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“W Ma Tallet Colette” – A Big Middle Finger in The Face of The Authorities

By on December 27, 2018 in Reviews, Theater

On November 23rd 2017, Ziad Itani was arrested and accused of collaborating with an Israeli Mossad agent to plot the assassination of minister Nohad Machnouk and former minister Abdel Rahim Mrad, and it wasn’t until March 2018 that we learnt he was in fact a victim of false evidences. The whole thing turned out to have been arranged by the former head of the cybercrime bureau simply because he dared taking a screenshot of a tweet she liked.

A year later, and instead of emerging as a broken man, Ziad Itani collaborated with Khaled Soubeih to illustrate what he has gone through in a new play titled “W Ma Tallit Colette” that started showing last month at Metro Al Madina. I watched it on Tuesday and totally loved Itani’s performance in it.

Everyone knows the story, Ziad made several TV appearances to tell what really happened, and all the media outlets that originally bashed him for “being a traitor” have also later spoken about the truth. Still, watching the development of events on stage was captivating the whole time. You will be amazed at how a worthless and stupid evidence can lead the interrogators to extort a confession from Itani over something he never did, and the process will make you loathe the authorities.

Throughout the play, Ziad expresses everything he felt during detention, and he will make you understand how vulnerable can anyone get in a similar situation. One scene will even seriously stress you as Ziad tell about the thoughts that were going through his mind in his solitary confinement. Still, the play absolutely qualifies as a comedy and the cast will make you laugh during the whole two hours. The best of all though is that you will leave feeling that Ziad Itani emerged from this case as strong as he can be, an gave one big middle finger to the corrupt authorities and those who unlawfully wanted to put him behind bars.

Needless to say, I recommend you go watch it. You can check the showtimes on MetroMadina.com and book your tickets from AntoineTicketing.com.

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The Scary Case of Ziad Itani

By on March 4, 2018 in Social, Telecom, Theater

I’ve been reading the recent articles about Ziad Itani and Colonel Suzan El Hajj and I couldn’t believe how fucked up the story is (given it is really true). The whole thing of course can’t but make you wonder how low can some officials get with their corruption and how easily can they actually get away with it!

All Colonel Hajj had to do to get Itani in prison was to fabricate a case accusing him or collaborating with Israel by claiming that the IP address of one of the people he was messaging on Facebook was traced back to Israel. However, this shows a big flaw in the way the ISF and other related governmental institutions work to pursue suspects.

How does tracing work?

When needed, Facebook and other social network websites disclose accounts records to governments to help them identify their owners in the cases where accounts are used with bad intent (check their terms here). The most important info they can provide is basically the IP address related to the suspect account. Governments can then check with their local ISPs in order to identify the identity of the person behind that IP.

In the case of Itani, articles are claiming he was not communicating with anyone in Israel, on the other hand what Hajj did was simply fabricating a false feedback from Facebook reporting that one of the account he was talking to was traced back to Israel. And this is where basically someone fucked up big time by not checking the authenticity of such information! Account records at Facebook CANNOT be forged, so whoever wan handling the investigation was Itani could have easily confirmed the claim by inquiring Facebook again.

It could happen to anyone

The reason Itani was framed for was purely personal. Colonel Hajj thought he was the reason she was ousted from the cyber crime bureau and it was almost the end for him. This means anyone can end up with a similar fate for criticizing some official or a well connected person. And worst of all, the authorities can convince the masses of any case just like they did with Itani.

The media and Radwan Mortada are to blame

The minute Ziad Itani was arrested the whole investigation with him was being leaked to Al Akhbar newspaper through one of their journalists named Radwan Mortada (here and here). Throughout the whole thing that guy was acting like an official spokesperson to the State Security department, and his articles made him sound like he was actually present during the interrogations.

All other media outlets were eventually picking his stories and this played a big role in actually convincing us Ziad Itani was really collaborating with Israel.

What’s next for Ziad Itani?

I don’t know what’s next for him, those who did a bad job authenticating the evidences should know better. Officials promised he will be released on Monday, but who will compensate him for the months he spent in prison? Who will make it up for his wife and little daughter? Who will restore all the damage done to his reputation? And who will erase all the bad articles about him everywhere on the web which will eventually haunt him forever?

What I’m certain of though is that officials elsewhere would be resigning over such scandal instead of capitalizing on it for political gain in the upcoming elections!

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Review – Beirut Fawq Al Shajara بيروت فوق الشجرة

By on April 21, 2016 in Art, Reviews

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I recently watched “Beirut Fawq Al Shajara” written by Yehya Jaber and starring Ziad Itani, the same duo who brought us “Beirut Tarik Jdideh” a couple of years ago. And while the latter featured stories inspired from the day to day lives of people living in Tarik Jdideh, the new play focused on events that took place around other areas in Beirut. It might sound redundant at first, but trust me it isn’t. Ziad Itani delivered once again a solid performance without feeling fake on stage, and never failed to crack the audience up at the stories he was illustrating.

Beirut Fawk al Shajara follows the story of Fouad, a Beiruti influenced by his Turkish grandmother as a child, who manages to engage into relationships with many women of different nationalities as he ages while working as tailor. With each relationship we get introduced to some event that took place at a certain time in Beirut’s recent history in a humorous way.

What makes it all interesting is that despite the whole story being fictitious, the events Ziad Itani tells are all pretty accurate. So you’ll be laughing your heart our over the play duration but still learn a good deal from the recent history of the city. You are also guaranteed to be leaving the theater and for some reason humming “Oh lali 3ala Oh lala”!

All in all, and as a side note, I’m really satisfied about the plays Lebanese artists have performed over the last few years such as Venus, Ka3eb 3aleh, and Injazat 7ayat to name a few that do not speak to the audience in a dumb way the same way Lebanese movies and drama series mostly do.

Beirut Fawq Al Shajara is showing at Teatro Verdun (Dunes Center) on Mondays and Thursdays, with tickets selling for 35,000L.L. Needless to say, I highly recommend you go watch it!

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Review – Beirut… Tarik el Jdideh

By on February 21, 2014 in Reviews

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Last weekend I watched the comedy play “Beirut… Tarik el Jdideh” by Lebanese poet Yehia Jaber, and it’s by far one of the funniest plays I’ve watched.

Unlike other comedy plays, Tarik el Jdideh doesn’t make fun or disrespect the inhabitants of that area but rather uses black comedy to tell their stories since the beginning of the 20th century till today, while shedding light on the sectarian conflict between Sunni and Shia.

Throughout two hours, actor Ziad Itani (who performs alone by the way) gets you to know the people of Tarik el Jdideh by portraying their weddings, celebrations, funerals, and eid rituals, in addition to telling about real events that took place such as some incidents that happened during the Lebanese civil war and when the Syrians came later on. A significant part of the play also describes the clashes that used to happen between Al Ansar fans and those of Al Nejmeh and how it all started.

Tarik el Jdideh is highly recommended not just for being super entertaining, but also for the strong message it delivers at the end.

It’s currently showing at Metro Al Madina and will last till the end of March as their events schedule show. Tickets are for 25,000L.L and you may reserve by calling 76-309363.

Below are some short parts of the play as well as interviews with its writer Yehia Jaber and actor Ziad Itani by Now Lebanon.

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