Hezbollah

Hezbollah (Arabic حزب الله Hizbullah, DMG Ḥizb Allāh 'Party of God', also spelled Hezbollah, Hizbollah or Hizb-Allah) is an Islamist Shiite party and militia in Lebanon. As a "state within a state", Hezbollah controls Lebanon not only militarily through its militia, but also politically through its party.

It emerged from 1982 as a paramilitary organization operating from the underground through the merger of various Shiite groups in resistance to the Israeli invasion at the time. It was officially founded in 1985. The organization's strongholds are in the south of Lebanon, in the Bekaa Plain and in southern Beirut. It is headed by Shiite scholars; the supreme spiritual authority is considered to be the Revolutionary Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Sejjed Ali Khamene'i. The secretary-general and commander-in-chief of the Hezbollah militia is Hassan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah has also been represented in the Lebanese National Assembly since 1992. Since then, it has developed into a military, social and political power factor. Following the 2018 parliamentary elections, Hezbollah holds 13 seats, which is about 10 % of the members of parliament, and has been represented in several Lebanese government cabinets.

Hezbollah is responsible for numerous attacks against the Israeli army. Its involvement is assumed in many other attacks against Jewish or Western, mainly US-American, institutions worldwide.

History

Origin

Hezbollah emerged in the course of various splits in the political movements of the Shiites in Lebanon. In 1974, a Shiite cleric, Imam Musa as-Sadr, organized a movement of the underprivileged to improve their social situation. This movement later developed into Lebanon's main political party, called Amal. During the Lebanese civil war from 1975 to 1990, the movement built its own militia, the Amal militia. In 1978, however, Musa as-Sadr disappeared in Libya, and the initially leaderless party came under the influence of Iran, which had just deposed Shah Reza Pahlavi in its Islamicrevolution. In the course of the civil war, parts of Amal became radicalized. In 1981, Islamic Amal split off, followed shortly afterwards by Hezbollah under the leadership of Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah.

In 1982, shortly after the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, Iranian troops actively intervened in the Lebanese civil war following a fatwa proclaimed by the Ayatollah Khomeini in favor of the Shiite militias. The approximately 1500 Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guards), initially stationed in the Sheikh Abdullah barracks in Baalbek, were to export the Iranian-style Islamic revolution to Lebanon (revolution export). They organized in the Bekaa Plain near the Syrian border, where the first Pasdaran training camps were established. The Iranian fighters, who from then on called themselves Hezbollah, which is named after the so-called Hezbollahi (Khomeini supporters) during the Iranian revolution, recruited mostly young Lebanese for guerrilla operations and suicide squads, following the example of the Basich volunteer militia. From them were formed the groups that later merged into Hezbollah. They were recruited mostly from former members of the Shiite Amal militia and from several smaller groups such as the Houssein Suicide Squad, Jundollah (Army of God), the Islamic Students Union and members of the Lebanese Dawa Party. Among the organization's first founders and activists was the prayer leader Raghib Harb (d. 1984) from Jibsheet in southern Lebanon, who preached against the Israeli occupation and Zionism.

The first commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Abbas Zamani (Abu Sharif), Mostafa Chamran, who had previously participated in the training of the Amal militia and the first battles, as well as Ayatollah Ali Akbar Mohtashami and later Ali-Reza Asgari as coordinator, were actively involved in the formation, financing and founding of the organization, which only officially appeared in 1985 under the name Hezbollah.

Starting in 1985, heavy fighting broke out between Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Amal, which in turn was supported by Syria. Amal had previously attacked the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila with heavy weapons, killing numerous civilians. Hezbollah presented these attacks, also often referred to as massacres, as the reason for fighting with Amal. However, it is widely believed that power rivalry between the two Shiite militias was at least as important a motive. Hezbollah established two bases in Baalbek and al-Hirmil in the Bekaa Plain in 1985-86 and additional bases in the south, notably in Iqlīm at-Tuffāh near Sidon and the Palestinian camps, in 1989-90. Between 1988 and 1989, Hezbollah launched its major projects in the economic, social, educational, and medical fields to assist needy Shiites. The establishment of cooperatives, clinics, pharmacies, hospitals and sports facilities brought it many supporters.

