Poster Art: Lebanese Election 2022 – Sovereignty vs. Slavery

Basira Press and Intifada Street are humbled and honored to present the latest original artwork on the subject of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Lebanon on May 15, 2022.

The symbolism in this piece is very powerful means of portraying the crossroads at which Lebanon stands in this election and beyond: true sovereignty or slavery. Inside the center is a cedar tree shaped section which shows the people of Lebanon who struggle against Zionism and imperialist domination for a better future. Outside the frame of the cedar tree are the vultures who want to pluck every leaf off this tree, leaving it bare and vulnerable to the harshness of the elements.

“The Lebanese are required to tell the Americans and the American Embassy that we are not your slaves.”

His Eminence Sayed Hasan Nasrallah
March 8, 2022

REAL SOVEREIGNTY

Many of Lebanon’s woes stem from the fact that the government and its various officials bow down before the vultures who want to tear apart Lebanon piece by piece, who view Lebanese as subhuman cattle. From America to “israel” to France, their arrogance and supremacism makes them feel like Lebanon is their chessboard. Even the arrogant powers’ corrupt puppet warlords and compradors are not even truly respected by their masters, and would be easily thrown in the trash when they have outlived their usefulness.

Such puppets make use of petty nationalism, causing hostility with neighboring countries like Syria and Iran in the name of “independence,” all while being happy to bend over for the Satanic powers to run roughshot over Lebanon. These people have no dignity or self-respect, and that is why the names of these officials are not household names, unlike dignified and honest leaders as Sayed Hasan Nasrallah.

These puppets are happy to keep the Lebanese suffering, at the behest of the US Embassy’s orders, in order to attempt to drive out the honorable Lebanese resistance which has actually defended Lebanon’s true independence against bloodthirsty invaders, such as the “israelis.”

Ibrahim Sakr, a top member of the pro-US Lebanese Forces party, intentionally hoarded gasoline and diesel in order to create a fuel crisis in Lebanon, in the hopes that people blame it on Hezbollah instead of the US Embassy, which is the architect of the “maximum pressure” policy against Lebanon.

THE PUPPET MASTER

When Lebanese officials went to visit Syria, one stated that they couldn’t even make the visit without consulting and seeking the blessing of the US Ambassador, Dorothy Shea, at first.

This is an absolute humiliation of the honorable Lebanese people and their independence. The ones accepting the humiliation are the officials who bark the loudest about “sovereignty” and “independence” from “Iranian occupation.”

The corruption of the system, the economic collapse engineered by the top bankers, the import-dependent economy, and stoking of sectarian tensions can all be traced back to this cancerous US Embassy operating inside the country.

To avoid naming the US in regards to Lebanon’s deep internal corruption does nothing but create an orientalist narrative that Arabs and West Asians in general are prone to corruption and social chaos and that they cannot properly organize themselves, unless they cede to the West and adopt some governance model based on secular liberal democracy, which has proven to be a failure as we watch the collapse of globalism and liberal democracies before our very eyes and may witness the end of the US dollar in our lifetimes, let alone the end of the Zionist regime.

The economic collapse was no accident. The criminal central banker, Riad Salameh, is under her tutelage and does the bidding of the US and the international Zionist lobby. Even though Hezbollah, the one political party which is the most able to claim that it stands against corruption, won the majority of votes in the previous election, due to US pressure against Lebanon, they have to take a minority position within the government, with only a handful of ministerial positions in the government.

Ambassador Shea saved the criminal banker Salameh from being arrested by the Lebanese government, worked with Lebanese Forces party members to frame Hezbollah with 20 tons of ammonium nitrate (the same substance which was involved with the explosion of the Port of Beirut), and even pressured the Lebanese government to write a statement condemning the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.

The US Embassy prevents the Lebanese from having a political system that is honorable and worthy of respect. When the politicians have no self-respect, who would rather their people sit in the dark without electricity than to accept an Iranian or Chinese energy infrastructure project because it would upset the US, then it is no surprise that people will not have respect for them.

The suffering of Lebanese and the corruption of the system falls on the shoulders of the US Embassy.

THE USURY EATER

The 2019 economic collapse was no accident and it happened under the watch of Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh, who wields much power in the country.

