• 3 years ago
She needed money for her sister's cancer treatment. So this woman staged a "hold up" at a bank in Lebanon ...

This is the third incident of its kind. Here's what's going on ...
Transcript
00:0020,000! 20,000!
00:0420,000!
00:06Let's go!
00:07The bank is not the only one that is suffering.
00:10Give us the rest.
00:12I am Saliha Bidou.
00:15I came to the bank today to take my sister's will
00:21who is dying in the hospital.
00:23The problem is that since 2019 in Lebanon
00:25the depositors, the people who have money in the bank
00:28are not allowed to touch their money.
00:30Saliha explained that she has the right to touch
00:33about 200 dollars per month.
00:35So in fact, she entered the bank
00:37not to rob the bank, but to touch her own money.
00:40She has about 20,000 euros on her account
00:42and she can't access it.
00:44And her sister urgently needs a medicine against cancer.
00:47She was able to withdraw about 12,000 to 13,000 dollars.
00:51Stop using my money!
00:53Stop using my money!
00:55Stop using my money!
00:57Stop using my money!
00:58Saliha is someone who is used to clashes
01:00is someone who is used to entering the ministries
01:03but this time she is going for a personal break.
01:05Saliha is a desperate act because it concerns her sister.
01:08It's no longer a political question,
01:10it's no longer a question of activism,
01:12it's a private question.
01:13It's her sister's life at stake.
01:15It's a fairly symptomatic scene in Lebanon.
01:17It's not the first time it's happened.
01:19Saliha was very inspired by someone called Bassam Sher
01:22who, about a month ago,
01:24also entered the bank of his neighborhood.
01:26This time for his father,
01:28who needed an emergency operation.
01:30So today we see that Lebanese people
01:32are trying to do justice themselves.
01:34The two robberies that we have seen so far
01:36are demonstrators who came in support of the attackers,
01:39who came in front of the banks with flags, megaphones
01:42and who were there to support them
01:44because it's everyone's daily life.
01:47A lot of people who were in front of the bank
01:49understand and justify that they can take a weapon
01:52which, by the way, was fake.
01:56What happened is that in 2019,
01:58Lebanon faced a historical economic crisis.
02:01The World Bank estimates that it is
02:03one of the three largest historical crises in the world since 1850,
02:06even the largest.
02:08And what happened is that since 2019,
02:10people who have money in their bank accounts
02:13cannot access it.
02:14There is not enough money to give it to everyone
02:16and everyone wants to withdraw it.
02:17That is to say that if I, today,
02:19want to go to a bank and withdraw my money
02:21that I placed in 2015,
02:22the bank will refuse it.
02:23Some can withdraw 50 per week,
02:25200 dollars per month.
02:26But from the moment you have to pay a car,
02:28a house,
02:29face an unexpected expense
02:31or pay a cancer treatment,
02:33for what is the sister of Salih,
02:35it becomes impossible.
02:36This is the third such act in a month.
02:38Last time, Lebanese authorities
02:40had decided not to pursue the attackers.
02:42They questioned them, they arrested them,
02:44but they did not pursue them.
02:45I think the authorities are afraid
02:47that the phenomenon will multiply.
02:49They become figures insofar as
02:50they are representative of the intimate drive
02:53of many Lebanese
02:54who would also like to enter their bank
02:56and break everything,
02:57put gasoline,
02:58say, that's enough,
02:59now give me my money.