The process must be forced. Unless the taboo is broken publicly, Hezbollah wins by default, because the only force still policing Lebanese-Israeli silence at the citizen level is the militia — dressed in a 1955 statute.

Fouad Makhzoumi has been calling on the Minister of Justice to suspend the Israel boycott law — the 1955 statute criminalizing any Lebanese citizen who speaks with an Israeli — until a parliamentary majority can formally repeal it.

Lebanese army officers have been sitting with Israeli counterparts in the Mechanism Committee since the 2024 ceasefire. Ambassadors Simon Karam and Nada Mouawad have faced Israeli envoys at least three times in Washington — the latest round closing yesterday.

The state has already crossed the line the law forbids. The statute now criminalizes ordinary Lebanese for conduct the Lebanese state itself practices — officially, weekly, in uniform.

A law the state cannot apply to its own envoys cannot be applied to its citizens. It is functionally obsolete. What remains is a Hezbollah social veto, dressed in legal skin.

Suspending the boycott law is the first honest step toward letting the Lebanese build — citizen to citizen — the confidence their state has already begun to build at the table.

Bechara Gerges

@BecharaGerges

Building confidence between the Lebanese and Israelis — the process must be forced. Unless the taboo is broken publicly, Hezbollah wins by default, because the only force still policing Lebanese-Israeli silence at the citizen level is the militia, dressed in a 1955 statute. A law the state cannot apply to its own envoys cannot be applied to its citizens. Suspending the boycott law is the first honest step.

May 16, 2026 View on X →