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Water Drained From Samir Kassir Garden Pool After Children Spotted Swimming
A video of kids swimming in the Samir Kassir Square went viral yesterday across Lebanese social media channels. This prompted a barrage of racist posts, tweets, and messages, decrying the “desecration” of a monument in Downtown Beirut. Of course, this was countered by a similar onslaught of users defending the kids and their interpretation of public space.
Today, having witnessed this discourse play out, the authorities in charge of the pool have taken the absolutely insane step to completely drain the pool.
— (@ghazayel) April 20, 2023
The footage, which was captured by @thisislebnews (هنا لبنان), was “submitted” to the municipality of Beirut, with its captions decrying that the Samir Kassir pool had become a “pool of chaos” after some Syrian children had taken to swimming in it.
— Rabih haddad (@rabkamhaddad) April 19, 2023
it’s nice to see the otherwise waste of public space (and water) that is downtown Beirut put to good, beautiful use. https://t.co/x6LeWij3RA
— Christina Cavalcanti (@cavalcantich) April 19, 2023
Twitter users were quick to defend the children against the racist hate that spread around the video, highlighting the absurdity of being enraged by children having a quick swim on one of the hottest days of the month.
There is literally nothing wrong with this. I wish people would be more outraged about how most public spaces are fenced off or privatized and kids have no where to play except for parking lots. https://t.co/2An3W3T2w0
— Mohamad El Chamaa (@MohamdEch) April 19, 2023
Finally someone made good use of this stupid pool I’m happy for these kiddos https://t.co/i7jJZ7VcZX
— Waed (@Notwaed) April 19, 2023
Other users emphasized how this was exactly how public space should be used, highlighting the increasing encroachment of private property on collective leisure spaces.
you have to be an absolute piece of shit to see a bunch of kids having fun and swimming and find it “disgusting”, but of course the lebanese right wing is composed of bags of flaming shit like rabih over here https://t.co/9e7zPWGWAG
— nour, now with normal bangs again (@lightmyacid) April 19, 2023
this is what public spaces are made for anyway https://t.co/oUaDZF1lae
— Samer el Khoury (@SamerELKhoury11) April 20, 2023
The irony of this taking place at the site of tribute to a Lebanese-Palestinian was another added layer of absurdity.
Does this guy know that samir kassir wld have liked this? Fuck downtown anyway. https://t.co/pPlLA6x5Eo
— Nour Hajjar (@samakwlaban) April 19, 2023
As an architect this brings me so much joy. Whether this footage is old or not. I think this is exactly what Lebanon has been lacking for ages… https://t.co/b2b7uzkUOa
— Youssef (@ThatsJoeRaven) April 19, 2023
The decision to completely drain the pool because some children were playing it is a testament to the increasing spread of hate in the country, and an interesting look into some people’s priorities as the country continues to go through a never ending series of crises.
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