Recording of pop star Alameh mocking Nasrallah stirs outrage in Lebanon
A video that circulated online of Lebanese pop star Ragheb Alameh on a phone call with Emirati singer Abdullah Belkheir stirred outrage among Lebanese as Alameh hailed the killing of former Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah enjoys great popularity among his supporters and even some who do not support Hezbollah. He was killed in September in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs.
In a country riven by sectarian and political divides that the latest war with Israel aggravated, people were divided between those who defended Alameh and those who were outraged by his words.
The video shows Belkheir on loud speaker with someone who sounded like Alameh. Alameh urged him to visit Lebanon soon, adding that "we've got rid of Nasrallah." Belkheir replied with a laugh and said "Thank God."
Alameh later said it was AI or someone imitating his voice.
After the video, a group of men tried to vandalize a school owned by Alameh in Sainte Therese, Hadath.
Alameh was born in Ghoubeiry in Beirut, into a Shiite family. He received a UAE golden visa in 2021.
24 December 2024, 16:06
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Regardless if this voice was really Alameh, he and entertainers like him are totally within their rights to be glad Nasrallah's gone, after what Nasrallah said about what they do.
.الاستماع الى الأغاني حرام لأن الأغاني هي جزء من حالة تمييع الأمة
- حسن نصر الله
25 December 2024, 00:59
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Hajj chrisrushlau, a leading "Khameneistie*", told AFP on condition of anonymity: "Hezbollah's partisans brunt a school owned by Ragheb Alameh in Sainte Therese Hadath, because the Lebanese Constitution's Article 24 sets aside half of parliamentary seats to "Christians". Article 24 is the crucial obstacle in the way of someone like Lebanese pop star Ragheb Alameh, a Lebanese Shiite born in Ghoubeiry Beirut into a Shiite family, and his freedom to speak his mind without having his property vandalized and his life threatened by Hezbollah's goons".
*Swifties are the fans of American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Khameneisties are the fans of Iran's supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