As inflation skyrocketed and people began to undergo immense suffering, the banks put more pressure on the people instead of accepting accountability for their grave criminality and corruption.

Billions of dollars were transferred abroad, despite the fact that Lebanon, as an import-dependent economy with little national production, depends on foreign currency reserves for the payment of essential goods like food and fuel imports. The theft of Lebanon’s wealth and foreign currency reserves contributes much to the food and fuel crisis currently underway.

Meanwhile, the banks imposed punishing capital controls on everyday depositors, preventing them from accessing the full balance sheet of their dollar-denominated accounts as well as converting their foreign currency to Lebanese pounds at an exchange rate well below the black market rates.

Due to the sectarian system in Lebanon, a Christian must be in charge of the bank, regardless of his merits, morals, or performance. In such a system, religion is nothing more than a name tag, rather than a set of morals and divine principles. Jesus is well known for standing against the money lenders among the Jewish Pharisees who were oppressing the people and increasing levels of poverty.

Is Salameh acting like Jesus, or like the Pharasaic money lenders? Can he truly claim to be a Christian if he acts like the latter, or is his religion the religion of money and usury? If so, it is about time that someone who follows the blessed sunna of Jesus come and whip this money changer and chase him out of the peoples’ treasury.

THE BUTCHER

Samir Geagea, despite being one of the loudest pretenders who claims to be about “sovereignty,” is responsible for selling out Lebanon’s sovereignty to the “israelis,” a group of bloodthirsty racists who do not see non-Jews as human beings, regardless of their religion, and certainly will dispose of their dogs such as Geagea when they outlive their usefulness.

Geagea was trained by the “israelis” and assisted them in their occupation of Lebanon during the Civil War. Geagea fought against other Christian groups and his militia was responsible for massacres of people as well as assassinations of various politicians, leaders, and officials. He eventually was placed in prison and after his release, formed the Lebanese Forces political party.

Geagea has been officially charged with the crime of massacring innocent, unarmed civilians in the October 14, 2021 Tayouneh Massacre. On that day, an unarmed, peaceful protest against the politicization of the Beirut Port explosion by Judge Tarek Bitar was held by members of Hezbollah, Amal, and the Christian party Marada. The rally was publicly announced, which the Lebanese Forces took advantage of.

In the night before, they prepared buildings and various locations in order to stage a pre-planned armed ambush on the protestors. As the unarmed protestors were walking down the street, live ammunition from snipers in buildings and rooftops began to be heard and bodies began to drop to the floor.

This poster art pays specific tribute to Martyr Maryam Farhat, a mother who was inside her home when she was shot dead by LF snipers while looking outside her home window.

FINDING THE TRUTH

The Beirut Port explosion was not an accident. No matter the specific details of the circumstances, those responsible need to be named and held accountable but due to the lack of independence of the government and judiciary – which again traces back to the malign influence of the US Embassy – the investigation has been delayed and delayed, with no results being published in full yet, and corrupt judges like Tarek Bitar are using the tragedy as an excuse to falsely blame Hezbollah for the explosion.

INDEPENDENCE, UNITY, AND ECONOMIC SELF-RELIANCE: THE PEOPLES’ CHOICE

Lebanon does not have to be stuck in its current predicaments. A bright future is possible, although it will require difficult sacrifices. The Satanic, arrogant global powers will not let Lebanon be free so easily, the rich and powerful will not let go of their ill-begotten wealth without making the whole country collapse with them. There is nothing worth having in this world that comes easy.

Additionally, the road must be chosen by the people and they cannot be forced. As Allah says in the Holy Qur’an, He does not change the condition of a people until the people change themselves. True, lasting change comes when the people wake up and realize themselves the right decision to make. Otherwise, people who do not have firm beliefs in doing the right thing will undoubtedly demand a return to the old ways of doing things after a short period of time.

The poster depicts the honest men of God from the various different religious sects in Lebanon who seek to open up the eyes of the people, for whom religion is not a name tag or gang affiliation, but rather a way of life that refines the human soul and results in pleasant character traits and moral values, and embodies both the personal life and socio-political life of all human beings.

First and foremost is Hezbollah Secretary General Sayed Hasan Nasrallah, whose honesty is so relied on that even the Zionist enemy prefers to listen to his speeches over that of their own lying, terrorist politicians in “Tel Aviv.”

