Lebanon’s Israel boycott law faces renewed pressure as military talks move to Tampa

When Lebanese lawyer Hassan Bazzi filed a complaint against his country’s ambassador to Washington last month, he expected to face the usual slow process of Lebanon ’s courts. Instead, the case prompted a rebuke from the US State Department, threats of sanctions against Lebanese judges, and renewed US pressure on Beirut to repeal laws that have criminalised contact with Israelis for seven decades. The row comes as Lebanese and Israeli military delegations will meet this week at US Central Command (Centcom) headquarters in Tampa, Florida. Critics in Lebanon say the talks are pushing the country’s legal ban on contact with Israel towards collapse. The case began with a reported phone call. On 27 September, the Beirut Review reported that Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad had contacted her Israeli counterpart in Washington, Yechiel Leiter, after his son was critically wounded in a car-ramming attack at a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. The report was subsequently picked up by several Israeli media outlets. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Adopted in 1955, Lebanon’s boycott law criminalises contact with Israelis, carrying penalties of three to 10 years of hard labour. In recent years, it has been invoked in complaints against public figures, including singer Nancy Ajram in 2024. Repealing the law would require only a simple majority in parliament, but no draft legislation has been tabled. Moawad and Leiter have been at the centre of US-brokered direct talks between Lebanon and Israel since April. The talks led to a framework agreement signed in Washington on 26 June, providing for an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon, the Lebanese army to take over and oversee the disarmament of Hezbollah, and an end to hostilities. 'An ambassador and a negotiator should be fighting in the name of the Lebanese people and their pain, especially southerners' - Hassan Bazzi, Lebanese lawyer Bazzi filed a complaint (ikhbar) with Lebanon’s top public prosecutor, who referred it to Claude Ghanem, the government commissioner at the military court. "The danger of the matter, if the reports are true, is that she is not an ordinary citizen," Bazzi told Middle East Eye. "She is an ambassador and a member of the negotiating delegation. An ambassador and a negotiator should be fighting in the name of the Lebanese people and their pain, especially southerners." Bazzi said he was not accusing Moawad of a crime, but was asking the judiciary to establish whether the media reports were accurate. He noted that neither the ambassador nor the foreign ministry had denied them. "The aim was to verify whether what the Israeli media reported is true," he said. "We are not accusing her." President Joseph Aoun has defended her, saying the reported contact did not take place. He warned that anyone seeking to "target the path we have taken to end the state of war and save Lebanon" was "committing a crime against the country". Washington weighs in The US response was unusually blunt. US State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott called it "embarrassing" that a military court was handling a complaint against the ambassador "for carrying out the policy of their legitimate government". "The Lebanese military judiciary should use its limited resources to prosecute Hizballah operatives plotting against the Lebanese government and people," the statement said, warning: "We have no patience for obstruction." The State Department described Bazzi as a "pro-Hezbollah lawyer". A US official told The Times of Israel that Washington was weighing sanctions against the Lebanese judges handling the complaint. Bazzi rejected the label, saying he has been active in public affairs since 2011 and has filed complaints over both security and corruption cases "against all of them". He said the complaint against Moawad was one of many he had filed and denied having any political motive. On 14 October, Ghanem shelved the complaint, finding that the reported contact did not constitute a criminal offence. According to Bazzi, the commissioner reasoned that Lebanon’s 1955 Israel Boycott Law applies only to commercial transactions. ‘Crazy’ legislation "This interpretation is extremely dangerous," Bazzi said. "It means that if the contact happened, it is not a criminal offence. We would be opening up very serious security and political breaches by giving Lebanese people licence to contact anyone in the enemy state." The lawyer has called for the investigation to be expanded, citing Article 278 of the Penal Code, which he says criminalises contact with a soldier, spy or agent of an enemy state. He argues that an ambassador represents that state "in all its pillars". He also points to the first article of the boycott law, which