Over the last week, nationwide protests have caused everyday life to grind to a halt across Lebanon, sending the country’s deeply embedded political establishment into disarray. Banks and schools have remained closed, roadblocks have caused widespread congestion, and daily demonstrations in all major cities have engulfed the small Mediterranean country.

Unlike much of Lebanon’s previous political activism, the ongoing movement bears little resemblance to the country’s tapestry of overlapping religious groups and political affiliations – evidenced by one of its many slogans “kellon yaane kellon”, or “all of them means all of them”. (CONTINUED - 822 WORDS)