Origins
Hezbollah originated within the
Shiite block of Lebanese society. According to the
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
World Factbook
''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...
estimate in 2022, Shiites comprise 31.2 percent of Lebanon's population, predominating in three areas of Lebanon:
Southern Lebanon, Beirut and its environs (
Dahieh
Dahieh ( ar, الضاحية الجنوبية, lit=the southern suburb, french: Banlieue Sud de Beyrouth, Dâhiye de Beyrouth) is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb, located south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It is composed of sev ...
), and the northern
Beqaa valley
The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...
region.
Lebanon gained its independence on November 22, 1943, with the
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
army withdrawing its soldiers from Lebanon in 1946. The Lebanese
National Pact
The National Pact ( ar, الميثاق الوطني, translit-std=DIN, translit=al Mithaq al Watani) is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multiconfessional state following negotiations between the Shia, Sunni, and Ma ...
became the framework for governance, leading to the allocation of political privileges, such as membership in parliament as well as senior bureaucratic and political appointments, to each of the 17 recognized sectarian communities based roughly on the proportionate size of each community. The two most important positions of the presidency and premiership were given to the Maronites and Sunnis respectively, with the Shia receiving the speakership of the parliament in recognition of their status as the third largest demographic group in the country. Despite the appointment they remained politically, socially and financially marginalized.
[Hezbollah and the Political Ecology of Postwar Lebanon]
Shia political movement before Hezbollah
Between 1943 and 1990, Shiites areas in
Southern Lebanon and
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...
were long neglected by the Lebanese state which diverted its resources to other areas, and Shias were sorely underrepresented with very little say in the government. Early on, Lebanese society was traditionally dominated by the
za'im, a political boss from a leading feudal family. The za'im system was strongly criticized from early on, most notably by the
Najaf-educated cleric ''Muhammad Jawad Mughniyya'' who wrote newspaper editorials against
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
,
feudalism
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
, and the pro-Western
Baghdad Pact
The Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), also known as the Baghdad Pact and subsequently known as the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), was a military alliance of the Cold War. It was formed in 24 February 1955 by Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Turk ...
in 1956, and demanded justice for peasants from the "''wicked politicians and ruling clique''".
Mughniyya's efforts were eventually succeeded by
Musa Sadr
Musa Sadr al-Din al-Sadr ( ar, موسى صدر الدين الصدر; 4 June 1928 – disappeared 31 August 1978) was an Iranian-born Lebanese scholar and political leader who founded the Amal Movement.
Born in the Chaharmardan neighborhood o ...
.
Opposition to feudalism grew stronger, and by the late 1960s, za'ims had little power left. Instead, Shiites lent their increasing numbers to a wide variety of
Leftist
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
organizations,
particularly ones which demanded the reformation of the Lebanese system and the abolishment of
sectarianism. During the early 1960s–70s, Shiites formed significant numbers in the
Arab Nationalist Movement, the
Ba'ath Party
The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...
(1947–1966), the
Lebanese Communist Party, the
Syrian Social Nationalist Party, the
Progressive Socialist Party (where they formed 20% of the membership in 1958),
and Palestinian factions which were based in Lebanon, namely
Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
, the
PFLP, and
Arab Liberation Front.
Shiite circles of former Arab Nationalist Movement members went on to establish other parties, including
Socialist Lebanon Socialist Lebanon ( ar, لبنان الاشتراكي, ''Lubnān al-ištirākī'') was a Marxist group in Lebanon. The group was formed in 1965 by intellectuals and academicians including Ahmad Beydoun, Waddah Sharara, and Fawwaz Traboulsi.Kazziha, ...
,
Organization of Lebanese Socialists, the
Communist Action Organization in Lebanon
The Communist Action Organization in Lebanon – CAOL ( ar, منظمة العمل الشيوعي في لبنان , ''munaẓẓamah al-‘amal al-shuyū‘ī fī lubnān''), also known as Organization of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL) or Orga ...
and
Arab Socialist Action Party
The Arab Socialist Action Party ( ar, حزب العمل الاشتراكي العربي) was a Pan-Arab political party, formed by the right-wing faction of the Arab Nationalist Movement after the latter's disintegration. The general secretary of ...
, which advocated violence as the best means to end
class conflict
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.
The forms ...
.