Attacks and kidnappings in the 1980s

Hezbollah became known in the West primarily for attacks against the Israeli army. It carried out kidnappings of Israeli soldiers, hostage-taking and mortar attacks on territory and positions occupied by the Israeli military during its occupation of southern Lebanon.

Their involvement is believed in many other attacks against Jewish or Western, predominantly US, institutions around the world:

• In November 1982, two suicide bombers blew up an Israeli army command post in Tyros, Lebanon. This resulted in the deaths of 75 Israeli soldiers. In April 1983, a bombing at the US Embassy in Beirut killed 63 people. The following October, 58 French paratroopers and 241 US Marines were killed in the attack on the US base in Beirut. These were the first suicide bombings in the Middle East. The Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attacks at the time. Hezbollah officially denied responsibility for the attacks, claiming the organization did not even exist in 1983. However, Sheikh Subhi at-Tufaili later admitted that some of the first members of Hezbollah were indeed responsible.
• Controversially, 13 French citizens were killed in Hezbollah bombings in Paris in 1985 and 1986.
• In addition, the case of the Hezbollah member and airplane hijacker Mohammed Ali Hamadi, who was arrested on 13 January 1987 in Frankfurt am Main while smuggling explosives, caused a great stir.
• Hezbollah militants were also involved in the 1988 kidnapping of U.S. intelligence officer William R. Higgins, who was tortured to death during his captivity.

The suspected mastermind of many of these terrorist attacks was Abbas al-Musawi (c. 1952-1992), Nasrallah's predecessor, head of the military wing. He was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack in southern Lebanon on February 16, 1992, along with his wife, son, and four others. Another person blamed for numerous attacks and kidnappings was Imad Mughniyah (1962-2008), co-founder and intelligence chief of Hezbollah. He himself was later killed in an attack.

As an anti-Israeli militia and party after the end of the Lebanese Civil War.

Hezbollah was the only Lebanese militia to refuse to return its weapons after the Taif Accords in 1989. In the intra-Lebanese negotiations since the end of the civil war, it was provisionally granted this on the grounds that the purpose of its founding, ending the Israeli occupation, had not yet been fulfilled. Although Hezbollah had reservations about the Taif Accord, its leadership decided in 1991/92 to participate in political elections in the future. This also had to do with the fact that Amal had lost popularity at that time because of its soft stance towards Israel. In the 1992 parliamentary elections, Hezbollah won eight seats, four for Baalbek, one for Mount Lebanon, one for Beirut, and two for the south. After this success, the social composition of the organization also changed: whereas previously the Shiite lower class had been its main support, it subsequently became increasingly popular among Shiite businessmen, who saw it as a suitable vehicle for political representation. In the late 1990s, engineers became the most important professional group within Hezbollah, and most of the merchants of Beirut's southern suburbs also joined the party. There was also reconciliation with the Amal militia. Since then, their political wings have worked closely together, even forming joint electoral lists.

In the 1990s, Hezbollah made a name for itself in the West primarily as a terrorist organization. In 1992, it carried out an attack on the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, in which 22 people died. In 1994, another attack took place, also in Argentina's capital. In this attack on a Jewish center, 85 people died. For this reason, in October 2006, Argentine prosecutors brought charges against former Hezbollah foreign security chief Imad Fajes Mughnieh, as well as Iranian ex-president Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Hezbollah also became known as a supporter of training guerrilla fighters in northern Albania in the 1990s.

