Lebanon’s Anti-Hezbollah Camp Rethinks Ties to the Palestinian Cause

As Hezbollah weakens, prominent voices in Lebanon and across the Arab world are calling for their countries to stop tying their fate to the Palestinian struggle. They argue that decades of involvement in that conflict have brought economic ruin, wars, and political damage, while ordinary Lebanese have paid the price. The article says this shift is unfolding during the war of the past two years, which has continued to shake Lebanese public debate.

The discussion is not entirely new. For years, some Lebanese have sharply criticized the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization during the civil war, especially Palestinian factions active in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s. But those views were once mostly marginal. Now, with Hezbollah’s standing damaged, more people feel able to say publicly what they previously avoided.

That tone has been visible on MTV Lebanon’s debate program, “Mesh Masrahia” (“Not a Show”). One participant said, “The Palestinian cause brought destruction to Lebanon, from 1976 until today. From then until now Lebanon has been sacrificing martyrs. We are living the disaster of this Palestinian cause.” In another episode, a woman wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh beside a Lebanese flag was attacked by other participants, who told her, “The Lebanese flag and the keffiyeh do not go together,” and, “You have to choose one of them.”

The keffiyeh, long seen as a symbol of the Palestinian struggle, has therefore become part of a broader argument over Lebanese identity and whether the country should keep linking itself to the Palestinian issue. The trend is not limited to Lebanon. In an interview last week, Iraqi political activist Ghith al-Tamimi rejected the idea of collective Arab duty toward the Palestinians, asking, “What is better about the Palestinian than me? What is better about him than a Tunisian, an Algerian, a Moroccan or a Libyan?” He added, “I have no connection to the Palestinian cause, and it is not my cause. For a hundred years we have been breaking our heads over a fantasy. The Palestinian people should defend their own cause.” The article concludes that, whether this is a temporary wartime shift or a deeper change, open criticism of the Palestinian cause is now increasingly visible in places where it was once nearly taboo.