Since the start of Lebanon’s two-month long revolution Oct. 17, protesters have continually blocked the main road connecting East and West Beirut — known as the Ring Bridge. While that tactic has slowly started to fade, during times of frustration with the government, groups of protesters will sometimes head to the Ring Bridge, blocking the flow of traffic.

For many political scientists and historians, such as Makram Rabah, a lecturer at the American University in Beirut’s Department of History and Archaeology, Lebanon’s monthslong daily protests have come as a surprise because while Lebanon has had demonstrations in the past, the current one does not fit any of the previous molds.

 “The Lebanese do have a long history of protest and public protests against the government or protests in support of causes,” Rabah told Al-Monitor. “However, what we are seeing [today] is unprecedented simply because this is a nationwide protest against the whole system. The whole system in the sense that these people who are part of the communities and part of sects and parties have decided against the ruling establishment and to demand a new system. It is unprecedented, the intensity as well as the dedication of these people, and, particularly, the lack, or absence, of any political ideology, at least on the outside. You don’t have political parties [officially] joining this revolution which is, in its own, a new phenomenon.”

While the intensity and scale of the current protests are unique, tactics such as road blocking that are being used are nothing new. “Road blocking is simply always on the menu when it comes to protesting and acts of revolution,” Rabah said. He said that in the past, such barricades were "done by political parties who would clash with each other. In this case, we have people who are demonstrating against the ruling establishment.”