DUBAI: Lebanese singing sensation Elissa has sparked anger in Lebanon after she tweeted about her desire to watch new Hollywood flick “The Post,” which has caused controversy in the country due to director Stephen Spielberg’s links to Israel.
Activists had campaigned against the film because Spielberg gave financial support to Israel during its 2006 war with Hezbollah in south Lebanon, a conflict that killed hundreds of Lebanese.
However, the issue was put to rest last week when Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk ruled against a request to ban the film.
“I see no obstacle preventing the film from being shown because it has nothing to do with Lebanon or the conflict with the Israeli enemy,” Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk told Reuters at the time. In 2017, Lebanon banned two films but permitted 317 commercial and 766 festival films to screen, George Hanna, head of the publications department in the ministry’s General Security branch, added in a statement to Reuters.
Pop star Elissa waded into the furor when she enthusiastically tweeted about the film this week, saying: “I've been waiting impatiently to go to the cinema. I've heard a lot about the great director Steven Spielberg's film The Post. I'm looking forward to watching it! The chaos that some have made because of this work made me more anxious to watch and enjoy it.”
Some Lebanese Twitter users reacted in anger and described the star as an "agent and an ally of Israel.” One Twitter user even said her “words are as ridiculous as her songs.”
The film dramatizes the 1971 battle by American newspapers to publish leaked documents, known as the Pentagon Papers, concerning the US government’s role in the Vietnam War.
