Lebanese celebrities from all fields expressed solidarity with the “You Stink” movement on social media websites, while some of them took to the street and joined the protesters camped in Downtown Beirut’s Riad al-Solh Square. Singer Moeen Shreif was the first one to hit the street; he sustained several bruises during the clashes between protesters and security forces Saturday evening.
Police used rubber bullets, water cannons and tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in Downtown Beirut organized by the You Stink campaign, wounding at least 75 demonstrators in one of the most violent rallies the country has witnessed in years.
Shreif called on other celebrities to join the rally, saying “the interest of the nation is at stake.”
“I call on my colleagues to descend from their ivory tower and join the protesters,” he told reporters. “Artists belong to the Lebanese people and should share their woes.”
Actor Tarek Soueid also took part in the protest and was injured. “We were demonstrating peacefully and you attacked us with bullets, tear gas and water,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “We will not abandon [the square] you scumbags.”
Singers Ahmad Doughan and Zain al-Omr were also present at the protest on Sunday.
Protesters, who originally took to the streets to call for sustainable solutions to the garbage crisis, began demanding the resignation of Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, the Cabinet and immediate parliamentary elections after Saturday’s clashes with security forces.
Pop sensation and style icon Haifa Wehbe posted a saying by Imam Ali on her social media account coupled with the hashtag “#YouStink” in Arabic.
“When the righteous people are silent to falsehood, the faulty will think they were right,” Wehbe posted, quoting Imam Ali.
In a phone call with Al-Jadeed TV, renowned singer Ragheb Alameh, who is on a tour in North Africa, voiced support for the protests and said he told his son Louay to hit the streets along with his cousins.
But Alameh later argued on Twitter that the resignation of the government was not the best idea.
“The solution does not lie in toppling the government,” he wrote on Twitter. “Rather, the work of the government should be reactivated because if this government is toppled there won’t be a possibility to form a new one [due to the presidential vacuum].”
Heartthrob actor Youssef al-Khal wrote that he refused to obey “a bunch of thieves.”
“I will not pay mechanique fees before roads are fixed, I will not pay not the VAT before the thieves [at the Finance Ministry] are uncovered; I will not pay electricity bills because there is never electricity and I will not commit to a corrupt system,” he said on Twitter.
In a sarcastic tweet, singer Carol Samaha wrote that in the next parliamentary elections, the Lebanese will vote for the same political class.
“A real change of the regime happens when we eradicate the sectarian system and corrupt political system by forming a secular government and drafting a secular constitution. I don’t see any other solution,” Samaha wrote.
Singer Melhem Zein said the smell of Lebanon’s trash could be felt in Dubai, where he is on a tour and will perform several concerts.
“Shame on the Lebanese politicians,” he wrote on social media. “We love Lebanon a lot ... what is happening is shameful.”
