leave your mandate made us all hungry

Hela hela hela
Helaaaa
Come up people stay strong
Oohh
A people who strive to freedom 
May the regime fall
Kelon Yaani kelon ( all of them means all of them ) we want the death penalty for all of them
We the people demand, we do not negotiate Thawra thawra (revolution) 

On secularism, thawra
On corruption, thawra
On homophobia, thawra
On thugs, thawra

Not peaceful, not peaceful, our protest is a revolution not a song

Recording#3: Women’s March ‘Talaa’a Badha Houriyeh’

DATE: December 07 2019

Location: AUB Main Gate Bliss Street to Riad el Solh Square

Duration:15:49 minutes

Women were at the frontline during the October 17th Revolution. In this period the street became a safe space for all sorts of demands, especially women’s rights, domestic violence, and speaking up against assault and harassment.

This march began at the Main Gate of the American University of Beirut on bliss Street and ended on Marty’s Square. During this period many women had spoken up, naming and shaming several sexual harrassers, and they were chanting encouraging other women to speak up.

Audio transcript

‘down with fear’
’down with terror’
’this is a song about a woman going to a protest, to bring down the system, a free women’
‘raise your voice/don’t abandon your rights’
’raise your voice until you lose it’

‘down with patriarchy
(women calling out out a sexual harasser by his name) ‘stop harassing women’

‘revolt against: ‘ patriarchy, rape, fear, violence’
overlap of call and response from different direction of the protest

Drums

’you’ (women/Arabic is gendered) ‘are free on the street’
‘you’ (she) ‘can scream and curse on the street’

banging on pots and metal structure of the Grand Theatre 

(banging on the metal gates of the Grand Theater became common practice during the protests it was inaccessible to the public , destroyed during the civil war 19751990, and had become a ruin awaiting real estate development by the real estate company Solidere company, it was reclaimed by protestors who opened the gates and occupied it, until an accident happened resulting in a death and it was closed again to the public) 

‘I decide what I wear, I decide if I want to abort, I decide who to love, I decide how to love’
‘Dignity is not between my legs, I decide, I decide’
‘thaw thaw thawra, it’s a revolution not a movement’
‘All countries are revolting, from Lebanon to Hong Kong, from Lebanon to Iran, from Lebanon to Iraq, from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia, from Lebanon to Chili, from Lebanon to Sudan, raise your voice’
’Bahrain, we are not forgetting Syria...and Palestine – not Israel’

Recording#4: ‘Tring Tring’

DATE: January 06th 2020

Location: The ring square, Fouad Chehab Bridge and beginning of George Hadaad Street 

Duration: 00:39 minutes

After 3 months of protests and violent repressions the protesters began to subside, conflicting perspectives on the revolt took hold, but on January 6 2020, people once again filled the streets in revolt.

The Ring, symbolic during the civil war gained another symbolism during the October 17th Revolution, and on google Maps it is pinned as Althawra bridge. 

The protestors who gathered at the ring became known as ‘Ringers’. They brought couches, mattresses, played football and practiced yoga on the bridge, and camped there for many nights.

This chant became the hymn of the ring, when protestors closed access between the Western and Eastern parts of the city sitting on the ground and asking car drivers to join the protests.

Audio transcript

‘Trr Ring Trr Ring we closed the Ring
‘Trr Ring Trr Ring we closed the Ring’
Freedom Freedom Freedom
We want freedom we want freedom

Secular Secular Secular
We want a secular state

Recording#5: ‘Thuwar Ahra hankamel el Mouchwar’

DATE: 5 May 06 2020

Location: between the Nour Square in Tripoli and Bab el Ramel

Duration: 04:42 minutes

On May 06 2020 , protestors defying the COVID 19  lock-in drove to Tripoli from across Lebanon, to pay tribute to Fawaz Salman, a protester who lost his life in Tripoli on the Nour Square, during violent repression for the Lebanese army earlier that month.

