Conversations with the supporters of Hezbollah
About Resistance and Disarmament
In Palestine and Lebanon
Posted By
Dr. Irum Shiekh As I traveled from the airport to downtown Beirut in mid September 2006, I noticed large “Divine Victory” billboards mounted along both sides of the freeway. Written in English, French, and Arabic, these colorful posters displayed multiple messages. One sign praised the heroic fighters of Hezbollah. Another one criticized the Israeli bombings and implicated the US in the killing of over 1,000 innocent children, by juxtaposing the pictures of dead children with phrases like “Made in the US” and “Extremely Precise Targets.” While the billboards communicated multiple meanings to the area’s diverse ethnic and religious population, the underlying messages connecting them were resoundingly clear: we are victorious and the civilian deaths and suffering in Lebanon resulted from US support for Israel.
Three months ago, I went to Palestine to study Arabic. After the war began between Israel and Hezbollah, I noticed a surge in Hezbollah’s popularity in Palestine. Artistic renderings, photographs of Syed Nasser Ullah (secretary general of Hezbollah) and Hezbollah banners became everyday sights in Ramallah. I saw posters comparing him to Jesus, Ché and Hugo Chavez. Hezbollah’s ability to stop Israeli soldiers had inspired the general public on the Palestinian streets. I heard Hezbollah songs, like the one which calls Nasser Ullah ‘the bird of victory’ blasting from loudspeakers in stalls along Al-Manara, in Ramallah, and at wedding and engagement parties. Palestinians, who are predominantly Sunni, celebrated Hezbollah despite the fact that it’s mainly a Shiite political party. At the same time, close by in Iraq, the bloody conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis were the subject of daily news. Again, I thought about the role of American and British policy in developing nations. In Iraq’s case, the intervention had polarized religious communities, which, off and on, had been living relatively peacefully, side-by-side, for hundreds of years.
In the West Bank I talked to educators, politicians, activists, and the general public about their support for Hezbollah. After hearing some of their reasons, I wanted to know what the Lebanese were thinking of Hezbollah, especially those who had lost their homes to the war or had lost loved ones due to fighting or bombing. To understand the meaning, purpose, and significance of the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, I traveled to Lebanon.
With the help of Samidoun, (an Arabic word for ‘steadfastness’) a group of local young Lebanese volunteers working to reconstruct the South, I was able to visit the border towns of the South. Samidoun emerged right after the war when the non-governmental agencies and the central government were slow to respond to civilian emergency needs. This group provided basic shelter, food and medical care for people displaced from the South. Traveling with them, I stayed in abandoned and damaged homes for several days. Many times after a hard day of work, these young volunteers came back to a damaged home that didn’t have electricity or running water. They slept on the floor and got the up the next day to do it all over again.
In the destroyed villages of the South, local people wanted to show the world their homes, businesses, schools and mosques, which had become the targets of Israeli bombs. While taking photos and videos, I also elicited their opinions about the purpose of Hezbollah, the outcome of the war, resistance to Israel, and about Hezbollah’s disarmament.
As a woman, when I met with men who identified themselves as Hezbollah, they placed their right hand on the left side of their chest and slightly bowed their heads with the word Assalam-Al-Alaikam, signaling that they’d prefer not to shake hands with a woman, a Muslim tradition for some observers. A few of them asked, “Do the people in the US really consider us terrorists?” I gave an affirmative reply. They looked surprised. I asked one of them, “What do you want the American public to do?” One woman responded, “Tell them to come and live with us. They will understand why are we fighting.”
While there was destruction in other parts of Lebanon, the most heavily hit areas were those with large Shiite populations, especially in the South and Dahieh, a neighborhood south of Beirut. Three things stood out: the absolute destruction, the reconstruction work, and the Hezbollah banners along with the Nasser Ullah pictures.
