BEIRUT – On Tuesday night, police violently broke up a sit-in in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.  A photo of the popular activist, artist, and playwright Lucien Bourjeily knocked unconscious by police went viral on social media, drawing only more attention as news broke that he was hospitalized.  Bourjeily, still in recovery, stated that he is only more motivated.

Lucien Bourjeily from the hospital: “Thank you everyone. I love you all” (Facebook.)

A trash crisis, which has seen Beirut’s streets filled with garbage for weeks has served as the catalyst for protestors fed up with what they see as the country’s increasingly dysfunctional government.  The protest movement, known as “YouStink” has called for accountability on the part of Lebanon’s government.  Lebanon’s Parliament has voted to extend its term continuously since 2009, and there has not been an election since.

The trash crisis has had protestors calling for, among other things, the resignation of the country’s Environmental Minister and for the Interior Minister to be held accountable for police brutality against protestors.

This street in Jal al-Dib, a neighborhood in the north of Beirut, hosts a scene increasingly common to the streets of Lebanon’s capital (Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images.)

Since the country’s largest landfill closed earlier this year its government has been unable to find a replacement, and trash has piled up in its streets.  Protestors have taken this as proof that the government has become too dysfunctional to rule, and are calling for reform.

These calls have been met with violence from Lebanon’s authorities, and on Tuesday during an 8-hour sit-in at the Environment Ministry building Bourjeily was on the receiving end.

.@LucienBourjeily ???? ???! #????_?????? #youStink pic.twitter.com/Yf76tXPsli

— AUB Secular Club (@secular_club) September 1, 2015

After the government cut all media feeds covering the sit-in, police descended upon the protestors.  The photo above captured an unconscious Bourjeily after being beaten by officers, and quickly spread across social media.

Bourjeily was hospitalized, and posted the following message to Facebook while in recovery, translated below:

Thank you everyone.  I love you all.  I’m scheduled to be released from the hospital today.  I only have one question to the Minister of Interior: why did you kick out the press before you came at us?  Why did you, as soon as you interrupted the press’ live coverage, use your boots, batons in a barbaric, totalitarian way?  You are part of the dictatorship of shame.  You have no dignity and no gull.  Because we were 100% peaceful, you cut off the press so that you wouldn’t let them show the crime you committed.  You work as the mafia and your corruption has invaded the government… but the people will hold you accountable, and it will do so soon.

Bourjeily is best known as an improvising actor who has used his work to challenge state censorship of theater and film and for peacebuilding.  Earlier this year he rose to prominence directing the play “Love and War on the Rooftop: A Tripolitan Tale,”  a comedy about the day-to-day lives of residents of two warring neighborhoods in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.

Bourjeily featured former militiamen in his work, who have since stated that if fighting resumed they would not take part in it.

“The best moment for me was when we performed in Tripoli, and I saw people from [warring neighborhoods] Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh sitting side-by-side,” said Tareq Hebbewe, one of that play’s lead actors.

The artist first became subject to the government’s attention when a 2014 play of his criticizing censorship was banned.  During that time Bourjeily’s passport was confiscated and later returned.

Thousands of demonstrators demand change in downtown Beirut as part of Lebanon’s ever-growing anti-government protests (Bilal Hussein/Associated Press.)

In more recent times, Lucien Bourjeily has been dedicating his energy to challenging the Lebanese government on its treatment of protestors.  Police brutality, media manipulation, and antidemocratic actions by Parliament have been Bourjeily’s most high-profile targets, and experiencing them firsthand has only increased the activist-artist’s determination.

The rising tide of reform in Lebanon has shown that Bourjeily’s optimism is not unfounded.  Last week the  largest protest yet drew crowds of thousands including numerous celebrities.

This makes clear the reason behind Bourjeily’s call to the government: “the people will hold you accountable, and it will do so soon.”