Lebanese Journalist Forced Into Hiding After Mocking MBS

Prominent Lebanese journalist Hasan Illaik has gone into hiding after a tweet mocking Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and criticizing Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Yemen prompted Lebanon’s public prosecutor to issue a warrant for his arrest. As Rania Khalek and Zoe Alexandra discuss, this is about far more than press censorship: this is Beirut’s drive to normalize relations with Israel, sacrificing Lebanon’s sovereignty and silencing dissent along the way.

Illaik, who was targeted earlier this year for criticizing Beirut’s capitulation to Tel Aviv, says the prosecutor pursuing the case against him is a Saudi-backed political appointee. Reporting from Beirut, Khalek explains how the selective enforcement of censorship law and the shrinking space for free speech are reshaping Lebanon’s political landscape, and how growing US, Israeli, and Saudi influence is narrowing the boundaries of what the Lebanese people can and can’t say about their — or any other — government.

A prominent Lebanese journalist is in hiding — not for a crime, but for a tweet mocking Saudi Arabia’s blockade on Yemen.

@RaniaKhalek on the long arm of Riyadh and Beirut’s scramble to normalize with occupier Israel