Lebanon's March 14 bloc takes stock on ninth anniversary
As the ninth anniversary of the March 14, 2005, demonstrations in Lebanon approach, the March 14 movement is faced with both challenges and opportunities.
The March 14 camp will soon celebrate the ninth anniversary of an unprecedented day in Lebanon’s ancient as well as modern history. On March 14, 2005, more than 1 million people, or close to one-third of the Lebanese population, took to the streets and filled the squares carrying a single banner: the Lebanese flag. They did this as an expression of their longing for freedom and independence, on a day that was the culmination of the Cedar Revolution, which astonished the world and surprised even the Lebanese themselves.
No doubt, the spark of that revolution was the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and those who participated in the demonstration no doubt were demanding the end of such crimes and the ouster of the tutelage regime (Syria) accused of the assassination. Yet, it must be said that the masses were provoked into breaking their silence and taking to the streets on that day by the “Thank you, Syria” demonstration organized by Hezbollah a few days prior, on March 8 of that same year.
From its onset then, the March 14 demonstration came as a reaction to the March 8 one that expressed support for Hezbollah and Syria. And the ensuing March 14 political movement was but a rejection of the tutelage regime and its trespasses, nay, its many crimes even, and a rebuff of the policies espoused by Syria’s main Lebanese ally, Hezbollah. The Cedar Revolution grew in the early months of 2005, until the Syrian regime was forced to withdraw militarily from Lebanon in April of that year. However, it returned politically in the following years, taking advantage of the military and popular leverage supplied by Hezbollah and its alliance with one of the main Christian parties: the Free Patriotic Movement, and the fading international support given to the Cedar Revolution, which began to decrease as soon as President George W. Bush’s term in office ended.
During the period extending from 2005 to February 2014, the political faction that arose from the March 14, 2005, demonstration saw nothing but setbacks; the harshest among them was the overthrow of its leader Saad Hariri’s government and the latter’s banishment from Lebanon in 2011.