As I walked through the rubble of demolished homes, markets, schools and mosques, it felt like a big earthquake had hit the area. Thick dust from demolition and reconstruction swirled in the air. Traffic, heavy due to the closure of many streets, contributed to the chaos. One young man from Dahieh gave me a tour of his neighborhood and told me, “I returned back to my home right after the ceasefire. I saw so much debris on the streets that it was hard to walk. Large apartment buildings, stores, clinics, offices, everything was down. I grew up in the neighborhood and knew every street. Every corner had a story for me. Now I could not recognize anything. I just started to cry.” Later he added, “You did not come right after the ceasefire. You did not see anything.”
In Aaita ech Chaab, a village in south Lebanon, I stood in the middle of a square, which used to have hundreds of houses and a busy market. Now, everything was leveled. One young man was pulling out his belongings from the piles of rubble that used to be his home. We asked him how he recognized his home. He pointed to a half burned tree that he used as a benchmark. A young local girl who had followed us to that abandoned area showed us the place where Hezbollah captured Israeli soldiers. It was just a mountain away. Later she remarked, “Israeli are criminals.”
Close to this desolate area, the noise of bulldozers, dust from the demolition of homes, large trucks moving rubble from destroyed homes to landfills, and the laborers working on construction sites demonstrated that the reconstruction was in full swing. Less damaged stores had been rebuilt and were open for business. Many times I saw a single store open in a building and the rest of the stores were damaged and closed. Broken glass windows and blown out doors did not stop the flow of life. In one of the damaged houses that I visited, I found two women making traditional bread on a big oven in one of the rooms. When I opened the back door of the room, I encountered a big crane destroying the rest of the house, and saw a child on a small bike watching the destruction of his home. Seeing young children playing in the dust and rubble made me concerned about exposure to hazardous chemicals from the Israeli bombs.
Last year I had the opportunity to visit Pakistan after the large earthquake hit the north. Four months after the earthquake, refugees from the north were still living in white tents and haggling for the basic necessities of life. I also read about New Orleans where a year after Katrina, people were still waiting for reconstruction. In contrast to the Katrina disaster, in South Lebanon I witnessed representatives from Jihad al-Bina (Struggle for Construction), a welfare offshoot of Hezbollah, present in almost every village. Engineers had already completed surveys for each village and after making damage assessments had marked each home with a number. Bulldozers and cranes were working to clear the streets in order to resume traffic flow and were demolishing homes to prepare sites for reconstruction. One representative from Jihad al-Bina told me that they were already working on the reconstruction plans during the war and jumped into the field as soon as the cease-fire was signed. Compared to Hezbollah, the central government was a bit slow to proceed in the reconstruction efforts. Individuals living in the destroyed villages knew that they were receiving aid primarily from Hezbollah.
The reconstruction assistance from Hezbollah uplifted the local people because they did not feel abandoned. I saw individuals rebuilding their homes and they articulated a sense of optimism. Many times they smiled when I asked about their damaged/destroyed houses and they told me, “Inshallah (God willing), it will be rebuilt, not a problem.” At this time, they were happy for having been able to halt Israel.
This welfare assistance serves as the glue between Hezbollah and the local community in the South and other impoverished neighborhoods of Beirut. Historically, these predominately Shiite Muslim areas were neglected by the central government until Hezbollah opened schools, built roads and provided other basic infrastructure. This is one of the major reasons that Hezbollah thrives in the South and in the other impoverished areas of Lebanon. Thousands of people receiving help on an individual basis feel that Hezbollah provides them the basic necessities of life as well as security from Israel. Each village has Hezbollah representatives that the locals can go and talk to. These local representatives know the needs of the community and diligently work to fulfill them. In many ways, Hezbollah acts like a local government and the locals have found them more trustworthy and reliable than the central government. This focus on welfare provides the backbone for Hezbollah’s political support.
A spirit of victory prevailed in the south signified by green and yellow Hezbollah flags and banners and photos of Nasser Ullah. From a statistical point of view, the complete destruction and deaths of over 1,000 civilians did not signify victory so I asked the locals specific questions about the outcome of the war. The overwhelming majority of individuals living in the South felt that they were victorious because they were able to fight against the Israeli army for thirty-three days with limited means. At the end, Israel was unable to free their soldiers and had to go back to its borders with additional loss of soldiers and civilians. Locals were proud of Hezbollah fighters who in Ben Jbail and in many other southern villages demonstrated their skills in guerilla warfare and fearlessly fought against Israel’s sophisticated weaponry. They felt that the fighters were able to stop the “New Middle East Plan.” Now both the US and Israel had to go back to the drawing board to rethink their next strategy.
