Small Muslim Shiite unions began merging in 1982 after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. These extremists groups started calling themselves The “Party Of God”, or “Hezb’allah”. There is debate about when Hezbollah officially formed; some say that they were formed as supporters of Sheikh Ragheb Harb- the leader of southern Shiite resistance- after he was assassinated in February 1984 by Israel, and others state that Hezbollah existed in its entirety as early as 1982, when Palestinians including the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were ousted from Jordan and driven across the southern Lebanese border. Israel also invaded Lebanon in 1982 and some say that Hezbollah formed when Iran sent hundreds of men from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to train Muslim Shiites in Lebanon and help them organize a revolutionary movement against the invasion alongside the PLO.
Hezbollah gradually became known as a resistance party in support of the Palestinians when Israel started attacking Palestinians in southern Lebanon in 1982. People have said that the invasion was the catalyst for creating the group, which is strongly supported by Syria and Iran to this day. By 1991, the Hezbollah organization was the only armed militia in Lebanon that was not supported by Israel, and by 2000, it had replaced the defeated PLO.
Hezbollah grew to be the largest and most popular organization of its kind, but there also was the AMAL movement (Afwaj alMuqawamat Al Loubnaniyya- Lebanese Resistance detachment), which was only a political party and had Syria’s support. These two were the only Shiite resistance entities involved in political and religious issues. The Hezbollah organization follows a certain version of the Islamic Shiite ideology that was developed by the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. The Hezbollah declared its visions in “The Hezbollah Program”, a document that presented their main goals and objectives, and was read out loud at a West Beirut mosque by supporter Sheikh Ibrahim Al Amin, in which he announced that the program was also an “open letter” to all the oppressed in Lebanon and around the world. The solution to Lebanon’s problems were presented as the creation of an Islamic state for Lebanon, as it is the only measure to provide security, justice and equality for the citizens; to encourage Christians to embrace Islam; the fight against western imperialism and for the complete removal of Western troops from Lebanon (Lebanon is the only Christian Middle Eastern state); and to destroy Israel and return occupied Jerusalem to its rightful owners, by removing all of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) in Lebanon and establishing Islamic rule over Jerusalem. When that same document was published in Al Safir magazine on February 16, 1985 (purposely arranged at the one year anniversary of Sheikh Ragheb Harb’s assassination), it is possible to assert the declaration of their official existence in Lebanon as a rogue militia.
Not only did Hezbollah conglomerate and form in the heat of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the Lebanese civil war, the ongoing PLO/IDF fighting, and the 1982 massacres in Lebanese suburbs Sabra and Chatila, but they also assembled together as an Islamic organization seeking revenge for the Israeli invasion of mandated Palestine back in 1948. Muhammad Muslih, lecturer at Columbia University, has argued that the root causes of terrorism are the “result of humiliation and repression from authoritarian governments, or in the case of the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, the foreign occupation of land.” So far, Hezbollah was able to expel all Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000 after years of strife between them in the southern border. This was a major victory for Hezbollah that attracted more Shiites to join the group.
The Islamic people were deeply affected by the Arab/Israeli 1948 conflict. It is important to reiterate how the thinking patterns of the Muslims began during the first conflict and its aftermath in order to truly understand the inception of the Hezbollah movement. A modern political Zionist thinker, Theodor Herzl, emerged around the early 1920s in the former Palestine and began stating his beliefs of how the non-Jewish population could be motivated to leave the country if they found work elsewhere. This idea sprung out of the large influx of Jewish immigrants when they were beginning to be persecuted in Europe. The call for a Jewish state alarmed the Arabs and started to draw strong opposition. Herzl also argued that if there was a harmonious partnership between Jews, Muslims and Christians, then Jewish capital and expertise would recreated third world Palestine into an advanced society so everyone might benefit. However, revisionist Zionists believed that an agreement with Arabs was impossible and only military force was able to accomplish a Jewish state. The Arabs rebelled even more against the British as well, since at the time, the area was controlled by the British (their mandate granted by the League of Nations over Palestine). After a series of revolts and massacres, both sides increased their military and began to depend on force. Few attempts by the League of Nations (now the United Nations) were made for peace agreements but the Arabs never accepted any unless they were granted all of their land, and thus several years after World War II, the Israeli forces fought against joint Arab forces and won; creating their own state. Of course, all Arab states were furious and continued to send their forces into the land they still considered Palestine. The Arabs wanted to implement the creation of a “United State of Palestine”, but were denied by the League of Nations because they viewed the Arab forces in Palestine as illegal aggression, and the worst violence they’ve seen since World War II. After 1948, the state of Israel stabilized its society as a steady influx (approximately 10,300 per month) of Jewish immigrants.
