Activists attacked by Hezbollah after protest over Soleimani poster

A Lebanese book fair descended into violence after activists took issue with a larger-than-life picture of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

Scuffles broke out after a publishing house used images of the divisive regional figure, who was assassinated by the Americans two years ago, at its stall at the Beirut International Book Fair.

At least two activists, Shafiq Badr and Nelly Kandil, were attacked by Hezbollah supporters after they protested at what they considered to be Iranian propaganda. In the video of the altercation circulating online, people at the book fair can be heard chanting: “Free Beirut, Iran out.”

Similar slogans have become common at protests in Lebanon where many believe that Iranian influence exerted through Hezbollah, which dominates the country’s leadership, has deterred western and Gulf nations from offering economic support.

In 2019 Lebanon was engulfed in an economic crisis that has steadily deteriorated. A massive blast on the Beirut port a year and a half ago further exacerbated the crisis and since then the chasm between different sectarian groups has deepened.

Qassem Soleimani was the commander of the Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and the man in charge of Iran’s expansion in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon through its militias. He was killed in January 2020 in an American airstrike.

The book fair returned after a hiatus of three years but was tarnished by what some called Iran and Hezbollah’s attempts to culturally expand in a diverse country.

“Even the Beirut book fair did not escape unscathed from Hezbollah, which is working to paint this ancient cultural destination with an Iranian identity that does not resemble it,” said the MP Fouad Makhzoumi.

Protesters specifically objected to the use of what they considered Iranian propaganda as learning material at a book fair. Photos, sketches and paintings hailing Soleimani hang all over Hezbollah’s bastions in the south of the country.