It seemed that the people felt a sense of moral victory over Israel. Waving and wearing Hezbollah flags, the locals told me stories of hiding in their homes during the war, women cooking food for the fighters and young men delivering messages between fighters. The sister of a fighter proudly quoted military analysts who were surprised that Hezbollah was able to fight for thirty-three days. One woman said, “I can go to Aaita ech Chaab. I can still go to the South without any checkpoints. It is a victory for me.”
Before my trip to Lebanon, I had spent three months in Palestine where I also noticed a similar sentiment of victory for Hezbollah. Of course Israel being a common enemy was the primary reason, but more than that accounted for Hezbollah’s popularity. One local professor told me, “Watch and see, something important will come out of this war. Israel learns to negotiate only after it is vulnerable. The war in Lebanon had shown that Israel is not as mighty as it has been trying to prove. This is not only a victory for Lebanon, it is an important victory for Palestine and for the entire Middle East.”
On the day of ceasefire, Israeli planes dropped leaflets in Lebanon blaming Hezbollah for starting the war so I asked several individuals if they thought Hezbollah had started the war by capturing two soldiers. One woman explained that the South has had a long-standing relationship with Israel. Israel can’t blame Hezbollah for starting the war. The capture of the two soldiers was a military operation and in response Israel could have targeted Hezbollah military areas. Instead, Israel chose to kill civilians and children. Another man recalled the prisoner exchange in the year 2000 when, after Hezbollah captured soldiers, Israel freed many of the long-term prisoners of Lebanon and Palestine. He said, “Israel responded so severely this time because Israel had a new plan for the Middle East.” He added that since the war there is a deeper hatred towards Israel and the United States and greater support for Hezbollah. I heard similar comments in Palestine and Egypt. I wondered whether Israel has been successful in eradicating Hezbollah or in making them stronger.
The unanimous reason for the armed struggle from the supporters of Hezbollah is the aggression of Israel. One young man sitting in front of his destroyed home in South Lebanon said, “In the United States, they don’t ask why Hezbollah captured the soldiers.” He further explained, “Israel has a bloody history with Lebanon and that is the only reason that we have Hezbollah here. If Israel stops arresting our people and occupying our land and we have a strong government to protect us, there is no need for Hezbollah.”
One young woman differentiated between national and local armies and said, in the past, “Tribes used to defend their lands with their local armies. Today, it is legitimate to fight with national armies but not with tribal armies. Lebanon does not have a strong army and therefore Hezbollah has to stand up to defend its land against Israeli occupation. The people of the South as a tribe have established the legitimacy of Hezbollah. In the west, Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization but when you come to the south you find out that everyone here has some connection to Hezbollah. He is the father, the son, and the brother of each family. He is not someone from the outside hiding in the South to fight for outside interests. It is Israel’s constant attacks on the land that are making people in the South support Hezbollah.” Individuals that I talked to were not in support of Hezbollah’s disarmament and felt that in the absence of Hezbollah, they would be subject to Israeli aggression, attacks, and occupation.
I personally noted a few recent examples of Israeli aggression after the official ceasefire of August 14,th which continue to fuel the sentiment of distrust between the two nations. For example, Israeli soldiers remained within Lebanese borders, sporadically set up temporary checkpoints along border towns and forced locals to show their identity cards. On September 28, I saw Israeli soldiers at the Marvan border scolding a Lebanese journalist who wanted to document their presence with a photograph. A UN representative reported that Israeli surveillance planes continue to cross Lebanese airspace. Of course they use the pretext of security; however, many locals felt that the presence of Israeli soldiers within Lebanon is a security issue for Lebanon. One man close to the Marouahine border who opposed the disarmament of Hezbollah, recalled his experience with the temporary Israeli checkpoint and said, “If there is no resistance, Israel will be in Beirut.” He looked at me and said, “If there is no resistance, you won’t be here, I won’t be here. We need resistance to stop Israel.”