To stop Hezbollah's shelling of northern Israel, Israeli forces launched Operation Fruits of Wrath in April 1996. In response, some 200,000 Shiites were forced to flee the area. In 1997 Subhi at-Tufaili, former secretary-general of Hezbollah, who had split from the more moderate wing under Nasrallah, launched a campaign of civil disobedience against the government of Rafiq al-Hariri in the Bekaa Plain under the name "Revolution of the Hungry" (ṯaurat al-ǧiyāʿ), which was directed against his economic policies. In 1998 he had armed confrontations with both the Lebanese army and Hezbollah.

Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon as a "victory" for Hezbollah

In the late 1990s, Hasan Nasrallah pursued an ambitious plan against the Israeli army that led to Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000. Hezbollah celebrated this event as "their" victory. After the end of the civil war and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah repeatedly attacked military bases in northern Israel and in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms. These were originally in Syrian territory and were annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Syria claims to have ceded these territories to Lebanon in the meantime. In the process, 14 Israeli soldiers, 7 civilians and one UN soldier had been killed and 7 people abducted by the outbreak of the Lebanon War in 2006.

On 29 January 2004, after several years of negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah, an exchange of prisoners was achieved under the mediation of the BND, during which the mortal remains of three Israeli soldiers were also handed over. Parts of the handover took place at Cologne/Bonn Airport.

Consolidation of the position as a Shiite party

Around the middle of the new decade, Hezbollah expanded its political agitation and gained greater popular support, becoming an integral part of the Lebanese party landscape. In the 2005 parliamentary election, it won 14 seats in the Lebanese parliament, while the allied Amal won 9. Support for the Palestinians has been an important part of Hezbollah's program since its founding.

The March 14 Alliance, formed after the assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005 and supported by the US and the EU, tried to force Hezbollah to hand over its weapons. The protecting power of the Lebanese Sunnis, Saudi Arabia, contributed to the financing of this alliance. Sunni fighters were reportedly trained in Jordan. In this situation, Hezbollah intensified its alliance with its former adversary Nabih Berri, the chairman of the Amal militia. In February 2006, Hezbollah also formed an alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement party of Christian politician Michel Aoun. In this way, the so-called March 8 Alliance was formed.

Lebanon War 2006

The abduction of two Israeli soldiers on July 12, 2006, triggered fierce military strikes by Israel against Lebanon. The incident occurred on the border between Israel and Lebanon. The circumstances are disputed between the parties to the conflict. According to Lebanese police, it happened near Aita Al-Schaab in Lebanese territory. Members of Hezbollah had confronted a group of Israeli soldiers there. The soldiers entered Lebanese territory in an armored vehicle. Eight were killed, two were taken prisoner. According to Israeli television, however, it happened on Israeli territory. It said a Hezbollah group had advanced there, killing eight Israeli soldiers and kidnapping two. According to Amnesty International, Hezbollah committed a breach of international law in this war when it "deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects in Israel or failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets."

Israel saw this as an act of war and responded with military strikes. Numerous civilians were also killed in these strikes, although a not insignificant number of them are said to have served as human shields for Hezbollah, according to Israeli sources. As a result of UN Resolution 1701, a ceasefire came into effect at 7:00 a.m. CEST on August 14, ending the war. After the outbreak of the Lebanon War in 2006, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, Jan Egeland, also accused Hezbollah of "cowardly mingling with women and children" and thus sharing responsibility for the high civilian casualty figures in Israeli military operations.

Through the war, Hezbollah was able to consolidate its image as a resistance movement in broad sections of the Lebanese population. Thus, not only Sunni religious leaders spoke out in its favor afterwards, but even Christians in Lebanon and Syria. Other Lebanese groups condemned Hezbollah's "glorification" of death and martyrdom.

The attempted disempowerment of the March 14 Alliance

When it became clear that the government of Fuad Siniora (July 2005-July 2008) wanted to enforce the UN Security Council decision to disarm Hezbollah and hold an international tribunal, the Islamists and their allies held a sit-in in Beirut in December 2006 that attracted more than 800,000 Lebanese. The government then refrained from forcibly disarming Hezbollah.

