Prime Minister Tammam Salam ordered the dismantling of a massive concrete wall near the Grand Serail in Beirut's Riad al-Solh 24 hours after security forces erected it.
The wall was erected Monday after a weekend of violent protests demanding the government's resignation in the same area where police and protesters faced off Saturday and Sunday, with some demonstrators trying to tear down a barb wire barrier to reach the Grand Serail.
People hailed the decision and applauded while workers began to prepare to remove it.
“We feel cheerful... there shouldn’t be a barrier between the people and their government,” one protester told Al-Jadeed television.
“For the first time the government listens to us,” another protester said.
Demonstrators present at the site said that the removal of the wall is the result of the efforts of the past few days.
Some people began singing Lebanon's national anthem as workers cut a metal wire connecting the concrete slabs.
People had painted murals on the concrete slabs that were quickly filled with protesters’ graffiti, some of which read: “The wall of disgrace,” and “No to isolationism or walls of racism. Here is Lebanon, not occupied Palestine,” a reference to the wall built by Israel to separate it from the occupied West Bank.
Activists from the You Stink group insisted that those who tried to breach the barrier were not affiliated with its movement, accusing political parties of sending hooligans to provoke violence with security forces.
Hundreds were wounded in the weekend clashes, which transformed into riots Sunday evening with young men destroying cars and store fronts.
