Alwaght,- Antoine Lahad, the head of the former so-called South Lebanon Army, is dead. L' Orient Le Jour, a French-language publication in Lebanon was the first media source to report that Lahad has died at the age of 88 from a heart attack in the French capital Paris on September 11, 2015.

However, in Lebanese eyes this was not the first time when Lahad has died. For Lebanese, Lahad died the moment he signed an agreement with the Israeli regime, when he took a picture with Netanyahu, when he crossed the border into occupied territories, when the Israelis committed the Qana massacre, and every time Zionists killed, kidnapped, and tortured people.

For Souha Bechara, the woman who tried to assassinate Lahad in 1988 but only wounded him with three bullets, two of which hit his chest, Lahad has long been dead. Lahad died the moment Hezbollah forced the Israeli regime withdrawal, liberating most parts of the south in the year 2000.

"Antoine Lahad died when the sons of our homeland, the sons of the south returned ...He died on May 24, 2000, the moment the residents of Khiam went up to the detention center and broke all the bars...," reflected Bechara on news of Lahad's death.

Souha who spent 10 years at the Khiam detention center felt adamant that "the death of collaborator Antoine Lahad is the death of the Zionist project in Lebanon."

Crimes and punishment

When victory was announced in the year 2000 the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah had retaken the land that the Israeli regime's forces had occupied. At that time, Lahad and his militias were still cooperating and working for Zionists which made them easy targets for the Lebanese people who had just begun to taste freedom after years of living under occupation. So he beseeched the Israeli regime to allow him and the band of collaborators he had formed to cross into the occupied territories. However, Lahad did not receive the same generous hospitality he had offered to the Israelis. Instead, he ended up working in a small restaurant in Tel Aviv.

In May 2014 a Lebanese court issued sentenced the traitor to death in absentia convicting him of treason, murder, and providing intelligence to the enemy. But Lahad didn't live to see his punishment. Many Lebanese reacted to his natural death by blaming the Lebanese government

As of May 2000, Lahad was considered a war criminal and was therefore banned from entering France which raises questions as to how he died in Paris.
While he is set to be buried in the French capital, there are reports that a ceremony may be held in his hometown of Kafrqatra in Lebanon. This has infuriated the public which still holds resentment against the SLA.

Lahd did not receive amnesty from the Lebanese people in his lifetime nor will he ever be remembered as anything other than an ignominious figure. For all the blood he spilled and the war he contributed to, the Lebanese will refuse to let him rest in peace, at least not on Lebanese soil.

By Alwaght