Since then, a series of significant wars were fought. First in 1956 (the Suez war) where Israel, France and the UK led a war against Egypt aimed at removing its leader. The infamous 1967 “Six Day War”, where Israel fought against allied forces of Syria, Jordan and Egypt and managed to take over the Sinai and Golan heights. The 1973 “October War” and the 1975 Lebanese Civil War (ending in 1990 after the signing of the Taif agreement), which was practically inevitable due to the changing demographic trends in religions and the involvement of Syria, Israel and the PLO. Then came what finally triggered the initial stages of the Hezbollah movement in 1982. Since 1975, Israel has occupied southern Lebanon (acting as a buffer to protect its northern border and the Golan heights) until 2000, and Syria occupied various areas until withdrawing its troops in 2005. It is for these reasons that Hezbollah believes that most, if not all, acts of violence against Israel are legitimate. As Nayef Krayem, general manager and chairman of Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV, explains it “There is no act of resistance that can be classified as terrorism . . . Civilians and military are both occupiers and, therefore, both are legitimate targets.”
From that time on, Lebanon has been the nation harboring controversy, notably being the land with the highest variety of religions in the entire Arab world. Islam for example, is actually split into three main sub-sectors. In Lebanon, the Shiites compose 32% of Muslims, the Sunnis 20%, and the Alewites 1.4%. Out of the three, the Shiites are usually the rather strict believers of Islam. In the country, this sector of Islam is the largest block of all the varying faiths, which include Christians, Muslims, Druze and Baha’i that assemble a total of 14 different types of each main religion with an estimated 54% of Muslims, 39% of Christians, a rough 6% of Druze and a 1.2% of Baha’i) . The Shiites are the ones that characterize both resistance parties- that of Hezbollah and the AMAL movement. Moreover, it is not just about being Shiite that constitutes one to join a group such as Hezbollah, it is about the individual need to be a part of a force that has more potency to change current situations that are believed as negative and corrupt. It is essential to note that Hezbollah formed from a group of other smaller Shiite movements that all believed in the same principles. The social psychology is composed of Shiites that have experienced personal losses from Israeli attacks, whether young, old or even physically unable to fight, that have witnessed atrocities in the region and want to help or even just feel compelled to join a militant group to fight for a cause they hold to be true. Families also sometimes join or support Hezbollah because they see the honor in the course of political jihad, as one mother puts it after being asked if she would mind her son to become a martyr “I would not encourage him too much but I would not forbid him either. After all, it is an honor for us if [my son] chose to martyr himself in the name of our cause.”
Such ideas also spring from why movements such as Hezbollah begin in the first place. As sociologists Ralph H. Turner and Lewis M. Killian examine, collective behaviour results from three main features: the first being an internal motive to work outside of present established institutions; the second constituting of shifts from emotions and ideas to actions; and the third being people acting collectively. They also argue that what is necessary in creating a social movement is a sense of injustice within the individuals. Injustice is a subjective term and that is where the rhetoric of the movement must be clearly described and established, in order to define the movement. The reason being the realization that people actually need to act outside of the normal means of political activism for them to meet their goals. Because Hezbollah is a militant movement, as Islam historian and author Benjamin Barber points out, they are the type of group that engages in “permanent fighting, whether in the use of words and ideas or ballots or [in their case] bullets.” And because they are an Islamic fundamentalist group, “they fight under God for a cause that because it is holy, cannot be lost even when it is not yet won.”