Also depicted is the late Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Ahmad al-Zein, who dedicated his life to reforming corruption and supporting resistance against the Zionist regime.

The figure of Lebanese unity and support for the impoverished masses, Imam Musa as-Sadr, is also depicted. Despite his disappearance in Libya in the late 1970s, of which his body has not been discovered nor returned to this day, the spirit of As-Sadr remains to this day as a unifying figure who stood against the civil war and wanted Lebanese to focus on the real enemy of the people which is poverty, corruption, and the Zionist occupation. Due to his close ties with the Christian community, photos of As-Sadr can be found in Christian homes to this day in Lebanon. The poster pays homage to the multi-confessional unity in support of the Lebanese resistance by showcasing the Christian masses who love and respect Hezbollah due to their defeat of Zionist occupation and Wahabbist terrorism in Syria.

The advocates of true sovereignty, the most principled of which is Hezbollah, also present a concrete plan for giving Lebanon’s economy a solid backbone, given that the economy is currently without any solid structure after it was intentionally made to be an import-dependent economy following the Taif Agreement at the end of the Civil War.

Little domestic production means little foreign currency influx, which creates an unsustainable model when Lebanon pays for its essential commodities and imports using such foreign currency. When more goes out than comes in, in addition to many of the banker criminals sending billions of foreign currencies outside the country, it is no surprise that a collapse like 2019 would happen.

That is why Sayed Hasan Nasrallah announced a jihad of industry and agriculture in 2020, after the entire world witnessed the weakness of economic globalism and import reliance following the after effects of the policies set by the WHO to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

If Lebanon were to produce what it consumes instead of importing, it can meet its own domestic needs and then put the surpluses to the export markets in order to earn foreign currencies and reduce its trade deficit.

In 2020, the Lebanese government legalized the cultivation and processing of industrial hemp, a non-narcotic multi-use cash crop. Due to the non-narcotic nature of industrial hemp, it can be used to produce a myriad of non-toxic, eco-friendly consumer goods: clothing, rope, paper/cardboard, natural fiber mattresses, bedding, baby clothes, curtains, carpets, shoes, plastics, biodiesel, and even durable building materials (“hempcrete”).

Basira Press published an in-depth policy paper on why industrial hemp is a crucial cash crop to be added to the arsenal of oppressed nations in the Global South so as to attain greater economic independence and throw off the shackles of western financial domination and globalism.

This need for a resistance economy, where domestic industry is bolstered, is symbolized by the factory with “Made in Lebanon” stamped on it.

Industry cannot take place without infrastructure, which Lebanon is sorely lacking. Lack of political sovereignty and subservience to the US Embassy has prevented the Lebanese government from accepting standing offers from the Iranian, Russian, and Chinese governments to accept infrastructure projects.

The Iranians have offered to build two modern power plants to finally give all of Lebanon 24/7 electricity (as opposed to the status quo of intermittent periods of electricity services, which must be supplemented by overpriced private generators); the Russians have offered to build oil refinery plants so that Lebanon can process crude oil on its soil instead of depending on processing in other countries; and the Chinese have offered to rebuild the railway system of Lebanon that was destroyed and disbanded during the Civil War, which would extend from Tripoli in the north to Naqoura in the south.

Additionally, the trio of aforementioned eastern governments will accept Lebanese pounds for payments instead of dollars, euros, and other foreign currencies which the Lebanese government and central bank are quickly running out of.

Remaining as a slave of the US Embassy means not having essential modern amenities such as 24/7 electricity, public transit, and a robust domestic economy that isn’t built on a consumption-based house of cards.

The Lebanese people deserve a sovereign state which has dignity, which makes its own decisions and tells the US Ambassador to mind her own business, treat Lebanon as an equal, or if not, then take a hike.

May God guide the Lebanese people to grant a victory to the real advocates of sovereignty, the highest of which are those who gave their precious blood to defend Lebanon from disappearing off the map and becoming annexed by the merciless Zionist regime. The golden equation of the people-army-resistance can indeed suffice to protect Lebanon and its sovereignty when the arrogant western powers and the ultra-wealthy domestic compradors decide to not give up their throne without a fight.

May God prevent the enemies of humanity from stoking sectarian tensions in Lebanon in order to prevent this beautiful country from flourishing and thriving as it should.