Multiple Shias rose into prominence within leftist circles, most notably
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
intellectuals
Husayn Mroue and
Mahdi Amel, CAOL leader
Mohsen Ibrahim
Mohsin Ibrahim ( ar, محسن إبراهيم ''Muḥsin ‘Ibrāhīm''), kunya Abu Khaled (; 1935 – June 3, 2020), was a Lebanese politician. He was a prominent personality of the Lebanese and Arab left. Initially a Nasserist nationalist, he ...
, and
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party
The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused B ...
leader
Assem Qanso
Muhammad Assem Qanso ( ar, عاصم قانصوه, born 1937 in Baalbek) is a Lebanese politician. He is a former leader of the Lebanese Ba'ath Party.
Political career
Qanso joined the Lebanese Ba'ath in 1953. During the Lebanese war, the Leba ...
.
In 1960, Imam
Musa Sadr
Musa Sadr al-Din al-Sadr ( ar, موسى صدر الدين الصدر; 4 June 1928 – disappeared 31 August 1978) was an Iranian-born Lebanese scholar and political leader who founded the Amal Movement.
Born in the Chaharmardan neighborhood o ...
came to Lebanon to become the leading Shi'ite figure in the city of
Tyre. He quickly became one of the most prominent advocates for the Shia population of Lebanon, a group that was both economically and politically disadvantaged. In 1969 he was appointed as the first head of the
Supreme Islamic Shia Council, an entity meant to give the Shias more say in government. In 1974 he founded the "Movement of the Deprived" to press for better economic and social conditions for the Shi'ites. He established a number of schools and medical clinics throughout southern Lebanon, many of which are still in operation today. During the
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...
he at first aligned himself with the
Lebanese National Movement, and the ''Movement of the Disinherited'' developed an armed wing known as ''Afwaj al-Mouqawma Al-Lubnaniyya'' (
Lebanese Resistance Regiments), better known as
Amal Amal may refer to:
* Amal (given name)
* Åmål, a small town in Sweden
* Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party
** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia
* Amal language of Papua New Guinea
* Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...
.
Although Amal had its genesis in the ''Movement of the Disinherited'' (Harakat al-Mahrumin), founded by the charismatic Musa as-Sadr, when Sadr was abducted it turned briefly to the secular leadership of Husayn Husayni in 1979, and since 1980,
Nabih Berri. Under Berri's leadership, Amal alienated many religious Shias by supporting the Syrian-backed presidency of
Elias Sarkis
Elias is the Greek equivalent of Elijah ( he, אֵלִיָּהוּ ''ʾĒlīyyāhū''; Syriac: ܐܠܝܐ ''Eliyā''; Arabic: الیاس Ilyās/Elyās), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several holy ...
and compromising Sadr's struggle for social and political reforms. The secularization of Amal provided the
Najaf deportees with an ideal setting to spread their militant brand of Shia activism.
Whereas Musa Sadr viewed the Lebanese state as a legitimate entity in need of reform and had developed close ties with reform-minded Christian politicians, some Lebanese seminarians in
Najaf refused to accept the state of Lebanon, its current borders, or its consociational power-sharing formula as unassailable facts.
This group organized under supervision of Iraqi
Ayatollah
Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیتالله, āyatollāh) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century.
Etymology
The title is originally derived from ...
Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr (the cousin of Musa), one of the leading clerics in the Shia seminary (hawza) of Najaf in Iraq. These clerics theorized about an Islamic state woven of a clandestine network that became known as
Hizb al-Da'wa (the "Party of the Calling"), which established a
twin party in Lebanon. This network was established in Lebanon by clerics who returned from Najaf like
Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah and Sayyed
Abbas al-Musawi.
Hezbollah's emergence
The organization developed in a milieu which underwent a sequence of radicalizing events. Following independence in 1943, the Lebanese Shia community was disproportionately the poorest comnunity in the country, and was marginalized by a ruling
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
–
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
duo and severely underrepresented relative to the community's size. In 1976, more than 100,000 Shias were forcefully displaced from the
East Beirut canton
The East Beirut canton, sometimes referred to as Marounistan, or Opp Central, was a Christian-dominated geopolitical region that existed in Lebanon from 1976 until its gradual erosion following the Taif Agreement and the end of the country's Leba ...
into
Dahieh
Dahieh ( ar, الضاحية الجنوبية, lit=the southern suburb, french: Banlieue Sud de Beyrouth, Dâhiye de Beyrouth) is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb, located south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It is composed of sev ...
and
Southern Lebanon following violent events of
Karantina massacre
The Karantina massacre (Arabic: مجزرة الكرنتينا, French: Massacre de La Quarantaine/Karantina) took place on January 18, 1976, early in the Lebanese Civil War. La Quarantaine, known in Arabic as Karantina, was a predominantly Pal ...
and the siege of Shiite neighborhood of Naba'a and
Tel al-Zaatar, a Palestinian refugee camp with 43% Shiite inhabitants.
