BEIRUT: Lebanon tasked the security forces on Wednesday with investigating a meeting between influential Lebanese Christian businessman Antoun Sehnaoui and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lebanese law criminalises contact with Israel. The countries began direct talks under US sponsorship in April, a month after clashes erupted between Israel and Hezbollah.

Sehnaoui and former US envoy Morgan Ortagus hosted a dinner attended by high-profile officials, including Netanyahu, in Washington on Monday night.

The dinner was in memory of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on July 11.

An accompanying photo showing Sehnaoui and Netanyahu at the same table sparked uproar on social media in Lebanon across the political spectrum.

A Lebanese judicial official said the public prosecutor had tasked the security forces “with opening an investigation into the photo” to establish “whether it is authentic”.

The “appropriate legal procedures” will be taken based on the outcome of the investigation, the official added. In another image posted on Netanyahu’s X account, Sehnaoui is visible behind the Israeli premier.

The judicial official said several lawyers had also submitted a report demanding “the prosecution of Sehnaoui for crimes related to dealing with Israel and communicating with Netanyahu”.

The prosecutor is to examine the matter and decide whether to refer it to a military court.

Sehnaoui, who is in favour of normalising ties with Israel, is chairman of Lebanon’s SGBL bank and associated with media outlets. He is also a movie producer and philanthropist.

Lebanese lawyer Wassef El Harakeh said he had lodged a personal complaint against Sehnaoui for “dealing with the enemy”, saying the matter required a “serious, transparent judicial investigation, free of any political, financial or clientelist immunity”.

In April, at an event at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in which Sehnaoui was recognised as a donor, Ortagus said Sehnaoui and his family “come from generations of committed Lebanese Christian Zionists”, according to footage of the event.

“I’m going to brag on him because I love him. What Antoun is doing today is technically illegal in Lebanon,” she said, in reference to Lebanese laws banning contact with Israel.

Lawyers seek probe

A group of Lebanese lawyers filed a complaint with the country’s top prosecutor on Wednesday requesting an investigation into Antoun Sehnaoui over the dinner with Netanyahu.

The document accused Sehnaoui of “communicating with the Israeli enemy”, one of the complainants, lawyer Mohamad Amer Al Haj Hassan, told reporters.

In a post on X, Lebanese lawmaker Halima Kaakour called Sehnaoui’s meeting with Netanyahu a “major moral and national crisis” at a time when Israeli troops continue to occupy Lebanese land.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2026