Protestors or 'thuwar" from all across Lebanon, the Mountain area, the Bekaa, and Beirut head to Tripoli to pay tribute to him and to offer condolences to his family.

The audio is a record of religious chants overlapping with communist chants (the communist party was extremely active in protests), and other October 17th chants. As protestors arrived on the street facing the deceased person's home, the sister of Fawaz Salamn standing on the balcony, began chanting the slogans of October 17th as well with the family in morning around her - a call and response with the protestors.

Audio transcript

‘Salute the Martyr
We Salute 
Salute the Martyr 
We Salute
Salute Fawaz 
We Salute’

‘From Tripoli to Beirut
The Voice of the Martyr will remain high
Each person who thinks to take a step back from this Revolution
Will be a traitor, a traitor to this revolution
We will deceiving Fawaz
And all the October 17th Martyrs’

‘Allah w Akbar 
Thawra
We want to to tell the mother of the martyr that your son 
Is our son 

Fawaz your blood will not dry 
It will remain as if a flame over the heads of the oppressor

(Mourning Religious chants)

(Overlapping with) ‘Thuwar ahrar hankamel el Mouchwar’
Free Revolutionaries we will continue the fight
‘Thuwar ahrar hankamel el Mouchwar’ 
Free revolutionaries we will continue the fight
‘Thuwar ahrar hankamel el Mouchwar’ 
Free revolutionaries we will continue the fight
‘Thuwar ahrar hankamel el Mouchwar’ 
Free revolutionaries we will continue the fight

‘Even if they kidnap us from the streets
The sound of the Revolution will remain loud
Even if they kidnap us from our houses
The sound of the Revolution will remain loud
Even if they kill us on the streets
The sound of the Revolution will remain loud’

‘We come from the Bekaa
‘We come from the Square of the Martyr Alaa'a Abu Fakher ( another protestors who died in Khaldeh at the beginning of the protest in 2019 )
‘We are coming from the Mountain to assert that the Martyrhood of the Mountain and Tripoli and Bekaa and all the corners of Lebanon
Has one goal to build a nation a nation free from corruption, and free Lebanon from the occupiers, those who occupy the castles
They kidnapped Lebanon, our country, they will fall
A new nation is coming, the nation of the people's independence
Salman's country, Alaa'a country, Hussein’s country ( names of protestors who died with the uprising)
Our country 

Salute the martyr
We salute
Salute the martyr we salute
Salute the martyr we salute

The sister of Fawaz chants from the balcony

Salute the martyr
‘We salute
Salute Fawaz
Salute Fawaz
Salute Fawaz
We salute
We salute
We salute
Salute Alaa'a
We salute
Salute Alaa'a
We salute
May the banks regime fall 
May the banks regime fall’ 




‘The people want the regime to fall 
The people want the regime to fall 
The people want the regime to fall’ 




‘Listen listen listen regime
Lebanon's people will not kneel
Lebanon's people will not kneel
Your voice my people is heard
We will not die of hunger’

Religious chants

‘This martyr's blood, is on loan’

Communist chants

Videos
Rima Majed
John Chalcraft
Fadi Shayya
Obedia Tikriti
Khalil Issa
Antoine Attallah
Camille Ammoun
Maria Bassil
Marc El Samrani
Larissa Abou Harb
Sarah Yassine
Alexandra Harb
Christina Karam
Christina E Karam
Sharbel Karam
George Hajj
Marianne Mouzaya
Marcelle El Achkar
Bibliography

Karam, Jeffrey G., and Rima Majed. The Lebanon Uprising of 2019: Voices from the Revolution. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the Lebanese uprising of 2019. The contributors, made up of academics and activists, to this volume cover the economic crisis and/or neoliberalism, counter-revolutionary forces, law, gender, sectarianism, ecology, urbanization, the role of highways, the media, the labour movement, the role of non-citizens (in particular Palestinian refugees) and identity.  Notably, this volume includes testimonies by those who engaged directly in the October 2019 protests. This includes insights from members of the Qantari collective and those who participated in the protests around the Bisri Valley. The volume also includes contributions by those who engaged in protests outside of Beirut, such as in Baalbeck-Hermel, Chouf and Aley and Tripoli.