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
Amal Abdo Saad-Ghorayeb ( ar, أمل سعد غريب) is a Lebanese writer and political analyst known for her writings on the Israeli–Lebanese conflict and Hezbollah.
Life
Saad-Ghorayeb was an assistant professor of political science at the Leb ...
(2001)
Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion
'. London: Pluto Press. The context of radicalization was further enhanced with the disappearance of
Musa Sadr
Musa Sadr al-Din al-Sadr ( ar, موسى صدر الدين الصدر; 4 June 1928 – disappeared 31 August 1978) was an Iranian-born Lebanese scholar and political leader who founded the Amal Movement.
Born in the Chaharmardan neighborhood o ...
in 1978, and notably the success of the
Iranian revolution
The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...
in 1979.
The latter's impact was so profound that when the
Iran–Iraq War
The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Council ...
raged in September 1980, around 500–600 Amal volunteers went to Iran to join
Mostafa Chamran.
The most crucial event for Hezbollah's emergence is the
Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982
The 1982 Lebanon War, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee ( he, מבצע שלום הגליל, or מבצע של"ג ''Mivtsa Shlom HaGalil'' or ''Mivtsa Sheleg'') by the Israeli government, later known in Israel as the Lebanon War or the First L ...
. Prior the invasion, the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
(PLO) had used Southern Lebanon as its base of operations against Israeli targets. Israel invaded Lebanon to evict the PLO and install their ally
Bachir Gemayel as president, destroying 80% of villages in Southern Lebanon in the process and causing around 400,000 refugees to flee their homes, which ultimately led to the formation of Hezbollah as an armed organization to expel the occupying Israeli forces.
According to Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh in
In the Path of Hizbullah, four crisis conditions catalyzed the emergence of Hezbollah:
*1. Identity crisis and marginalization
When Lebanon became independent on November 22, 1943, "the Shiites felt that they were the despised stepchildren of a state governed by a Maronite-Sunni alliance."(Hamzeh, 2004: 12) The Shias were ripe for every Shi'a protective organization like Hezbollah.
*2. Structural imbalance
Shias were politically underrepresented, based on the National Pact of 1943, which vested legislative and executive as well as military positions in rough proportion to the demographic size of the country's eighteen recognized sectarian groupings. In 1946, the Christian Maronites and the Sunni Muslims occupied 40 and 27 percent respectively, of the highest civilian posts. In contrast, the Shia occupied 3.2 percent. By the 1980s, Shias had become Lebanon's largest single confessional community with almost 1,400,000 people, surpassing the Maronite and Sunni populations, which were each estimated at nearly 800,000 a piece. (Hamzeh, 2004: 13) The Shiites believed that their representation was not commensurate with their numerical size. Economically the broader Shia community in Lebanon was very poor. Almost 85 percent lived in the rural region of South Lebanon and in one area of the
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...
, and subsisted on what they earned, mostly from selling
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
to the state monopoly or growing vegetables. They were also exposed to the military fighting between Israel and the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
(PLO). To escape these conditions, many Shias migrated to the slums of
eastern Beirut and
shantytowns in the suburbs south of Beirut. Hamzeh writes that "
ese two areas, known as the "belt of misery," became the breeding ground of Shia militancy in the 1980s. (Hamzeh, 2004: 14) Even in the 1960s and 70s, the charismatic leader Imam Musa al-Sadr began to activate the politically quiescent Shias of Lebanon.
*3. Military Defeat
"When identity crisis and structural imbalance are reinforced by military defeat, a society's militancy potential increases markedly. Military defeat followed by foreign occupation opens the way for militant movements fostering political organization or employing guerrilla warfare and enjoying widespread grassroots support. (Hamzeh, 2004: 15) This is what happened when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 (
Operation Litani
The 1978 South Lebanon conflict (codenamed Operation Litani by Israel) began after Israel invaded southern Lebanon up to the Litani River in March 1978, in response to the Coastal Road massacre near Tel Aviv by Lebanon-based Palestinian mil ...
