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January 4, 2010 Special Dispatch No. 2728

Following Hizbullah Smear Campaign Against French Jewish Actor Gad Elmaleh, Lebanese Journalists Accuse Hizbullah of Intellectual Terrorism

January 4, 2010
Lebanon | Special Dispatch No. 2728

In July 2009, French Jewish actor Gad Elmaleh cancelled performances in Lebanon following a smear campaign against him by Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV, in the weeks prior to the performances. The channel accused Elmaleh of supporting Israel, and screened a photo of soldier in an IDF uniform claiming that it was Elmaleh.

After Elmaleh announced the cancellation, numerous articles were printed in the Lebanese press protesting Hizbullah's censorship of the Lebanese cultural scene. Lebanese columnist Maroun Salhani compared the smear campaign to the organization's May 7, 2008 takeover of Beirut – except that this time, he said, the takeover was cultural rather than military.

Following are excerpts from Salhani's article:[1]

A Sword of Fear Hangs Over the Lebanese

"This is a new episode in the intellectual terrorism being waged by Hizbullah against the rest of the Lebanese people… The same scenario recurs every time. Previously, [they] waged a war against [French choreographer] Maurice Bejart for choreographing [a dance to a song by] Umm Kulthum, and [as a result] its November 1999 performance [in Lebanon] was cancelled. Before that, it was the song 'Oh father, I am Yousef" by [Lebanese] artist Marcel Khalife, who thought he was composing music for part of a poem by [Palestinian poet] Mahmoud Darwish, but the Hizbullah gang insisted that the lyrics were not a poem but a Koranic verse, and raised hell.

"A similar scandal erupted over 'The Song of Songs' at the Baalbek festival. The text, from the New Testament, was given a new rendering by [Lebanese] poet Unsi Al-Haj, but Hizbullah decided that the poem praised Israel, King Solomon, and Jerusalem…

"Let us make a list, however brief and imprecise:

"The [2007] film Persepolis, by Iranian director Marjane Satrapi, was banned in Lebanon. It is an animated film depicting [Satrapi's] growing up in post-revolutionary Iran ruled by the mullahs. Before that, the [1997] film Life is Beautiful by [Italian actor, comedian, writer and director] Roberto Benigni was [likewise] banned. Thank goodness that the screening of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of The Christ was permitted. The Hizbullah gang must have forgotten that the protagonist, 'Jesus the Messiah,' was also a Jew [like Elmaleh and the protagonist of Benigni's film].

"One of Lebanon's beauty queens had to apologize to the world – and will continue doing so for the rest of her life – because during the Miss Universe coronation ceremony in the U.S., the camera caught her with the Israeli contestant.

"What are these 'followers of [Nazi propaganda minister Joseph] Goebbels' trying to achieve with this intellectual terrorism? They are trying to call [the Lebanese] to order, or to say 'careful!'… [They believe that] the sword of fear must always hang over the heads of all the Lebanese, and there is nothing wrong with reminding them of it every so often.

"[They are also trying] to impose their lexicon and terminology on the political discourse – and on any other discourse that does not fully correspond to Hizbullah's [norms]."

Like the Nazis, Hizbullah Burns Everything It Does Not Like

"[They are trying] to impose on others [their] party's monolithic culture]: the culture of death, war, destruction, blood, jihad, martyrdom, body parts,[2] slaughter, and mass graves. [The Lebanese people] are not even allowed to dream. The culture of life is forbidden in [Lebanon], it's that bad!... The farce continues, and we are sick and tired of it.

"[Hizbullah,] you are like Nazi Germany – day after day, you set up ovens to burn books... like an auto da fe, as well as free thought and opinions that are different from [your own]. It has reached the point that as far as you are concerned, the natural right to differ is discord and heresy. This is no surprise, since this has been so for all racists throughout history.

"You have not succeeded in defeating us with your weapons, so you are trying [to defeat us] with intimidation and intellectual terrorism. Everything is thrown into the furnace of your monolithic culture, which you are trying to force on us. Everything is thrown into the furnace of your bigotry, darkness, and evil intentions."

Hizbullah is Holding the Lebanese Hostage

"In line with the above, [I] expect that you will [probably try to] prevent [the screening of] movies with [Egyptian actor] 'Adel Imam, following the arrest of [a Hizbullah] network in Egypt.[3] Will you [also] demand that your Armenian ally [i.e. the Armenian opposition party in the Lebanese parliament]… [launch] a propaganda campaign against the Turkish series 'Nour,' or will the Syrian dubbing be its clean bill of health? And if so, should we [anti-Syrian Lebanese] object to the airing of [TV] series [with Syrian actor] Ghowar Al-Toshe or the [Syrian] series 'Bab Al-Hara?'

"In conclusion, the Lebanese people have become your hostage: You threaten their culture; they are forbidden to be happy, to laugh, to divert themselves, to love, to smile, and to [enjoy] a culture of life. In your lexicon, the Lebanese may wear only black.

"And so, in light of everything we mentioned in this article, we ask UNESCO to include the Lebanese people – or more precisely, its culture – in the list of endangered world cultures and sites, since in my country there is something more dangerous than landslides, natural disasters, or [even] human bigotry – in my country there is Hizbullah."


Endnotes:

[1] www.nowlebanon.com, July 2, 2009.

[2] This is an allusion to Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah's January 2, 2008 speech, in which he claimed that Hizbullah had body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon during the 2006 conflict. Nasrallah reiterated this statement on January 18, 2008, in a speech that triggered a media scandal worldwide, and especially in Lebanon and Israel.

[3] A Hizbullah cell was arrested in Egypt in April 2009. See MEMRI Inquiry and Analysis No. 512, "Egypt: The Hizbullah Cell in Egypt – A Joint Conspiracy by Iran, Syria, Qatar, Hizbullah, Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood," April 27, 2009,

http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=countries&Area=egypt&ID=IA51209

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