Why Lebanon’s Ambassador Could Technically Be Prosecuted Under Law Forbidding Contact With Israelis

As Lebanon’s ambassador to America meets her Israeli counterpart for the second time in as many weeks on Thursday, Washington is pressuring Beirut to repeal a law that could technically land the Lebanese diplomat in prison: Citizens of the Land of Cedars are banned from making contact with Israelis. The Lebanese law is one of the strictest such pieces of legislation in the Arab and Muslim world, and it is often enforced. Yet even as Beirut parliamentarians could now favor a repeal, fear of Hezbollah’s violent retribution might intimidate them.At the same time, Lebanon’s ambassador to Washington, Nada Moawad, is meeting with Israel’s ambassador, Yechiel Leiter. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is presiding over the session and President Trump was reportedly planning to pop in at the start. The Beirut parliament is divided. Hezbollah and its allied Shiite party, Amal, are expected to push back against changing the law. Yet, “the Shia block has 27 seats in the parliament out of 128, so the others really have the numbers if they get a nudge” from the Trump administration, a Lebanese-born researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Hussain Abdul-Hussain, tells the Sun.A poll published by the news site Raseef22 shows that a plurality of Lebanese do not reject normalizing relations with Israel. In the survey, conducted in March, 42 percent of Lebanese remained opposed to normalization, 32 percent supported it, and a quarter of the population was undecided. Such numbers, especially as war rages, point to a shift in public opinion.At the same time, an American arriving at the Beirut airport will be turned back if a passport stamp indicates he or she has visited Israel. Even without such a stamp, tourists are pointedly asked if they have ever visited the Jewish state. According to the Lebanese law “every natural or legal person is prohibited, directly or indirectly, from entering into an agreement with bodies or individuals residing in Israel, affiliated with it by nationality, or acting on its behalf or in its interest, when the subject of the agreement involves commercial transactions, financial operations, or any other type of dealings, regardless of their nature.”Other countries, such as Iraq and Saudi Arabia have similar laws. Passports issued by Pakistan make clear that they are valid in any of the world’s countries, except Israel. Meanwhile “if you are a Lebanese national and an Israeli national comes into the room, you’re supposed to leave, and if you don’t and you get reported, then you’ll be in trouble,” Mr. Abdul Hussain, the author of “The Arab Case for Israel,” says. “The number of cases brought by the government and non-government activists is absurd.”Each year, he says, some 165 violators of the Lebanese law are dragged to the courts. Mr. Salam’s government and President Michel Aoun are more open to contacts with Israelis than many Beirut politicians before them. At the same time though, they — as well as legislators who might be sympathetic to repealing the law — likely remember prior assassinations of politicians who attempted to make peace with Israel or confront Hezbollah head on.Lebanon’s President Baschir Gemayel was murdered in 1982, shortly after meeting Prime Minister Menachem Begin. In the mid-2000s a number of anti-Syrian legislators met their demise until Lebanese allies of Syria gained control of the parliament. Prime Minister Rafic Hariri pushed back, and was assassinated by Hezbollah in 2005.Now Hezbollah officials and affiliates are explicitly threatening to assassinate anyone who would compromise with Israel, and say that any agreement would lead to a civil war. The Washington negotiations need to overcome other stumbling blocks. The Beirut government vows to gain a monopoly on arms. Israel, though, notes that the Lebanese Armed Forces have long failed to confront Hezbollah, and Mr. Salam confirms that doing so “takes time.”Meanwhile the Israel Defense Forces are now controlling a 6-mile-wide security zone in southern Lebanon, and Jerussalem vows to remain in that “yellow line” until Hezbollah is disarmed. Yet Mr. Salam says that unless there is a “full withdrawal” from Lebanese territory, no agreement with Israel will be possible.The two sides seem deadlocked, but even saying that Lebanon can have an agreement with Israel is a small step in the right direction. A repeal of a law that bans all Lebanese from forging such an agreement could present an even greater forward leap.

Why Lebanon’s Ambassador Could Technically Be Prosecuted Under Law Forbidding Contact With Israelis

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