) and 1982 (
Lebanon War), actions which, according to Hamzeh were undertaken in order to remove the PLO from Lebanon and disassociate Lebanon from
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
's influence. Israel hoped that "a Lebanon freed from Syria and the PLO, with a Christian-dominated regime, would bring peace and closer connections between the two countries." (Hamzeh, 2004: 16
[Hamzeh, Ahmad Nizar (2004), In the Path of Hizbullah, p:16]) But these operations oppressed Shi'a which lived in south Lebanon. The Israelis killed more than one thousand civilian Shias, leading to a mass exodus of yet more Shia refugees to the Beirut slums. Israel's 1982 invasion and occupation of Lebanon bolstered the fortunes of Hizbullah by "providing a politic-military environment that legitimated the group and gave a rationale for its guerrilla warfare. Similarly, the presence of the Western foreign troops in Lebanon, particularly of the
U.S. Marines
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary warfare, exped ...
, also boosted the fortunes of Hezbollah, which considered fighting such forces to be as legitimate as fighting the Israeli occupation." (Hamzeh, 2004: 16
).
*4. Demonstration Effect ( Iran's Islamic Revolution)
According to Hamzeh "
Iran's revolution had its greatest impact in Lebanon," even though the two countries are not adjacent, because Lebanon's long-suffering Shias were most receptive to Iran's Islamic revolutionary message(Hamzeh, 2004: 18). Shia clerics from Lebanon,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, in particular
Khomeini, had known each other well in the Shia city of
Najaf in Iraq where they participated in their "circles of learning." Soon after Khomeini's victorious return to Iran on February 1, 1979, he became the unchallenged leader and chief ideologue of the Shias inside and outside Iran." (Hamzeh, 2004: 19) He met with militant Shia clergy (e.g., Sheikh
Subhi al-Tufayli
Subhi al-Tufayli ( ar, صبحي الطفيلي) (born 1948) was the first Secretary-General or leader of Hezbollah for a year. Al-Tufayli is a Shia Islamist, but is a very vocal critic of Iran and the current Hezbollah leadership. He has been an ...
, Sayyed
Abbas al-Musawi) and other militants in August 1982 at the Islamic Movements conference in Tehran—the so-called First "Conference for the Downtrodden".(Hamzeh, 2004: 25)
Foundation
Scholars differ as to when
Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
came to be a distinct entity. Various sources list the official formation of the group as early as 1982 whereas Diaz and Newman maintain that Hezbollah remained an amalgamation of various Shi'a groups until as late as 1985. Another version states that it was formed by supporters of
Sheikh
Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonly designates a chief of a ...
Ragheb Harb
Ragheb Harb ( ar, راغب حرب; 1952–1984 was a Lebanese leader and Muslim cleric. He was born in Jibchit in 1952, a village in the Jabal Amel region of Southern Lebanon. Harb was an imam and led the regional Shiite resistance against I ...
, a leader of the resistance killed by Israeli
Shin Bet agents in February 1984.
Regardless of when the name came into official use, a number of Shia groups were slowly assimilated to form the organization following the
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
The 1982 Lebanon War, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee ( he, מבצע שלום הגליל, or מבצע של"ג ''Mivtsa Shlom HaGalil'' or ''Mivtsa Sheleg'') by the Israeli government, later known in Israel as the Lebanon War or the First L ...
. In summer of 1982, around 1,000–2,000
IRGC
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC; fa, سپاه پاسداران انقلاب اسلامی, Sepāh-e Pāsdārān-e Enghelāb-e Eslāmi, lit=Army of Guardians of the Islamic Revolution also Sepāh or Pasdaran for short) is a branch o ...
troops, notably the 27th brigade which distinguished itself in
Battle of Khorramshahr Battle of Khorramshahr may refer to two battles during the Iran–Iraq War:
*Battle of Khorramshahr (1980), the capture of Khorramshahr by Iraqi forces
*Battle of Khorramshahr (1982)
The battle of Khorramshahr, also known in Iran as the liber ...
and was considered among the best in the Iranian army, and the 58th elite unit, made way into the
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...
, where they conducted training for thousands of young fighters.
The trainees also included former members of the underground
Islamic Dawa Party, members of the Association of Muslim Students, former
Amal Amal may refer to:
* Amal (given name)
* Åmål, a small town in Sweden
* Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party
** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia
* Amal language of Papua New Guinea
* Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...
cadres, some former Communists of the
Communist Action Organization and former Shiite members of
Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
.
