The legacy media often portrays Hezbollah’s war against Israel as a “resistance” movement. Over the past seven weeks, our Hezbollah’s Hostages series has shown the opposite: that the terror group is a tyrant in Lebanon, an occupier in Syria, a mafia cartel that trafficks in drugs and sex slaves, and the command headquarters of Iran’s imperial project in Arab lands.
The eighth and final episode of our series brings you words of hope from a young woman in Lebanon called Nadia, who has freed herself from the oppression of Hezbollah and wishes to do the same for her people.
If there is one thing Iran and its militias fear more than the Israeli Air Force, it is ordinary citizens like Nadia, who yearn for change and rise up to oppose their brutal rule. In Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Gaza, and Iran itself, millions of civilians know firsthand that Tehran’s brand of Islamist domination brings only war, poverty, and misery. They want a different future—but they need the world to help them forge it.
Click below to watch Nadia’s story:
This series debuted one day before pagers exploded in the hands of Hezbollah operatives across Lebanon and Syria—a stunning piece of Israeli spycraft. It concludes today with Hezbollah gravely weakened by Israeli air and ground strikes. The terror group’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has been assassinated. Now, the most urgent question facing the Lebanese—and the world—is how to use Hezbollah’s weakened state to drive systemic political change.
Sadly, Western governments do little to assist brave dissidents, and Iran’s axis of terror wields lethal force against local activists who stand up to its authority. So The Center for Peace Communications, a New York–based nonprofit which I lead, does everything it can to fill the void.
This is why we produced Hezbollah’s Hostages, which had its first two public screenings in Beirut last week. One was presented by independent Shi’ite cleric Abbas Al-Jawhari, the other by a new Shi’ite nonprofit for peace called Taharror. For these courageous activists, the series documents the oppressive pathology that has destroyed their country. It makes the case that a different future is not only necessary, but possible.
We also sought to break the media monopoly of powerful propaganda outlets owned by Iran and Qatar that celebrate the terror of Hezbollah and Hamas and falsely claim to speak on behalf of Arab peoples. While Western media shows little interest in exposing this, our series offers a creative way around that by amplifying local voices of dissent.
This is what led us to create Whispered in Gaza, a 25-part animated docuseries that debuted in January 2023. In it, Gazans shared heartrending testimony about life under Hamas. Released in seven languages and viewed over 20 million times, these short films gave people worldwide their first insight into the reality of being ruled by that terrorist group.
Three months after the release of Whispered in Gaza, a group of Sunni and Shi’ite clerics in Iraq and Pakistan issued a fatwa banning Hamas, citing the series as proof of how Hamas persecutes the Muslim population. Then, on July 30, 2023, Gazan activists used the series and fatwa as tools to mobilize one of the largest street demonstrations against Hamas since it took power in 2007.
We firmly believe that, had we been one of many groups working over the years to support these citizens on the ground, the people of Gaza could have thrown off Hamas. Think of a world in which the atrocities of October 7, 2023, never took place.
We are far from being a world free of the violent proxies of Iran. But for inspiration, we can look at the long reign of the Soviet Union and the pivotal role citizen activists played in ending its domination. In this tradition, both in Lebanon and elsewhere, The Center for Peace Communications will continue to support brave figures aspiring to a brighter future in the Middle East. Here, you can watch all the episodes of Hezbollah’s Hostages. And we invite those who share our goals to help support our work.
Hezbollah’s Hostages is a production of The Center for Peace Communications, presented by The Free Press. Follow The Center for Peace Communications’ work on X @PeaceComCenter and on Instagram @PeaceComms.
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