Sali Hafez during a demonstration in Beirut on May 23, 2022. (Credit: Anwar Amro /AFP)
Two years ago, Sali Hafiz and her sister Ikram held up a Blom Bank branch in Beirut. They weren't after other people's money — just their own. They needed funds for their sister Nancy's cancer treatment, but Ikram's savings were illegally restricted by her bank. Using what Hafiz later said was a replica gun, they managed to retrieve $14,000 of their own money and escaped out a back window.
It was one of many bank holdups across the country in 2022 by depositors wanting to recover their funds amid Lebanon's financial collapse, which snowballed in 2019.
Sali became a hero to some Lebanese, despite facing legal proceedings. Images of her armed with a replica gun, standing on a bank desk, made the rounds on social media.
"Maybe they saw me as a hero because I was the first woman who does this in a patriarchal society, where a woman's voice is not supposed to be heard," Sali told the National News in September 2022.
Twenty days after the holdup, the young woman, who had been banned from traveling until March 2023, appeared in court. She was released on bail and given a court date. However, when the trial day arrived, the judge failed to appear, and the proceedings were postponed.
From activism to fame
Before the famous bank holdup, Sali, who hails from Beirut, was known for her political activism. She participated in protest movements related to various causes and was arrested several times.
In 2016, the green-eyed young woman appeared in front of TV cameras in Beirut's Martyrs' Square during a demonstration against Hezbollah's intervention in the Syrian civil war, where the party fought alongside the Syrian regime against Syrian rebels and jihadist groups.
Three years later, Sali became an active participant in Lebanon's popular uprising against corruption and worsening economic conditions, during which she met people from different regions in Lebanon.
These acquaintances helped her form the group that stormed the bank in 2022. Among them was Abdulrahman Zakaria, a resident of Akkar known by the nickname "John Cena," after the American actor and professional wrestler.
Zakaria earned his nickname after he climbed onto the roof of a police car before pouncing on policemen surrounding demonstrators outside a bank in Halba, Akkar, in January 2020.
Zakaria told L'Orient Today that he met Sali in the first days of the 2019 uprising and gradually grew closer to her.
During the revolution, Sali was part of a group of activists who made a point of kicking out politicians accused of corruption from the restaurants as part of a public shaming campaign.
When Sali and other protesters tried to kick out the Secretary-General of the Future Movement Ahmad al-Hariri from a restaurant, Hariri’s bodyguards physically attacked her, according to Zakaria and a source close to Sali who spoke to L'Orient Today on condition of anonymity.
L’Orient Today reached out to Sali Hafez directly, but she declined to comment publicly.
Following the incident at the restaurant, Hariri said that he was “talking in a friendly way” with the group trying to kick him out, but that “what happened between one of his bodyguards and a woman from the group tarnished the conversation.” It is unclear whether the woman in question is Sali Hafez. Hariri later apologized “for any offense” committed.
The confrontation with the bodyguards left Sali hospitalized, and it was after this "attack" that Zakaria said he got to know her better.
In 2021, Sali took part in the protests of the families of victims of the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion. The devastating blast killed 235 people, injured 6,500 more and destroyed more than 77,000 homes.
But Sali's activism undoubtedly peaked with the bank holdup. The dramatic event propelled her to fame, and she started giving interviews to foreign media outlets, including al-Jazeera, Reuters, BBC and al-Arabiya.
The New York Times, Vice News and the Australian current affairs program Dateline broadcast videos, some up to 24 minutes long, detailing her story.
But it wasn't just journalists who were interested. Dubai-based production company Front Row recently decided to make a movie centered on the bank holdup — a project still in its early stages.
Bank hold-up disagreements
Despite her public status as a modern-day Robin Hood, Sali's bank holdup operation faced challenges. Disagreements arose among the organizers, mainly between lawyer Rami Ollaik — founder of the high-profile Mouttahidoun group that advocates for the rights of depositors wronged by Lebanese banks — and the rest of the crew.
Ollaik is known for his controversial and highly publicized methods, which have led to some setbacks in courts and a ban from the Bar Association. He planned and carried out many bank holdups with depositors before meeting Sali.