ends with the words "or any other type of dealing". From uneasy partners to open distrust: Aoun and Hezbollah struggle to rebuild ties Read More » Bazzi said courts and successive ministries have interpreted that clause broadly for decades. The ministries of education and youth and sports, for example, continue to ban sporting and cultural contact with Israelis on that basis. "We would be wiping out a judicial precedent that is nearly 50 years old," he said. "The military court alone has issued more than 20,000 rulings on the crime of contact with citizens of the enemy." The complaint has given new urgency to a campaign that Washington has been building for months. In March, US lawmakers wrote to Washington’s ambassador to Beirut, Michel Issa, urging him to press for the suspension of laws criminalising contact with Israelis. In April, after hosting the second round of Lebanese-Israeli talks at the White House, President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter about Lebanon’s law. He said he had not been aware of it and called for it to go. "It’s crazy to have such legislation and I will work to put an end to it," Trump said. The pressure has mounted. On 15 October, a day after the complaint was shelved, Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the boycott law in a phone call with Aoun. He reportedly called it "impractical" and said it was "repeatedly used in politicised prosecutions that obstruct steps towards peace". Issa, meanwhile, said the law "makes no sense amid direct talks between Lebanon and Israel under American sponsorship". He has also reportedly been lobbying MPs, particularly those opposed to Hezbollah. A reluctant parliament Inside Lebanon, the push to abolish the law has found only a handful of vocal supporters. Beirut MP Fouad Makhzoumi has called for the boycott law to be suspended. 'We would be opening up very serious security and political breaches by giving Lebanese people licence to contact anyone in the enemy state' - Hassan Bazzi, lawyer "We have always called for the suspension of the Israel boycott law," he wrote on X on 14 October, arguing that the state’s negotiations required "clear legal cover for official diplomatic efforts". Some commentators and activists close to the anti-Hezbollah camp have gone further, calling for the law to be repealed outright. But most parliamentary blocs opposed to Hezbollah have been hesitant, defending Moawad without backing repeal. Salim Sayegh, an official of the Kataeb party, said the party saw no need "to revisit the legislation that prohibits contact with the enemy" at this stage. MP Jimmy Jabbour of the Free Patriotic Movement said the issue was "not up for discussion at all" under current conditions. Bilal Abdallah of the Progressive Socialist Party, meanwhile, said any debate could take place only after an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and a non-aggression arrangement. Hezbollah and its ally Amal have refused to discuss the issue. MP Waddah al-Sadek summed up the mood in parliament: "MPs will not currently be inclined to enter a debate that could cause a major internal crisis." Direct military coordination The legal dispute is unfolding as negotiations shift from diplomats to military officials. The talks in Tampa will be led on the US side by Marine Corps Major General Joseph Clearfield. The Lebanese delegation says it will raise Israeli violations in the “pilot zones” agreed in June, where Israeli troops were supposed to hand over to the Lebanese army. South Lebanon: 'It's torture, they are razing our lives before our eyes' Read More » Lebanon says the violations include Israeli attacks, incursions and the killing of Lebanese civilians. According to Lebanese newspaper L’Orient Today, Washington and Israel have made direct coordination between the Lebanese and Israeli armies a precondition for the negotiations to move forward. The political track is effectively frozen, and implementation of the framework agreement has stalled. This puts the ban on contact squarely in the spotlight. Rubio has explicitly called for direct military-to-military communication between Lebanon and Israel. Such contact would be difficult to reconcile with laws that, as courts have long interpreted them, criminalise dealings with the enemy. For opponents of repeal, the Moawad affair is a warning of what lies ahead. Bazzi says the complaint was filed weeks ago, well before the current disputes, and was intended to uphold a principle. That principle is now under pressure both at the negotiating table in Tampa and from Washington’s lobbying efforts in Beirut. “If this call is true, it is a capitulation to the Israelis,” he said, “and a provocation to our feelings as southerners.” Copyright © 2014 - 2026 . Middle East Eye. All rights reserved. Only England and Wales jurisdiction apply in all legal matters. Middle East Eye ISSN 2634-2456