(16 Apr 2025)
LEBANON PROTEST
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:41
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut – 16 April 2025
1. Various of protesters and Lebanese bank depositors gathering outside parliament entrance, some holding banners and flags
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nabila Naeem, lawyer and depositor:
"Today we came here to make sure that any attempt to erase the bank deposits will fail. And we will never ever, ever accept that. There are people with rights and they will get them."
3. Till-down from Lebanese flag to protest
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nabila Naeem Lawyer and depositor:
"As a lawyer, I say that the law must be applied. And the law exists. They come and mock us, saying they’re submitting laws to parliament to create a financial policy. What financial policy? Is it that you come and steal people’s money? This is unacceptable."
5. Various of people protesting outside Parliament
6. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Al-Qasim, bank depositor:
"The state bears full responsibility — not just for the funds, but for the financial policies that allowed the banks to impose or rather facilitate the smuggling of money abroad. If the money hadn’t been smuggled abroad and if the boards of directors, some political leaders, some members of Parliament and ministers — who were also involved in this — hadn’t smuggled their funds (abroad), the country wouldn’t have reached bankruptcy. That’s why we are standing in front of Parliament because it is the legislative authority and ultimately, it is the last resort to resolving this crisis."
7. Various of demonstrators protesting outside parliament, holding flags
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Alaa Khurshid, bank depositor:
"The state does not want to take responsibility. And if the state doesn’t want to take responsibility, then the deposits are gone. Period. The banks benefited and made enormous profits. And the depositors’ problem is fundamentally with the banks."
9. Various of riot police holding shields, standing outside Parliament entrance
STORYLINE:
Lebanese protesters held a rally in central Beirut on Wednesday to demand access to their savings which have been trapped in the country’s banks for years.
They demanded that the state take full responsibility for returning their deposits and that the crisis-hit country’s banking sector be restructured.
"We came here to make sure that any attempt to erase the bank deposits will fail. And we will never ever, ever accept that," said Nabila Naeem, a lawyer who was taking part in the protest.
Lebanon’s crisis is rooted in decades of corruption by the country’s political and financial leaders that drained state resources and eventually led to a run on the banks in 2019.
Many people have since lost access to their deposits.
"The state does not want to take responsibility. And if the state doesn’t want to take responsibility, then the deposits are gone. Period," said Alaa Khurshid, a bank depositor.
The protest was held near the Parliament building in Beirut as legislators met to work on lifting the country’s banking secrecy law, a key demand by the international community.
Lebanon must implement reforms demanded by the international community to unlock international aid as the country grapples with its worst economic crisis in its modern history.
The economic meltdown in Lebanon since been made worse because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the massive Beirut Port blast in August 2020 and the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.
AP video shot by Fadi Tawil
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