The gas station owners acknowledge that once Shiite customers notice the banner, they usually don't come back.
"If we take this picture down, it's humiliation for us," said Mohammed abu Ali, 45, a driver who lives in the neighborhood. "If the situation were calm, we'd take it down. But in times like these, we can't."
Hezbollah put out word Friday that it would go ahead with long-threatened street demonstrations meant to topple the government.
The date of the demonstrations will be a surprise, they said, but they might begin as early as Sunday. Shiites were already looking forward to showing off their numbers.
"We will stay in the streets," said Hassan Khodor, a Hezbollah official in the predominantly Shiite Beirut neighborhood of Zkak al Blat, "until the government resigns."
The Shiites from this neighborhood say that Druze, Christians and Sunnis rampaged in the streets Friday, shouting insults and ripping down posters of Nasrallah. The men of the neighborhood attacked the interlopers. The army had to wade into the brawl.
"They used to humiliate the opposition parties, Hezbollah and Amal. But now they are attacking the Shiites in general," Khodor said. "They even insulted our religious traditions. This amazed me."
megan.stack@latimes.com