I heard similar sentiments in the West Bank where many individuals explained the importance of resistance by comparing the situation in Gaza to Lebanon. On June 25th a militant group in Gaza captured an Israeli solider and since then Israel has deprived the entire population of food, water, and electricity. Compared to Gaza, after a similar operation in Lebanon, Israel found strong resistance from Hezbollah fighters and agreed to a ceasefire. Many Palestinians noted that the international community was asking the United Nations to stop the war in Lebanon, but no one was paying attention to Gaza. People in Lebanon agreed that the international community has been callous towards Palestine, but went on to explain also that Israel, the United States and the international community were interested in a ceasefire only after Hezbollah fighters fought back hard. If Hezbollah had not fought back, Lebanon could have been under occupation today. Israel, with US backing, fought Hezbollah, thinking that it was going to be an easy victory. Later they planned to move towards Syria, and then Iran. Hezbollah fighters demonstrated that they would not let Israel and the US impose their agenda on Lebanon.
These fighters were hailed as heroes. At the entrance of each village, I saw large posters of martyrs decorated with banners and flags in highly visible areas. Some of them were artistic renderings and some were photographs of young and middle aged Lebanese men. I visited a family of a martyr in the South. Dressed in complete black, this young woman was calm and confident. Throughout our conversation, she did not cry or express any sadness. She explained that the purpose of Hezbollah is to defend its land and the people within its border. Disarmament is not possible at this time since the Israeli army is still within the borders aiming at the people and the land. Hezbollah can only be dissolved once the Lebanese army is strong enough to protect the land and the people. Talking about her brother she said that the fighters are exceptional people. Not everyone can be a fighter. Individuals who have strong commitments, initiative, and desire to make a change can become fighters. She said, “My brother was always active, and ready to help the others. He had a full and happy life and he led it with a reason and a purpose. It was his duty to drive the enemy out of the border, not because he wanted violence.”
Later I talked to a Hezbollah Sheikh who also told me that the fighters come from a wide variety of professions. “They are educated individuals, like architects, engineers, doctors and professionals. They fight because they have a purpose. After the fight, they will go back to their normal lives and will work with the community. They are proud of them.” Another man from South Lebanon said that Hezbollah fighters are fearless because they fight to save their land from occupation and they are not afraid of death. It is a victory if they live and it is a victory if they die. The Israeli side is different. Growing up and living in fear will not allow Israeli soldiers to fight with the same motivation. One Palestinian leader based in Lebanon was in favor of guerilla fighting like Hezbollah as compared to the current Palestinian resistance. He said that guerilla fighting Hezbollah style was effective and that the Palestinians could learn from them. He thought that some of the Palestinian groups’ tendency to wave guns in the street was counterproductive.
In the West Bank, for many Palestinians, Hezbollah fighters gave them perspective on their own resistance. One pointed out that, “Hezbollah fighters are not committing suicide bombing anymore because they have arms and they can fight.” Another man considered suicide bombings as the last resort for realizing political goals and said, “Suicide bombing wouldn’t give us the freedom, yet they work as pressure points. They make Israel listen to us. They create fear in the Israeli public since suicide bombers can strike anywhere. Of course it is articulated in the name of religion for multiple reasons, including the fact that religion provides a dedication for individuals to be able to carry out the operation at higher moral grounds. Under Israel occupation, it is the only weapon left for us. Our cause is alive only because we resist, otherwise, the world will forget us and we will become the forgotten people of Golan Heights” (the Syrian area under Israeli occupation which has increasingly become a forgotten cause for everyone including the Syrian government). I challenged him and said that, at the international level, suicide bombing is not helping the Palestinian cause. He quickly responded that it is working within the regional politics. “Israel listens to Palestinians and they know that. It may not be working in the international community, but who cares about the international community?” He continued, “What have we received from the international community…more settlements, more checkpoints and more walls? Let them continue to portray us the way they want. We know that suicide bombing works for us and we will use it until we have strength like Hezbollah to fight with arms and kick Israel out from our land”.