Ziadeh, Khaled and Mohammed Abi Samra. Lebanon’s October Uprising: Squares and Testimonies [Intifadah 18 tishreen fi lubnan], Doha: The Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies, 2022.

This volume provides a sweeping historical account of social mobilisation in Lebanon and situates October 2019 within it. This book provides testimonies from those on the front lines of the protest in Beirut and across Lebanon, including Halba, Keserwan, Tripoli, Saida and Sour.

Ammoun, Camille, Octobre Liban, Inculte - Dernière Marge, 2020.

In “Octobre Liban”, Camille Ammoun takes readers on a walk through an emblematic street of Beirut-Tripoli Road-- during the October 2019 uprising. Starting from Dawra roundabout, in the city’s periphery, Ammoun ends in the heart of the city, the downtown overtaken by protesters, and in front of the Grand Serail, the seat of the Prime Minister. A passionate and engaged practitioner of psychogeography, Ammoun translates the city’s markers (the urban text) which he encounters into historical, geographical, and personal digressions that, slowly and deliberately, unearth the corruption of the political class that contributed to the disfigurement of the city, and captures the evanescent but transformative revolutionary moment of October 17, 2019, that opened, for a short moment, the possibility of change.

AbiYaghi, Marie-Noëlle, and Léa Yammine. ‘The October 2019 Protests in Lebanon: Between Contention and Reproduction,’ Lebanon Support (2020).

Ammoun, Camille. Octobre Liban. Paris: Incultedermarge, (2020).  

Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), ‘Breaking the Barriers: One year of demonstrations in Lebanon.’ ACLED (2020). 

Assi, Abbas. ‘Lebanon’s Protest Movement of 2015 and 2019: A Comparative Analysis.’ Freidrich Naumann Stiftung (2020).

Assi, Abbas. ‘Sectarianism and the Failure of Lebanon’s 2019 Uprising’. Middle East Insights, no. 251 (2020).

Baumann, Hannes. ‘Dumping Humpty-Dumpty: Blockages and Opportunities for Lebanon’s Economy after the October 2019 Protests’. South Atlantic Quarterly, 120 (2021), 456–63. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-8916204.

Daher, Joseph. ‘Hezbollah and the Lebanese Popular Movement,’ European Institute of the Mediterranean, February (2020). 

Dahrouge, Elias, Jihad Nammour, and Ahmed Samy Lotf. ‘The 17 October 2019 Protests in Lebanon: Perceptions of Lebanese and Non-Lebanese Residents of Tripoli and Surroundings.’ Global Campus Human Rights Journal, 4 (2020), 488-516.

Dib, Kamal. ‘Predator Neoliberalism: Lebanon on the Brink of Disaster’. Contemporary Arab Affairs, 13 (2020), 3-22. 

Fakhoury, Tamirace. ‘The Unmaking of Lebanon’s Sectarian Order? The October Uprising and its Drivers.’ Istituto Affari Internazionali, 66 (2019).

Fawaz, Mona, and Isabela Serhan. ‘Urban Revolutions: Lebanon’s October 2019 Uprising - Spotlight On Urban Revolts’. IJURR (2020). https://www.ijurr.org/spotlight-on/urban-revolts/urban-revolutions-lebanons-october-2019-uprising/.

Ghanem, Hiba. ‘Spatial Profanation of Lebanese Sectarianism: Al-Nūr Square and the 17 October 2019 Protests’. Journal for Cultural Research, 25 (2021), 160–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/14797585.2021.1899891.

Ipek, Yasemin, ‘Activists-in-becoming: Lebanon’s October 17 Revolution and Its Afterlives,’ Member Voices, Fieldsights (2020), https://culanth.org/fieldsights/activists-in-becoming-lebanons-october-17-revolution-and-its-afterlives

Karam, Jeffrey G., and Rima Majed. The Lebanon Uprising of 2019: Voices from the Revolution. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, (2022). 

