MAKRAM RABAH CHALLENGES HEZOLLAH - Lebanese Joe Hakim, president of the International Christian Union (ICU) argues for ending Hezbollah’s grip on Lebanon
By Joseph Puder
Friday, July 19, 2024
Makram Rabah, a columnist for Al-Arabiya English, is by all standards a man of courage. He has challenged Iran’s major terrorist proxy – Hezbollah – the terrorist group that currently dominates every aspect of life in Lebanon, by virtue of being the most heavily armed group in the confessional divide that is the Land of the Cedars.
Rabah, a native of Lebanon, is Assistant Professor of History at the American University of Beirut, and the author of Conflict on Mount Lebanon: The Druze, the Maronite and Collective Memory.
Rabah was detained and interrogated by the Lebanese General Security directorate following an interview with Spot Shot Online earlier this year. In the interview, Rabah said that it was Hezbollah that had provoked Israel following Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. In the current situation in Lebanon, such a statement is nothing short of risky. Rabah went further, stating that Nasrallah, the Secretary General of Hezbollah should pay for the damages caused by Hezbollah. In response to Nasrallah and Hezbollah having demanded that the Lebanese state pay compensation to the families of the “martyrs” engaged in a war with Israel, Rabah asserted that the “Lebanese people are not willing to foot the bill,” and pointed out that Nasrallah should pay for the damages from his own pocket.”
Rabah was issued a judicial subpoena by the public prosecutor at the Military Court by none other than Fadi Akiki, the son-in-law of the Shiite Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabih Berri, a staunch ally of Shiite Hezbollah, and the leader of the Shiite Amal party. The questions posed at the interrogation referenced Rabah’s media commentary on the Syrian Qalamoun region, an area transformed by Iranian militias and Hezbollah into a hub for weapons storage and, the production and packaging of Captagon (the “Jihad Drug” given to those who murdered 1200 Israelis on October 7th), along with remarks Rabah made regarding Hezbollah’s procurement of electronics from the Lebanese market for Hezbollah’s drones.
The public prosecutor speculated that Rabah divulged military coordinates that would enable Israel to target these sites, but as Rabah explained, his insights were drawn from open sources that are widely available through the press and online reports. Insofar as the drone components, Rabah told the prosecutor’s investigators, that the US Treasury “sanctions list featured the names of sanctioned suppliers procuring drone parts for the said entity.” He added that “the public prosecutor then misinterpreted his comment on the Litani River’s contamination due to corruption shielded by Hezbollah’s arms as an invitation for Israel to invade Lebanon. This ironically aligned with Hezbollah’s disinformation campaign against me the previous week, misunderstanding my sarcastic critique of Hezbollah’s military theatrics.”
The same investigating officer, in trying to put Rabah on the spot, suggested that criticizing Hezbollah would fuel sectarian tensions and aid the Israeli enemy. The officer branded the disclosure of Hezbollah’s Syrian locations as criminal. In rebutting the charges against him Rabah stressed that ministerial declarations do not hold legal weight, and that the Lebanese Constitution emphasized that the Lebanese state alone has the exclusive right to armaments and declarations of war or peace. He added, moreover, that this does not acknowledge Hezbollah’s authority. Rabah then reminded the judge/investigator of the Lebanese constitutional right to free expression and the nullity of the political charges against him.
Failing everything else, the public prosecutor conditionally released Rabah. He demanded Rabah’s cell phone based on unsubstantiated suspicions of collusion with Israel and branded him with “collaboration with Zionism.” Rabah responded that the charge had no basis, and that it overlooked the legal definition of an agent as one who compromised national sovereignty on behalf of another nation. Rabah bravely challenged the public prosecutor by saying that the accusation applies to those who clearly compromised Lebanon’s national interests and security, and not individuals advocating for a lawful constitutional state and resisting tyranny. Rabah added, “a collaborator is one who serves a foreign agenda, violates Lebanese sovereignty, smuggles drugs, weapons, and goods, and receives a salary from a foreign entity (JP -Iran) in the service of a destructive sectarian project that isolates Lebanon from its Arab surroundings and who assassinated the former Prime Minister of Lebanon Rafik Hariri, and whose top security official threatened Judge Tarek Bitar, the judicial investigator in the Beirut Port explosion.”
In his rebuttal Rabah referred to Hezbollah’s record of offenses that have damaged the interests of Lebanon’s sovereignty and the people of Lebanon especially its collusion with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria’s Assad regime, which has nullified Lebanese sovereignty. Additionally, Hezbollah’s unprovoked attacks on northern Israel have harmed the people of Lebanon and its interests.
Joseph Hakim, a native of Lebanon and a proud American, is the President of the International Christian Union, an umbrella organization representing the interests of Middle Eastern Christians. Born and raised in Beirut, he bemoans the fact that Lebanon is no longer a sovereign state, and that it is being occupied by Iran and managed by Hezbollah. He contends that the US Congress should enact a Hezbollah Accountability Bill, as Congress did in 2003 with the Syria Accountability Bill. Hakim argues that Hezbollah has never been made to pay for the crimes it committed against the American service personnel in Lebanon. The blood of those 241 individuals has never been avenged.
Hakim insists that Hezbollah is endangering American interests and robbing the Lebanese people of their independence and dignity. He further asserts that Hezbollah’s drug trafficking in Latin America and Africa is impacting the lives of Americans and, that Hezbollah’s agents, who serve the Islamic Republic of Iran, have established terrorist cells on American soil.
Hakim maintains that Israel should not be the only country facing off with Hezbollah. The Arab Gulf states need to join with the U.S. in ending the Iranian influence in Lebanon and bringing an end to Hezbollah’s grip on the Land of the Cedars.