Criticism of Hezbollah grows in its southern Lebanon base after the war with Israel

Right · 1Arab News reports that Hezbollah's tolerance for dissent appears to be narrowing as criticism of the group grows after its latest war with Israel, increasingly from communities that have traditionally supported it. 1 Right · 1Activist Abeer Mroueh, 37, spoke briefly to Prime Minister Nawaf Salam during his visit to Nabatieh, calling for state authority, an end to the war and the recovery of occupied land through negotiations. She says Hezbollah supporters then targeted her with insults, accusations of treason and personal attacks on social media, and that an unknown person issued a statement in her family's name disowning her. 1 Right · 1Mroueh says Hezbollah activists have since asked people to stop using her name, which she takes as a sign the campaign damaged the group more than it helped it. This is her account, and Arab News does not report a Hezbollah response. 1

Right · 1Writer Nabil Mamlouk, 30, says men he identifies as members of the Hezbollah-linked Resistance Brigades shot at and beat him in his father's pharmacy in Tyre over his journalism criticising rocket launches from the south. He says he then moved to Beirut, faced fabricated harassment allegations that were later dropped, and received threats that he would be killed if he returned. 1 Right · 1Residents quoted by Arab News describe depression and fear of another war. Samer, a Nabatieh resident who withheld his surname, says people have covered windows with plastic, that he paid $3,000 a month for a room near Jezzine during the war, and that Israeli drones fly over the city daily. 1 Right · 1Ali Al-Amin, editor-in-chief of the Janoubia news website, says objections are growing inside Hezbollah's base because homes are destroyed and no compensation or reconstruction has begun. He cites the reaction to pro-Hezbollah activist Sahar Ghaddar, who said that even if 100 villages were destroyed this mattered less than Hezbollah's survival. 1

Right · 1Mamlouk says criticism is growing among Amal Movement members and supporters, and that Hezbollah is spreading reports of coming compensation to silence objections. 1 Right · 1In a JNS analysis originally published by the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, Jacques Neriah says the growing visibility of criticism in the Shi'ite community is one of the most explicit recent shifts in Lebanese politics. He describes it as a move from ideological critique to survival-driven grievances voiced by activists and displaced civilians in southern Lebanon and Dahieh. 2 Right · 1Neriah says Hezbollah's loss of key installations and the killing of its leadership by Israel have undermined its "victory through steadfastness" narrative. He also says its ability to pay compensation has been compromised, and he notes that cleric Subhi al-Tufayli, an early figure in the group, is now a vocal critic. 2

Right · 1Neriah cautions that Hezbollah's hold is not collapsing. He says most Shi'ites, even critical ones, oppose disarmament, that opposition is fragmented, and that no rival Shi'ite party can challenge the Hezbollah-Amal duopoly. He adds that anger often falls on the state too. 2 Right · 1He also notes that during a recent no-confidence motion against the government, Hezbollah's bloc walked out of parliament instead of voting. He reads this as an effort to preserve leverage and avoid showing it lacks a parliamentary veto. 2