Mohammad Mahdi Nasrallah, son of Hezbollah's Secretary General, in a video posted on his Instagram account on March 4, 2024. (Screenshot Instagram/mhmdmahdinsrlh)
A single publication and already nearly 10,000 followers in less than 24 hours on Instagram. All this with a simple 17-second video. Mohammad Mahdi Nasrallah, son of Hezbollah's secretary-general, sits at a desk, seemingly copying sacred texts. Only the white beard and turban are missing, but the resemblance to his father is striking.
The elder Nasrallah's voice echoes as he reads from the writings of Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb, father of the martyr Hussein, celebrated by the Shiite community. The son does not speak. The text appears on the screen and, in the background, a large, blurred portrait of Hassan Nasrallah dominates the scene.
Throw away the phones? "Certainly, but..."
The publication is the only one to appear on Mohammad Mahdi Nasrallah's account – for the time being – and is doing the rounds of Lebanon's social networks. Supportive comments have been pouring in: "May God keep him," "This cub comes from a lion," "Like father like son." When contacted, Hezbollah spokesperson Rana Sahili confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour that the account was real and belongs to the party leader's son. "Mohammad Mahdi wants to show that he studies religious texts. There's nothing political about it. He just wants to get started and give theological and cultural courses," she explained.
Liked over 7,500 times and widely commented on, the video of the leader's son is flooding people's smartphones – the very same ones that Hassan Nasrallah had ordered to be thrown away, in a speech delivered last month. "Throw away your smartphones, bury them, put them in a metal box and put them away," the Hezbollah leader thundered.
"Certainly, there is this subject. But the use of telephones must be limited, studied," Rana Sahili responded when asked about the issue. "The Sayyed's speech was aimed at people living in South Lebanon and the military, to prevent them from revealing information to the enemy or revealing their location. It has nothing to do with that," she insisted, citing the purely religious aspect of the video.
"Despite everything, Hezbollah needs the media"
"There's a contradiction between telling people to throw away their smartphones and creating an Instagram account," says Jad Chahrour, head of media at the SKeyes Center for Media and Cultural Freedom. "But despite everything, Hezbollah needs the media and a close, emotional bond with its supporters. This creates even more support for the party," he continues.
Chahrour added that Hezbollah is "stronger than many parties when it comes to this kind of communication." At the end of October 2023, a video showing Hassan Nasrallah's silhouette, from behind, passing in front of the party's logo, with music playing in the background went viral on social media ahead of his first speech since the start of the war in Gaza and cross-border fighting in southern Lebanon. At the time, the Hezbollah leader had yet to give a speech since the start of the war in which his party is involved in southern Lebanon against Israel, and his word was eagerly awaited.
"It's a way for them to seize the moment and introduce this son, who was totally unknown until then," explained Chahrour. Mohammad Mahdi's studious video contrasts with his brother Jawad's posts. In 2019, Twitter suspended Jawad's account as well as that of al-Manar, Hezbollah's television channel. And just after the assassination of Lokman Slim in February 2021, Jawad Nasrallah caused controversy by tweeting: "The loss of some is in fact a gain and an unexpected sweetness, #noregret." He deleted his post a little later, after the outcry.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.