Hassana Jamaleddine arrived in downtown Beirut to participate in a protest against the recent assassination of Lokman Slim, her friend and colleague, and a vociferous Hezbollah critic. Slim was found dead in his car in a pool of his own blood on the morning of February 4 in the Hezbollah-controlled south.
He had gone to meet a friend the evening before but never returned. His wife and fellow filmmaker, Monika Borgmann, tweeted worryingly at 2 am that he was unreachable on his phone.
The family had long suspected what transpired that night. Slim had been shot multiple times by unknown assailants and yet everyone seemed to know who was behind the killing.
Jamaleddine sat near the statue of Samir Kassir, another Lebanese journalist assassinated in 2005, when she took out her phone to show Inside Arabia an online copy of the letter Slim had written a year before. In the letter, Slim warned that he might be killed by Iran-backed Hezbollah, a major political party and militia in Lebanon.
“‘Who killed Lokman? Hezbollah did,’ he said it in his letter,” Jamaleddine told Inside Arabia. “Why did they kill him? Because they don’t want people with memories and they don’t want Lebanon to have a future where they are not in control.”
“Why did they kill him? Because they don’t want people with memories and they don’t want Lebanon to have a future where they are not in control.”
Slim dabbled in many civil-society activities. A publisher and filmmaker, he worked on a project called “Future & Memories” with Jamaleddine to preserve the stories of those who were slayed in the long and bloody civil war in their country. The group intended to keep the recollections of those murdered alive and seek accountability for their killings.
But the man who fought, and died, to end the impunity with which political assassinations were committed in Lebanon, may never receive justice. “Denial of justice is a modern Lebanese tradition,” said Jamaleddine wryly.
Lebanon witnessed a slew of assassinations between 2004-2008 but there has not been an indictment in any of the cases.
The trial in former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s assassination was held at a special tribunal of the international court but even in such a high-profile case, the convicted remains scot-free. Four Hezbollah members were tried in absentia, one was convicted, but even he is being protected by the group and has not served his sentence.
Ayman Mhanna, the Executive Director of Samir Kassir Foundation, named after the killed journalist and formed to promote freedom of speech in the Levant, told Inside Arabia that many activists are afraid that Slim’s murder might be the first in a new cycle of assassinations and that they might be next on the kill list.
“The assassination took place in the area that is fully under Hezbollah’s control,” said Mhanna. “Hezbollah’s supporters denied that their party killed Lokman Slim but many are celebrating his death online. They are commenting on social media that he deserved to be killed and are also, kind of, sending threats to other Shia critics of the group that they could face the same fate.”
Mhanna said that even though Slim was not a household name, he was an opinion maker in Lebanon and a voice of those Shias who disagree with Hezbollah but are too terrified of the consequences of admitting it.
“Now, Lebanon is in a different kind of fight,” added Mhanna. “It is no longer between political parties fighting for power. It is between a system that is dominated by Hezbollah and the civil society that is asking for change. That civil society does not necessarily have household names but it has people like Lokman Slim who are able to shape ideas, to influence demonstrators, to influence change seekers in the country in order to have a more robust fight against the system.”
There are many theories behind why Lokman Slim might have been killed but most analysts seemed to agree that Hezbollah targeted him to silence dissent within the Shia community.
There are many theories behind why Lokman Slim might have been killed but most analysts seemed to agree that Hezbollah targeted him to silence dissent within the Shia community. Slim was a Shia, the traditionally marginalized sect in Lebanon that Hezbollah claims to protect. But he disapproved of Hezbollah’s sectarian politics and accused it of wreaking havoc in Lebanon at the behest of its patron Iran. He was seen as a traitor by Hezbollah supporters for making a dent in their support base.
Lebanon is grappling with myriad crises. The peoples’ troubles compounded over the last few weeks as the Lebanese pound touched 10,000 LBP to the US dollar. Before the crisis hit the country in early 2020, it was 1,500 LBP. It has become nearly impossible for people to pay their bills and some returned to the streets to protest despite a lockdown.
Among the protestors were also Shias. Hanin Ghaddar, a fellow at The Washington Institute, pointed to their concerns and shared the comment of a Shia protester on her Twitter timeline: “‘Ya Sayyed [Hassan Nasrallah] you said the Shia won’t starve. We’re telling you, we are starving.’ Shia addressing #Hezbollah’s leader as protests return to the streets in #Lebanon,” Ghaddar tweeted.
Other analysts said that Slim’s assassination may have also been a stunt by Hezbollah to test Biden’s limits and ascertain his willingness to intervene in the Lebanese theater.
While Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed obligatory grief at Lokman Slim’s killing, the Lebanese activists do not think their country would be near a priority for Biden’s team.
While Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed obligatory grief at Lokman Slim’s killing, the Lebanese activists do not think their country would be near a priority for Biden’s team.
Instead, they worry about the US rejoining the nuclear deal with Iran. Indeed, a year after Obama signed the deal with Iran in 2015, Iran quadrupled the funding to Hezbollah enhancing its ability to deliver services to the Shia community and strengthening its control over them.
If Biden rejoins the deal and lifts sanctions against Iran, Hezbollah will get richer too. Lebanon’s activists say that is not a punishment but a reward to the group which has held the country’s economic progress hostage to Iran’s whims.
They argue that containing Hezbollah, and other Iranian militias in Syria and Iraq, should be a part of any future deal between the US and Iran.
So far there is no word from Biden on Lebanon’s crises. Six months after a blast at the Beirut port ripped through the capital city and Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned, there is still no effective government in the country. The ruling elite is still controlling the state while Lokman Slim’s family mourns him with no hope for justice.
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