In the spring of 2008, the March 14 Alliance, with the support of the government and the United States, attempted to destroy the telecommunications network established by Hezbollah and to secure the dismissal of the head of security at Beirut Airport, who was accused of having ties to Hezbollah. Hezbollah militiamen then occupied the western part of Beirut. Fighting broke out in the Shuf Mountains and in Tripoli in northern Lebanon, leaving more than 100 dead. Only the intervention of the army was able to resolve the crisis.

Role in the Syrian Civil War (from 2011) and new attacks on Israel

During the Syrian civil war, tens of thousands of Syrians fled to Lebanon. In April 2013, Nasrallah confirmed for the first time in a televised speech the deployment of Hezbollah forces in the Syrian civil war on the side of government troops. He justified this by citing attacks by Syrian insurgents on Lebanese border villages and announced retaliation if the Shiite Sayyida Zeinab shrine in Damascus was damaged. Walid Jumblat, the Druze leader of Lebanon's Socialist Progressive Party (PSP) accused Hezbollah of committing a blatant mistake "on an ethical as well as political level" by supporting the Syrian regime. Jumblat calls for arms deliveries to the insurgents organized in the Free Syrian Army.

On 28 January 2015, at 11:30 local time, Hezbollah struck a ZAHAL vehicle with an anti-tank missile fired from Lebanese territory, killing two soldiers and injuring at least another seven.

According to the Bulgarian authorities, Hezbollah is also allegedly behind the suicide bombing in Burgas, Bulgaria, on July 18, 2012. Five Israeli tourists and the Bulgarian driver were killed. In addition, 30 people were injured. According to former Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, two suspects, including the bomber, belonged to the armed Hezbollah arm. The Bulgarian opposition complained that the decision to already officially accuse Hezbollah was made under "pressure".

Role during the 2019 protests in Lebanon and in the formation of a new government (2019/20).

Ex-minister Hassan Diab had been able to rally the majority of MPs behind him in December 2019 and was tasked with forming a technocratic government and dealing with Lebanon's financial and economic crisis. He had been proposed by Hezbollah and other pro-Syrian and pro-Iranian forces, which in itself is tricky because the post of prime minister is reserved for a Sunni in Lebanon's system of concordance, Maximilian Felsch, a political scientist at Haigazian University in Beirut, told Deutschlandfunk radio. Hezbollah official Sheikh Mohammed Amro said at the end of 2019 that Hezbollah supported the formation of a government of "specialists": "The government must involve specialists in order to obtain parliamentary approval and carry out its work in the face of regional and international complications."

Situation after the killing of Qasem Soleimani

In a speech in which Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah reacted to the killing of Qasem Soleimani on January 5, 2020, he called the event a milestone that separated two eras in the region. It is not just a new era in the history of Iran or Iraq, but for the entire region, he said. All allies must now work together, he said, with the goal of ousting American forces from the entire region.

Role during the Covid 19 pandemic in Lebanon 2020

In the context of the 2020 Covid 19 pandemic, Hezbollah was criticized for its close relations with Iran. It was accused of preventing the Lebanese government from stopping early entries from Iran when the outbreak of the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in Iran had already been confirmed. In this way, Hezbollah brought pilgrims and students from various parts of Iran back to Lebanon and quarantined them on its own authority, bypassing the Lebanese health authorities in the areas under its control.

Hezbollah went on to try to salvage its damaged reputation by disinfecting streets and distributing food to the poor. Hezbollah also had the St. George Hospital in Beirut cleared for Corona virus patients and promised to cover the costs of each patient admitted there.

Smoke cloud after the attack on the US Marine headquarters in Lebanon. Hezbollah is blamed by the US for the attack, October 23, 1983.