Given what the Arabs had to physically and psychologically endure over their history, Hezbollah solidified its goals once it was officially established as a resistance party. From that moment on, the group has been financed mostly by Iran, and strongly backed by Syrian politics. First and foremost, Hezbollah declared its three main objectives; the first being the eradication of Western imperialism in Lebanon, the second is the desire to transform Lebanon into an Islamic state, and it’s third and most important goal is destroying the state of Israel. However, since the end of the Lebanese Civil war, Hezbollah’s aim of transforming Lebanon into an Islamic state waned as a result of accepting the country’s multi-confessional government and belief systems. Currently, their view on Western imperialism in Lebanon still holds strong, since they see the relationship between the United States and Israel as corrupt and imposing on Middle Eastern affairs. Hence, Hezbollah was responsible for numerous anti-American attacks. Their attacks became more intense and increasingly planned throughout the world, and the resistance only became more violent until a sharp turn in 1989.
The sharp turn marked Hezbollah’s new phase, which was known as the ‘political jihad phase’, wherein the party accepted the very important Taif agreement (an agreement made in Taif, Saudi Arabia for the ending of the Lebanese Civil War and a call for political reform). Their initial tactics of violence and militia force were no longer their main priorities to reach their goals in Lebanon, but rather a more political involvement in the Lebanese parliament. This involvement seemed to grant them a level of control they desired. It was in 1992 that Hezbollah (and other smaller Islamic Shiite groups) participated in the elections for the first time and won 12 out of 148 seats in parliament. Their seats decreased after renewed elections in 1996 (10 seats) and 2000 (8 seats) but won a staggering 14 in 2005, the highest since. The increase in elected Hezbollah officials was viewed as significant in Lebanese politics because the party created so much controversy in the past within the country, that it brought back fears to the rest of the Lebanese population that Hezbollah would continue to provoke with its radical ideologies and destabilize the government even more. Also, the group’s leader since 1992, Sheikh Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, is known to push the envelope and not give up.
All throughout the 1990s, Hezbollah’s momentum was on the rise. With its creation of Al Manar TV in 1991, a station produced by the group to generate political propaganda all over the Middle East (available on satellite TV since 2000), Hezbollah’s openly biased intentions were for Arab allies to unite and “form a common ‘international’ fight’ to confront oppression.” Although Al Manar does not actually carry out acts of terrorism against Hezbollah’s enemies, it believes its job is to “inspire them”. As Al Manar’s Nayef Krayem puts it “We do not create these acts, but we do support any resistance acts through our media. We cover and promote any act of resistance on our programming . . . [which] is actually an act against terrorism.” Al Manar can be viewed as a technological advancement that is produced to frame Hezbollah’s purpose.
Hezbollah continues to stir instability in Lebanon and frightens the nation that their demonstrations and violent activisms will never stop. One may ask if Hezbollah would ever exist if there were no Arab/Israeli conflicts in 1948. One may also ask if Hezbollah is in fact only a religious militant group fighting for the domination of Islamic ideologies in Lebanon that happen to form at the time of these crises. The truth of what Hezbollah really is cannot be known since it has become a master at deception and swift military technique. Publicly, Hezbollah fights for the elimination of Israel, the reinstating of Palestine, and the spreading of their ideologies within the region. But what is it really fighting privately? Every movement has a private struggle, and in this case, Hezbollah’s internal conflicts deal with a need for their social and political existence. They are not just trying to grasp for power, but a means of reaching for a justified existence in Lebanon.
The above essay was written by Hassiba Freiha and merely states opinions by a college student. However, if you feel strong about responding to the opinions stated, please write to articles@directorym.com and express your concerns.