Jamil El-Sayyed is a Lebanese politician from El-Nabi Ayla in the Zahle district. He served in the Lebanese army for 30 years and with the General Security for 7 years before resigning.
In 2018, he ran in the Lebanese general election as an independent candidate and won a seat as a member of the Parliament, with the highest number of preferential votes in the Bekaa area, and the third-highest number across Lebanon.
On Wednesday, June 3rd, during a press conference, Jamil El-Sayyed spoke in a fiery tone, encouraging politicians to shoot at people who come protest outside their houses and say anything about them.
“This is not a revolution!” Al-Sayyed issued. “A real revolution has an agenda and people who know how to operate and do their role on the streets!”
All heated up, he continued: “The wrong revolution is when protesters go to people’s houses. I’ll say it to you now. If you don’t have guards. I’m responsible for these words… shoot them from the window.”
“If your kids are at home and they say something insulting, know that they don’t have the right to come to your house. This tour that they are doing is chaotic.”
El-Sayyed went to add fuel to fire by promoting his conference online, “for those who didn’t watch it” and calling protesters “street thugs” who are “trespassing the sanctity of homes and families.”
It is to note that the Lebanese revolution is a civil revolution and not a military one that requires a call for arms, let alone an incitement to retaliate to verbal expressions by weaponry and killing.
Moreover, no protester all through the revolution has entered any politician’s house, nor has stepped into the “sanctity” of anyone’s home. They’ve been protesting in the streets and the squares, legally deemed public spaces where they are legally in their right to protest.
The Lebanese people protesting are unarmed. They carry no weapons but their own voices and sometimes pans and casseroles.
Basically, what Al-Sayyed is stressing so passionately to politicians is to go ahead and shoot at unarmed people if they feel offended.
“Jamil El-Sayyed … deputy of the people… wants to shoot at the people,” a Twitter user said.
#جميل_السيد ..نايب عن الشعب..بدو يقوص عالشعب..
— Marlene mouawad (@MouawadMarlene1) June 3, 2020
According to the series of tweets responding to him, the people of the revolution are not taken him seriously, on the contrary.
From jokes and ridicule to pointing out at his role during the Syrian occupation, the responses have been bold… and slicing.