'Withdraw thugs.' Skaf and Nasrallah

Syrian actress to Nasrallah: Give me back my money

In Facebook post, Mai Skaf blasts Hezbollah leader over his support for Assad, demands terror group return contribution she made to 'Lebanese brethren' during war with Israel

Roi Kais|Published: 02.22.12 , 21:56

Syrian theater actress Mai Skaf has waged an online war against Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah over his support for embattled president Bashar Assad and demanded that he return the 100,000 liras she had collected "for our Lebanese brethren who fled the July 2006 war to Syria."

The famous actress, 43, wrote on her Facebook page that during the war with Israel she bought Lebanese nationals "TV sets and satellite dishes to follow what was happening in their country, and bought their children shoes and pajamas.”

"Now I am telling Hassan Nasrallah that I regret doing that and I want him to either withdraw his thugs from Syria or give me back my money,” she said.

Skaf (center) during peaceful anti-Assad rally in Damascus

Hezbollah responded by saying that Nasrallah asked his aides to contact the actress's associates in order to get details about the money she donated and the items she bought for refugees from southern Lebanon during the war.

“Hezbollah will return the exact amounts and the items to the actress,” a Hezbollah figure said in an online statement on the news website al-Haqeeqa, which is affiliated with the Lebanese terror group.

According to the statement, Nasrallah asked Sheikh Abdul Karim, Obeid head of the group’s Social Unit, to contact the relevant authorities in Syria and obtain Skaf’s address in order to send the money and “a box of children’s pajamas and shoes.”

The Hezbollah figure said the Shiite group's members were enraged at Skaf’s statements "because they did not expect that a Syrian would shame the resistance in south Lebanon in such a manner."

He stressed that Hezbollah "will not allow anyone to mock the children of south Lebanon – who defeated Israel – and present them as people who begged for a refrigerator, shoes and clothes. We thank the artist for her contribution, though some of the funds came from the Syrian Ministry of Information, not out of her pocket."

Skaf responded by telling the Al-Arabiya network “I do not want anything to be returned to me. This money should be given to Syrian refugees in Lebanon. This is the least Hezbollah can do for our people.”

The actress said she would remain committed to supporting refugees: “If the same tragedy happens with the Lebanese or the Palestinians, I will be the first one to collect donations for them. This is my duty.”