Protesters block Beddawi highway in Tripoli on Sept. 19, 2022. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Demonstrators blocked the Beddawi highway in North Lebanon on Monday morning to protest deteriorating living conditions and water shortages in the area, the state-run National News Agency reported. In a separate demonstration, stateless individuals blocked a main road in Wadi Khaled, further north, demanding that they be granted Lebanese citizenship, according to our correspondent in the region.
As a result of the Beddawi protest, traffic on the highway was diverted.
Meanwhile, in Wadi Khaled the protesters stressed that Lebanese nationality is "a right that should be granted to them, similar to their brothers, cousins and relatives who benefited from it via a decree issued in 1994 by the Lebanese authorities." The protesters added that despite repeated requests, they are still unregistered and have not yet been granted Lebanese nationality.
Decree 5247/94 granted Lebanese nationality to tens of thousands of people, (between 150,000 and 200,000, according to various sources), most of them Muslim Palestinians.
On Friday, demonstrators blocked the road around caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati's house in the Mina area of Tripoli with burning tires to protest deteriorating living conditions and electricity cuts in the region, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.
Tripoli is the poorest city in Lebanon and has been struggling with economic instability and a rising crime rate, which last week pushed caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi to take security measures to contain the situation in the region.
Additional reporting by Michel Hallak.