Khater, Lea Bou. ‘Lebanon’s October 2019 Revolution: Inquiry into Recomposing Labor’s Power’. South Atlantic Quarterly, 120 (2021), 464–72. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-8916218.

Khatib, Dania Koleilat. ‘17 October (2019) Revolution in Lebanon: A Preliminary Analysis’. In New Wave of Revolutions in the MENA Region: A Comparative Perspective, edited by Leonid Issaev and Andrey Korotayev, 75–93. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15135-4_4.

Khattab, Lara W. ‘The Genealogy of Social and Political Mobilization in Lebanon under a Neoliberal Sectarian Regime (2009–2019)’. Globalizations (2022): 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2021.2025296.

Khawam, Grace. ‘“What About Us?”: The Unheard Voices of the Lebanese Revolution’. Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research, 6 (2020), 221–29. https://doi.org/10.36583/2020060209.

Kosmatopoulos, Nikolas. ‘Unhatching the Egg in Lebanon’s 2019 Protests’. South Atlantic Quarterly, 120 (2021), 446–55. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-8916190.

Louis, Dima, and Michelle Mielly. ‘People on the Tweets: Online Collective Identity Narratives and Temporality in the #LebaneseRevolution’. Organization, 30 (2023), 89–115. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505084221137990.

Majed, Rima, and Lana Salman. ‘Lebanon’s Thawra’. Middle East Report (MERIP), 292 (2019).

Makdisi, Karim. ‘Lebanon’s October 2019 Uprising: From Solidarity to Division and Descent into the Known Unknown’. South Atlantic Quarterly, 120 (2021): 436–45. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-8916176.

Melki, Jad, and Claudia Kozman. 2021. ‘Selective Exposure During Uprisings: Examining the Public’s News Consumption and Sharing Tendencies During the 2019 Lebanon Protests’. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 26 (2021), 907–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161220972892.

Mouawad, Jamil. ‘Teaching Lebanon’s Politics in Times of the Uprising’. South Atlantic Quarterly, 120 (2021), 473–80. https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-8916232.

Musallam, Fuad, ‘Feeling political times: Notes from downtown Beirut during the uprising,’ Contemporary Theatre Review (2020), 294. 

Osman, Khalil Fadl. ‘Revolution and Counter-Revolution in the Tripoli Protests in Lebanon’. Protest, 2 (2022), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.1163/2667372X-bja10022.

Porta, Donatella della, and Rossana Tufaro. ‘Mobilizing the Past in Revolutionary Times: Memory, Counter-Memory, and Nostalgia During the Lebanese Uprising’. Sociological Forum, 37 (2022), 1387–1413. https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12843.

Rønn, Anne Kirstine. ‘The Struggle of Unifying a People in Fragments’. PhD Thesis, Denmark: Aarhus University, 2022.

Sarej, Nader. Outcry: A Rhetorical Discourse Analysis of the Lebanese Uprising [Sarakha al-ghdab: Dirasa bilaghya fi khitabat al-intifadah lubnaniya], Doha: The Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies, (2021).   

Sinno, Wael. ‘How People Reclaimed Public Spaces in Beirut during the 2019 Lebanese Uprising’. The Journal of Public Space, 5 (2020): 193–218. https://doi.org/10.32891/jps.v5i1.1258.

Vértes, Sára, Chris van der Borgh, and Antoine Buyse. 2021. ‘Negotiating Civic Space in Lebanon: The Potential of Non-Sectarian Movements’. Journal of Civil Society, 17 (3–4): 256–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2021.1994202.

Ziadeh, Khaled and Mohammed Abi Samra. Lebanon’s October Uprising: Squares and Testimonies [Intifadah 18 tishreen fi lubnan], Doha: The Arab Centre for Research and Political Studies, (2022).

Explore other timelines
The October 2019 Uprising
1820-1861
1920-1946
1952-1958
1967-1975
1990-2005
2010-2015