This was somewhat reflected in the diverse backgrounds of the prominent members: from former member of
Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
's elite
Force 17
Force 17 ( ar, القوة 17) was a commando and special operations unit of the Palestinian territories, Palestinian Fatah movement and later of the Office of the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Chairman of the Palestinian Authorit ...
Imad Mughniyeh
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh ( ar, عماد فايز مغنية; 7 December 1962 – 12 February 2008), alias al-Hajj Radwan (), was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. Information about ...
, to Islamic Dawa Party member
Abbas al-Musawi, to former
Amal Movement member
Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Def ...
.
By 1984, thousands of Shiites had been enlisted into Hezbollah, including most of the important Shiite clergy.
Initially, members of the "Islamic Resistance in Lebanon" conducted operations under the name of
Lebanese National Resistance Front, different aliases or smaller groups that were eventually absorbed within Hezbollah. These included the notorious
Islamic Jihad Organization,
Islamic Amal Islamic Amal (in Arabic أمل الإسلامية) was a Lebanese Shia military movement based in Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley, Islamic Amal was led by Husayn Al-Musawi, who was also a leading figure in Hezbollah.
The movement got its start in June ...
,
Imam Husayn
Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...
Fedayeen
Fedayeen ( ar, فِدائيّين ''fidāʼīyīn'' "self-sacrificers") is an Arabic term used to refer to various military groups willing to sacrifice themselves for a larger campaign.
Etymology
The term ''fedayi'' is derived from Arabic: '' ...
,
Organization of the Oppressed on Earth
The Organization of the Oppressed on Earth is a group that claimed responsibility for kidnappings, bombings, and executions in Lebanon in the 1980s. It was considered a precursor to, or another name for, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.
Connection ...
and the
Revolutionary Justice Organization.
Iranian clerics, most notably
Ali Akbar Mohtashamipur, supervised the arming and funding of Hezbollah. By 1986–1987, Hezbollah had become the main politico-military force among the Shia community in Lebanon, effectively controlling all of
Dahieh
Dahieh ( ar, الضاحية الجنوبية, lit=the southern suburb, french: Banlieue Sud de Beyrouth, Dâhiye de Beyrouth) is a predominantly Shia Muslim suburb, located south of Beirut, in the Baabda District of Lebanon. It is composed of sev ...
and the
Beqaa Valley
The Beqaa Valley ( ar, links=no, وادي البقاع, ', Lebanese ), also transliterated as Bekaa, Biqâ, and Becaa and known in classical antiquity as Coele-Syria, is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon. It is Lebanon's most important ...
, and boasted an armed force of 25,000.
After publicly announcing the formation of Hezbollah in 1985, Sheikh
Subhi Tufaili became its first
Secretary-General
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
elected by the Shura council. In 1991 Sayyed
Abbas al-Musawi substituted Tufaili as
Secretary-General
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
but was assassinated within months by Israel, and was succeeded by Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Def ...
.
Ideology
During its early days, Hezbollah sought to establish an Islamic state in Lebanon similar to Iran by virtue of the country's cantonization at the time (i.e. Christian
East Beirut canton
The East Beirut canton, sometimes referred to as Marounistan, or Opp Central, was a Christian-dominated geopolitical region that existed in Lebanon from 1976 until its gradual erosion following the Taif Agreement and the end of the country's Leba ...
, Druze
Civil Administration of the Mountain
The Civil Administration of the Mountain, sometimes referred to as Jabal al-Druze, named after the Druze region in Syria, was a Druze-dominated geopolitical region that existed in Lebanon from 1983 until its gradual erosion following the Taif Agr ...
,
Northern canton
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ...
in
Zgharta
Zgharta ( ar, زغرتا, syc, ܙܓܪܬܐ), also spelled Zghorta, is a city in North Lebanon, with an estimated population of around 50,000. It is the second biggest city in Northern Lebanon after Tripoli.
Zgharta is about 150 metres above sea ...
).
The party has reportedly since abandoned this goal and formally renounced it in its second political manifesto published in 2009.
Hezbollah during the Lebanese Civil War (1982–1990)
After emerging during the civil war of the early 1980s as a resistance movement for Lebanon's
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
community, Hezbollah focused on expelling Israeli and Western forces from Lebanon. Although Hezbollah
battled the Amal militia for control of Shia areas, and vigorously attacked Israel's Lebanese proxy (
SLA), unlike other wartime militias, it never engaged in
sectarian
Sectarianism is a political or cultural conflict between two groups which are often related to the form of government which they live under. Prejudice, discrimination, or hatred can arise in these conflicts, depending on the political status quo ...
bloodletting (or fought a major engagement with the
army
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
) during the war.