While storming the bank, some activists poured gasoline inside the branch, spraying some customers in the process. Ollaik told L’Orient Today that he did not condone these actions, saying the group "deliberately engaged in provocations to incite violence."
He claimed Sali and her group wanted to thwart the bank holdups movement, in cahoots with banks, security agencies and political parties. Ollaik believes that their strategy involved inciting violence to increase penalties for assailants and thus demotivate the general public from storming banks.
These accusations are “illogical,” the source close to Sali said. Ollaik cannot force everyone to act according to his wishes, they added.
The way Zakaria sees it, Ollaik is frustrated by the outcome because his main concern was to appear regularly in the media after the bank raid, but instead it was Sali, not him, whom journalists wanted to talk to.
Controversy over video published by Israeli website
In 2023, a year after the bank raid, Sali was in the news again. This time, she appeared in a one-minute video clip published by Nas Daily, a website run by an Israeli citizen. The video sparked widespread resentment in Lebanon, where the country's 1955 law on boycotting Israel bans any individual or legal entity from contacting Israelis or residents of Israel, and prohibits all commercial, financial and other transactions with them.
According to the Lebanese newspaper al-Modon, the man behind the page is Naseer Yassin, a Palestinian from the Arab territories occupied in 1948 who holds Israeli citizenship. Yassin is included on boycott lists because he “openly declares” his Israeli nationality, supports normalization and describes the conflict as one between two sovereign countries rather than occupier and occupied.
However, Sali was not aware of these details because the “page's headquarters is in Dubai and the video was filmed in Lebanon," the source said, adding that Sali would have been more cautious otherwise. “It's the government's mistake as it allowed the page's [employees] to enter the country.”
The 2024 family drama
In July, Sali's name resurfaced again in the media. A supposed dispute with her sister Zeina regarding their recovering sister's healthcare brought the bank holdup episode back into the spotlight.
Zeina released a video accusing Sali of claiming the role of their other sister, Ikram, who owns the deposit involved in the 2022 bank raid, and of refusing to help Nancy. Zeina was under the impression that Sali had received $100,000 after signing a contract with Front Row to make a film about the incident without giving any money to her sisters. Nancy's cancer is in remission, but she became paralyzed after an operation and currently, cannot walk or talk. She will need years of physiotherapy for rehabilitation.
Zeina's video was online for five minutes before she deleted it, but it was enough to stir up more controversy. Zeina later posted another video in which she stressed the family's unity and blamed people who “tried to create problems between the family members.”
Contacted by L'Orient Today, Zeina said that there is “no problem” currently between her and Sali and that she soon discovered Sali had not received $100,000.
“Sali did not yet receive any amount from Front Row," the source close to Sali said, “and the production company is aware that she is not the owner of the deposit.”
Front Row was not immediately available for comment.
Broken telephone
Another source close to both sisters and Zakaria blamed “some people” who wanted to “hurt” Sali, for the dispute between her and her sisters. Zeina Hafez blamed controversial Lebanese activist Nadine Barakat, among others, for pressuring her to post the video and inciting her to accuse Sali of taking the movie rights money.
Barakat, known for criticizing and publicly shaming people on social media for corruption, runs a TikTok page that used to be accessible to some of her friends. In a call with L’Orient Today, Barakat recalled that Zeina reached out to this page to ask for information about Front Row, knowing that Barakat had been closely following Sali's case.
According to Barakat, this occurred after Zeina posted the first video, which showed that it was “neither her nor her friends who convinced her to make the video.”
Barakat claims that it was one of her friends, who she refused to name, who answered Zeina and gave her contacts from the production company. “Zeina thought that she was talking with me,” Barakat said. “I told [my friend] that what happened is not acceptable and that he cannot speak on my behalf.”
Barakat provided L’Orient Today with a screenshot of the chat, but Zeina Hafez was not immediately available to confirm its authenticity. Barakat says she has since changed the credentials and name of the page and is now the only person with access to it.
Around two months after the dispute between Sali and Zeina, the source close to Sali describes their current relationship as “normal.” After working in Saudi Arabia for a while, Sali is now back in Lebanon and has a new trial scheduled for this month.
