Issue and Opponent: On February 14, 2005, a massive car bomb explosion rocked Beirut, Lebanon, which killed twenty-two people, including the former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition parties, Rafiq Hariri. Suspicions were high that Syria, which had occupied Lebanon with troops and intelligence agents for three decades, was behind the attack. Parliamentary elections were approaching, and the anti-Syria opposition was widely expected to win. Dilemma Action: After Hariri’s death, his family called for a public funeral. Two hundred and fifty thousand people came to the funeral at Martyr’s Square in downtown Beirut– the largest public space in the city. Opposition parties began organizing street mobilizations. There were marches near Hariri’s grave every night, and open demonstrations and vigils occurred around Beirut. For weeks after the “mass funeral,” many protested near his grave and held vigils across Beruit, using the Cedar symbol. Protesting at the grave of an assassinated leader and using purposefully provocative symbols was explicitly banned. Security forces were unable or unwilling to enforce these protest bans. Demonstrations calling for Syria’s withdrawal continued every week through late March. Outcomes: A few days before the March 14 rally, Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Asad, announced Syria would be removing all of its troops from Lebanese soil in a matter of weeks. On April 26, 2005, the last Syrian soldier left Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation by the army and intelligence services. In the elections on May 29, the opposition led by Saad Hariri took a majority of the seats in Parliament.