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Lebanon: Geagea Says Axis of the Resistance is ‘Criminal’

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea during the annual ceremony commemorating the Martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance.
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea during the annual ceremony commemorating the Martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance.
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Lebanon: Geagea Says Axis of the Resistance is ‘Criminal’

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea during the annual ceremony commemorating the Martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance.
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea during the annual ceremony commemorating the Martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea described Hezbollah and its allies as being a “criminal gang”, stating that their “alleged” calls for dialogue are only a way to “strangle, kill, and force you to do what they please”.

“The axis of the resistance (Hezbollah and allies) obstruct the presidential elections only because they are incapable of bringing their own candidate to the post, and also accept no other”, said Geagea whose remarks came on Sunday during the annual ceremony commemorating the “Martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance”.

He spoke of “serious attempts to change everything in our lives and country to match the specifications of countries of “axis of the resistance” starting with Syria and Iran. Meanwhile we support Lebanon that seeks to have the best relations with Gulf and Arab countries in order for Lebanon to face Syria’s Assad and Iran.”

The LF leader lamented the enormous deterioration that the country has gone through under the impact of the ‘axis of the resistance’.

“The axis of the resistance in Lebanon behaves of its own will,” without any respect for the law, constitution or the will of the Lebanese, he said.

Under its influence, Lebanon has turned from a country famous for its culture, advancement and dignity to a country of backwardness, crime, drug trafficking, hunger and poverty, lamented Geagea.

“The big problem lies in the way they (Hezbollah) force in their own project by assassinations and using all the twisted manners that no human mind can imagine,” added Geagea.

Referring to Hezbollah leaders who he said always preach about “integrity”, he said: “Those same figures have supported corruption groups in the past decade in order to get major portfolios in ministries of services which have cost the state tens of billions of dollars, and obstructed the formation of a cabinet in order to garner the ministries of energy and labor for their own allies”.

Criticizing his Christian rival and Hezbollah ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, without naming the party, Geagea said: “Despite the practices of the axis of the resistance, we continue to find some sides adamant to strike deals with (Hezbollah)..” in order to reach authority positions, mainly the post of President.

He added that the FPM is eager to bring its own candidate to the post of president stretching off to the limit of obstructing the election process in the absence of guarantees that an FPM candidate is definite to win.

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Israel Cracks Down on Palestinian Citizens Who Speak out against the War in Gaza

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
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Israel Cracks Down on Palestinian Citizens Who Speak out against the War in Gaza

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

Israel’s yearlong crackdown against Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza is prompting many to self-censor out of fear of being jailed and further marginalized in society, while some still find ways to dissent — carefully.
Ahmed Khalefa's life turned upside down after he was charged with inciting terrorism for chanting in solidarity with Gaza at an anti-war protest in October 2023, The Associated Press said.
The lawyer and city counselor from central Israel says he spent three difficult months in jail followed by six months detained in an apartment. It's unclear when he'll get a final verdict on his guilt or innocence. Until then, he's forbidden from leaving his home from dusk to dawn.
Khalefa is one of more than 400 Palestinian citizens of Israel who, since the start of the war in Gaza, have been investigated by police for “incitement to terrorism” or “incitement to violence,” according to Adalah, a legal rights group for minorities. More than half of those investigated were also criminally charged or detained, Adalah said.
“Israel made it clear they see us more as enemies than as citizens,” Khalefa said in an interview at a cafe in his hometown of Umm al-Fahm, Israel's second-largest Palestinian city.
Israel has roughly 2 million Palestinian citizens, whose families remained within the borders of what became Israel in 1948. Among them are Muslims and Christians, and they maintain family and cultural ties to Gaza and the West Bank, which Israel captured in 1967.
Israel says its Palestinian citizens enjoy equal rights, including the right to vote, and they are well-represented in many professions. However, Palestinians are widely discriminated against in areas like housing and the job market.
Israeli authorities have opened more incitement cases against Palestinian citizens during the war in Gaza than in the previous five years combined, Adalah's records show. Israeli authorities have not said how many cases ended in convictions and imprisonment. The Justice Ministry said it did not have statistics on those convictions.
Just being charged with incitement to terrorism or identifying with a terrorist group can land a suspect in detention until they're sentenced, under the terms of a 2016 law.
In addition to being charged as criminals, Palestinians citizens of Israel — who make up around 20% of the country’s population — have lost jobs, been suspended from schools and faced police interrogations posting online or demonstrating, activists and rights watchdogs say.
It’s had a chilling effect.
“Anyone who tries to speak out about the war will be imprisoned and harassed in his work and education,” said Oumaya Jabareen, whose son was jailed for eight months after an anti-war protest. “People here are all afraid, afraid to say no to this war.”
Jabareen was among hundreds of Palestinians who filled the streets of Umm al-Fahm earlier this month carrying signs and chanting political slogans. It appeared to be the largest anti-war demonstration in Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. But turnout was low, and Palestinian flags and other national symbols were conspicuously absent. In the years before the war, some protests could draw tens of thousands of Palestinians in Israel.
Authorities tolerated the recent protest march, keeping it under heavily armed supervision. Helicopters flew overhead as police with rifles and tear gas jogged alongside the crowd, which dispersed without incident after two hours. Khalefa said he chose not to attend.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s far-right government moved quickly to invigorate a task force that has charged Palestinian citizens of Israel with “supporting terrorism” for posts online or protesting against the war. At around the same time, lawmakers amended a security bill to increase surveillance of online activity by Palestinians in Israel, said Nadim Nashif, director of the digital rights group 7amleh. These moves gave authorities more power to restrict freedom of expression and intensify their arrest campaigns, Nashif said.
The task force is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hard-line national security minister who oversees the police. His office said the task force has monitored thousands of posts allegedly expressing support for terror organizations and that police arrested “hundreds of terror supporters,” including public opinion leaders, social media influencers, religious figures, teachers and others.
“Freedom of speech is not the freedom to incite ... which harms public safety and our security,” his office said in a statement.
But activists and rights groups say the government has expanded its definition of incitement much too far, targeting legitimate opinions that are at the core of freedom of expression.
Myssana Morany, a human rights attorney at Adalah, said Palestinian citizens have been charged for seemingly innocuous things like sending a meme of a captured Israeli tank in Gaza in a private WhatsApp group chat. Another person was charged for posting a collage of children’s photos, captioned in Arabic and English: “Where were the people calling for humanity when we were killed?” The feminist activist group Kayan said over 600 women called its hotline because of blowback in the workplace for speaking out against the war or just mentioning it unfavorably.
Over the summer, around two dozen anti-war protesters in the port city of Haifa were only allowed to finish three chants before police forcefully scattered the gathering into the night. Yet Jewish Israelis demanding a hostage release deal protest regularly — and the largest drew hundreds of thousands to the streets of Tel Aviv.
Khalefa, the city counselor, is not convinced the crackdown on speech will end, even if the war eventually does. He said Israeli prosecutors took issue with slogans that broadly praised resistance and urged Gaza to be strong, but which didn’t mention violence or any militant groups. For that, he said, the government is trying to disbar him, and he faces up to eight years in prison.
“They wanted to show us the price of speaking out,” Khalefa said.