While most Palestinians were in favor of resistance, both peaceful and armed to end Israeli occupation, they were against violence and killing to promote a certain political or religious ideology. For example, one young Palestinian woman called Al-Qaeda a terrorist organization and said, “Usama Bin Ladin was working with the United States for years in Afghanistan and never uttered the name of Palestine. The cause of Palestine only became important when he turned against the US and wanted to gather support from the Muslim world.” For her, the attacks of September 11 and other international violence targeting civilians for a specific ideology were terrorism. Compared to Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah is fighting within its own borders against a foreign occupation, which is similar to the Palestinian resistance, and therefore she supported Hezbollah.
Similarly, another woman who was a member of a Palestinian resistance force during the 1970s and spent five years in an Israeli prison told me that she supports Hezbollah’s resistance to end the occupation of Sheba farms in Lebanon and to free their long-held prisoners. She said, “During World War II, when Nazi Germany occupied France, the French resisted through armed struggles and the allied forced were supporting them. We are resisting a foreign occupation and the world has just reduced our efforts to terrorism. Tell me what is the difference.”
Another Palestinian educator deconstructed the term “terrorist” associated with Hezbollah and Palestinian fighters by recalling the way Native Americans were denounced as “savages” and “barbarians” by the Europeans in the United States a few hundred years ago. Today, after forcing the native populations to live on the reservations, mainstream America acknowledges that their forefathers perpetrated genocide on the native populations and suffers a bit from a guilt complex. However, he pointed out, “American society is continuing to support a similar genocide of the native populations living in Palestine and Lebanon by supporting Israel. Whenever the native populations of these areas resist the occupation, they are called ‘terrorists’.”
Today, I look at the countless pictures that I gathered from the West Bank and Lebanon. I note complete destruction of homes, businesses and other public areas in South Lebanon yet the people in these areas are vibrant, optimistic and full of energy. They may have lost their homes but not their hope. They were able to stop the Israeli soldiers at the cost of lives and property, and this ability to resist gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride. Compared to Lebanon, the overwhelming majority of people in the West Bank communicated a sense of hopelessness to me. Living under fifty plus years of occupation and, after having tried peace negotiations, the Oslo agreement as well as armed resistance, nothing has ended their occupation.
As I am writing this article five months after the capture of an Israeli solider in Gaza, the area is still under siege and most of the democratically elected parliament members of the Palestinian government are in jail. Compared to this dismal situation, in South Lebanon, a ceasefire has been signed. Today the fact that Israel is out of Lebanon and not out of Gaza shows the power of resistance. Hezbollah with its strong resistance was able to stop Israeli attacks and it is the only reason that the overwhelming majority of people living in the South cannot even begin to think of Hezbollah’s disarmament.
The Bush administration began rethinking its war strategy in Iraq only after the American military suffered heavy causalities. Before that, they were touting the slogan of “democracy in the Middle East” and were ignoring all calls to end the occupation of Iraq. I predict that if the resistance in Iraq continues, America will be out of Iraq soon. However, by doing so what is the lesson that we are teaching to the world? If you have larger arms, we will respect you. If you are an easy target, we will completely walk all over you. Many people in the Middle East told me that the United States attacked Iraq only because the administration knew that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction. The more lenient attitude towards North Korea and Iran reflects that the Bush administration is hesitant to start a war with a nation with nuclear capabilities.
Today, many of the developing nations are spending large amounts of their resources on acquiring weapons and developing nuclear arms. Like Lebanon, leaders of these countries like Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela, believe that without the political muscle of arms possession, they will buckle under US pressure or they will become another Afghanistan, Palestine or Iraq, dominated by US military power. Through our aggressive military strategies, we are teaching the developing world to engage in violence and spend their precious resources on arms development. Our policies are spreading the arms race to the rest of the world. We need to be peaceful if we want peace in the world.
Irum Shiekh can be reached through info@progressivefilms.org
*The views expressed herein are of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect views/policies of Progressive Films.
