Lebanese Director Briefly Held in Beirut for Filming Movie in Israel

Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri holds up his French and Lebanese passports outside the Military Tribunal in Beirut on September 11, 2017. (AFP)
Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri holds up his French and Lebanese passports outside the Military Tribunal in Beirut on September 11, 2017. (AFP)
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Lebanese Director Briefly Held in Beirut for Filming Movie in Israel

Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri holds up his French and Lebanese passports outside the Military Tribunal in Beirut on September 11, 2017. (AFP)
Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri holds up his French and Lebanese passports outside the Military Tribunal in Beirut on September 11, 2017. (AFP)

Lebanese director Ziad Doueiri was briefly detained by his country’s authorities for a trip to Israel he made six years ago where he filmed one of his movies.

He was detained on Sunday night as he arrived at Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport. He was interrogated for 90 minutes and appeared the next day before State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr.

Doueiri had stayed in Israel between 2011 and 2012 where he was filming “The Attack,” a movie that was banned by Lebanon and most Arab states.

Lebanon and Israel are in a state of war and Beirut bans its citizens from visiting Israel or having business dealings with Israelis.

"The Attack" is about a Palestinian surgeon living in Tel Aviv who discovers that a suicide attack in the city that killed 17 people was carried out by his wife. The movie was filmed in Israel and featured several Israeli actors.

Paris-based Doueiri, director of the award-winning civil war film "West Beirut,” had visited Lebanon several times since traveling to Israel.

Doueiri told reporters after three hours of questioning at the military court in Beirut Monday that authorities found that he has "no criminal intentions against the Palestinian cause."

His latest film, "The Insult," opens in Lebanon this week, after winning the best actor award at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

Doueiri said that Kamel al-Basha, the Palestinian awarded best actor at the Venice Film Festival, spent two years in Israeli jails. He said some journalists are trying to undermine him ahead of the film showing in Beirut, which begins on Thursday.

Lebanese journalist Pierre Abi Saab, who is opposed to any dealings with Israel, wrote a column in the daily al-Akhbar last week titled "Ziad Doueiri, apologize for your Israeli slip." He said that Doueiri spent months in Israel to film "The Attack," spending money there and speaking to Israeli media defending his movie amid criticism in Lebanon.

"Today, Ziad Doueiri is coming on a white horse from Venice with a new movie expecting us to carry him on our shoulders and welcome him as a conqueror," Abi Saab wrote. "We will not accept that the crime be covered," he wrote, referring to Doueiri's visits to Israel.

Doueiri lashed back against critics who accused him of normalization with the Jewish state, saying Monday that his work is for the good of Lebanon and the Palestinian cause.

Speaking to reporters outside the military court, Doueiri said he was well treated by Lebanese security agencies during his brief detention but blasted journalists he refused to name "that are fabricating things to block the new movie." He said they used "dirty words against some people and accused them of being Zionists."

"My mother breastfed me Palestinian milk and the Palestinian cause. Members of my family were killed while fighting with the Palestinians," Doueiri stated.

When a journalist asked him a question about normalization of relations with Israel through art, Doueiri responded angrily "I struggled for the Palestinian cause before you were born." He then told the journalist that he will not respond to his questions.

Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury tweeted in Arabic that "Ziad Doueiri is a great Lebanese director who has been honored around the world. Respecting and honoring him is a must #Lebanon."

Doueiri's lawyer, Najib Lyan, told reporters that after three hours at the military court his client was released without charges. He said some people envy Doueiri's international fame.

He said that in court, Doueiri was told that he visited Israel without permission from Lebanese authorities. Lyan asserted Doueiri had told authorities at the time that he planned to visit Israel for a movie he is working on, but never got a response.

"The Insult is the pride of Lebanon's industry. We in Lebanon do Hummus and Shawerma well, and we do very good movies as well," Doueiri stressed referring to national dishes.

“Ziad is against normalization and he supports the Palestinian cause. The Attack was filmed in Israel to expose the practices committed against the Palestinians,” his mother and lawyer Wafiqa Mansour told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Is a person who blows himself up in Israel a resistance fighter or someone who has normalized ties with it?” she asked.

“Ziad went there on a mission to expose Israeli practices as demonstrated by their displeasure with the film. Some even asked how he was even allowed to shoot there because he was tarnishing their image,” she added.

She questioned the timing of her son’s brief detention, noting that he visited Lebanon during the past five years.

“This reveals that some sides are bothered by his international success. They do not deserve a reply from us,” she stressed, saying that their actions stem from spite and jealousy.



Influential Far-right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu over Gaza War Policy

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025
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Influential Far-right Minister Lashes out at Netanyahu over Gaza War Policy

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, also attended by Argentine President Javier Milei (not pictured), in Jerusalem, June 11, 2025

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich sharply criticized on Sunday a cabinet decision to allow some aid into Gaza as a "grave mistake" that he said would benefit the militant Palestinian group Hamas.

Smotrich also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of failing to ensure that Israel's military is following government directives in prosecuting the war against Hamas in Gaza. He said he was considering his "next steps" but stopped short of explicitly threatening to quit the coalition, Reuters reported.

Smotrich's comments come a day before Netanyahu is due to hold talks in Washington with President Donald Trump on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day Gaza ceasefire.

"... the cabinet and the Prime Minister made a grave mistake yesterday in approving the entry of aid through a route that also benefits Hamas," Smotrich said on X, arguing that the aid would ultimately reach the Islamist group and serve as "logistical support for the enemy during wartime".

The Israeli government has not announced any changes to its aid policy in Gaza. Israeli media reported that the government had voted to allow additional aid to enter northern Gaza.

The prime minister's office did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The military declined to comment.

Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies. Gaza is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe, with conditions threatening to push nearly a half a million people into famine within months, according to UN estimates.

Israel in May partially lifted a nearly three-month blockade on aid. Two Israeli officials said on June 27 the government had temporarily stopped aid from entering north Gaza.

PRESSURE

Public pressure in Israel is mounting on Netanyahu to secure a permanent ceasefire, a move opposed by some hardline members of his right-wing coalition. An Israeli team left for Qatar on Sunday for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.

Smotrich, who in January threatened to withdraw his Religious Zionism party from the government if Israel agreed to a complete end to the war before having achieved its objectives, did not mention the ceasefire in his criticism of Netanyahu.

The right-wing coalition holds a slim parliamentary majority, although some opposition lawmakers have offered to support the government from collapsing if a ceasefire is agreed.