The Hezbollah-controlled areas in July 2006

Ideology and objective

Understanding of the State

In the spirit of its supreme spiritual leader, Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, Hezbollah sees itself as a community of all believing Muslims working for the realization of the Islamic state under the rule of religious jurists. The ideological goal from the 1980s to the mid-1990s was aligned with the Iranian model of Islamic theocracy, which borrowed heavily from so-called Khomeinism. The declared goal was thus an "Islamic revolution" in Lebanon, which is still expressed as a slogan on the Hezbollah flag. In Khomeini Hezbollah saw the representative of the Hidden Imam, who belongs to the religious image of the Imamite Shiites, and who would one day come as saviour to save the world. Hezbollah pursued a pan-Islamic idea across all state borders. As the first in Lebanon Hezbollah spoke in the sense of Fadlallah of the foundation of an Islamic state in its homeland and openly professed the elimination of the Christian population living there. As a social component, Hezbollah also called for "social justice", the "liberation of Lebanon" and the "fight against foreign oppression".

In its 1996 election program, Hezbollah defines its goals in seven points. In the first place, the "resistance against the occupation" is mentioned. The second stated goal is the "achievement of equality" and the "establishment of a just state". The other points deal with issues of the economy, education, social and health services, and foreign policy. An Islamic theocracy is no longer a party goal. Instead, Hezbollah calls for reform of the confessional system. Likewise, it recognizes the freedom to practice religious customs and training. The party has thus officially distanced itself from its program published in 1985 during the civil war, which was strongly oriented toward the writings of Khomeini. Its participation in the first parliamentary elections after the end of the civil war and its participation in the government with equal sectarian representation were also seen as signs of a move away from theocracy as a goal.

Fight against Israel and the USA

Hezbollah's militias see themselves in the role of protectors against Israel, especially in view of the weak Lebanese army. Following the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Hezbollah's stated immediate goal is to reclaim the territorially disputed Shebaa Farms, a tiny border area of 14 farms occupied by Israel. Israel's withdrawal is considered incomplete by Hezbollah because Lebanon considers the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms Lebanese territory. The UN considers them Syrian territory, while Syria has publicly stated that they are Lebanese territory.

However, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has made it clear that his organization will not accept the existence of a Jewish state in general and will continue to fight until Israel's targeted destruction. Thus, Hezbollah supporters refuse to even call Israel by name, referring only to "the Zionist entity" or "the so-called Jewish state." In 2000, Nasrallah declared that it was a "corrupted bacteria and the mother of cunning" and had "no choice but death". In this stance he was also supported by Fadlallah, who also denies Israel's right to exist "because the neighboring state occupies Arab land." In its second political manifesto, promulgated by Nasrallah in November 2009, Hezbollah reaffirmed its jihadist impetus against Israel. The fight against Israel is thereby linked to a hatred of all Jews; Hezbollah's supporters do not differentiate between the state and religion. In 2017, Nasrallah gave a speech titled: "Write in blood 'Death to Israel,'" which went viral on social media. Hezbollah's discourse refers to Jews as "descendants of apes and pigs" and allusively mentions the march to Chaibar, a victorious campaign by Muslims under Muhammad against Jewish tribes. The idea of a Jewish world conspiracy and the originally Christian ritual murder legend are also elements of Hezbollah's anti-Semitic discourse.

Hezbollah is committed to the Palestinians. In August 2009, for example, its deputies in the Lebanese parliament voted to repeal state laws that discriminate against Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, stressing their right to work and to receive state social and health care.

For Fadlallah, a key element in achieving his goals was also to push back American influence. However, Fadlallah officially refused to continue the Islamic struggle in the USA, as was the case with the terrorist attacks in New York on September 11, 2001. Thus, he condemns the attacks of al-Qaeda as "not compatible with the Sharia [...] and the true Islamic jihad". For the Shiite Fadlallah, the fighters of the Sunni-influenced al-Qaeda are not martyrs, but "mere suicides". In May 2002, however, Fadlallah issued an Islamic legal opinion (fatwa) calling for a boycott of American products. Another fatwa he issued, dated August 12, 2002, forbade Muslims from participating in any military strike by the United States against Iraq.