Between 1984 and 1991, there were 3,425 recorded military operations against Israeli forces and the SLA, most of them conducted by Hezbollah.
Suicide attacks
Hezbollah is reputed to have been among the first Islamic resistance groups to use tactical
suicide bombing
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
in the Middle East,
[Adam Shatz, The New York Review of Books, April 29, 200]
In Search of Hezbollah
Accessed August 14, 2006 and early bombings attributed to the group (e.g. the
Tyre truck bombings and the
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese ...
) inspired other militant extremist groups to adopt the tactic for their own purposes.
The predominantly Shia residents of south Lebanon had born the brunt of the Israeli invasion, which sent floods of refugees into the Beqaa and Beirut (already teaming with a 300,000 strong southern "poverty belt" of newly urbanized Shias), eager for recruitment. Many politicized Shias also felt victimized by the entry of an
American and European multi-national force (MNF) into
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
in 1982, not only because it was perceived as pro-Israeli, but also because its mission was to support a government beholden to the right-wing
Christian Phalange Party (led by then-President
Amine Gemayel) and Sunni Beiruti notables (e.g. Prime Minister
Shafik Wazzan) and quick to assert its newfound strength by unceremoniously ejecting Shiite squatters from posh neighborhoods of West Beirut near the airport. Although Hezbollah avoided direct confrontation with the state, it lashed out with fury at the MNF, most notably with the October 1983 twin suicide bombings that killed more than 300 American and French servicemen (
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese ...
), forcing its withdrawal in 1984. The following year, in the face of mounting Hezbollah attacks, the
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
(IDF) began redeploying to a thin "security zone" in the south.
Jeffrey Goldberg writes in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' that during this period Hezbollah
quickly became the most successful terrorist organization in modern history, erving Erving may refer to:
People
* Cameron Erving (born 1992), American college football player
* George W. Erving (1769–1850), American diplomat
* Julius Erving (born 1950), American basketball player, also known as "Dr. J"
* Erving Goffman (1922–1 ...
as a role model for terror groups around the world, ...and virtually invent ngthe multipronged terror attack when, early on the morning of October 23, 1983, it synchronized the suicide bombing
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
s, in Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
, of the United States Marine barracks and an apartment building housing a contingent of French peacekeepers. Those attacks occurred just twenty seconds apart.
(note: Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for these attacks. Despite targeting military forces - actually peacekeepers - the bombing is considered an act of
terrorism
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
because it was carried out by
illegal combatants
An unlawful combatant, illegal combatant or unprivileged combatant/belligerent is a person who directly engages in armed conflict in violation of the laws of war and therefore is claimed not to be protected by the Geneva Conventions.
The Internati ...
acting outside of the
Combatants Privilege
Combatant is the legal status of an individual who has the right to engage in hostilities during an armed conflict. The legal definition of "combatant" is found at article 43(2) of Additional Protocol I (AP1) to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. It ...
provided by the
Third Geneva Convention
The Third Geneva Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War was first adopted in 1929, but significantl ...
)
According to
Robert Pape's ''Dying to Win'',
[
Specifically: "Suicide Terrorist Campaigns, 1980-2003", Appendix 1. (Page 253 of Australian paperback edition, published by Scribe Publications)]
Hezbollah conducted three distinct suicide bombing campaigns against forces it deemed to be occupying Lebanon:
# 1983–1984: 5 acts against the US and France,
including these specific acts:
#*April 18, 1983:
U.S. embassy bombing in Beirut.
#*October 23, 1983:
Beirut barracks bombing
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two car bomb, truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the ...
, targeting
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
soldiers and
United States Marines;
responsibility for this is disputed (see
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese ...
).
# 1982–1985: 11 acts against Israel.
# 1985–1986: 20 acts against Israel and the
South Lebanon Army
The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; ar, جيش لبنان الجنوبي, Jayš Lubnān al-Janūbiyy), also known as the Lahad Army ( ar, جيش لحد, label=none) and referred to as the De Facto Forces (DFF) by the United Nat ...
.
In addition to these campaigns, Pape documents six other isolated suicide attacks taken by Hezbollah between 1985 and 1999.
Upon Israel's withdrawal from
South Lebanon in 2000, according to Pape, the necessary conditions for Hezbollah's continuing use of suicide attacks evaporated. Hezbollah has not directly participated in suicide bombings since 1999, its leaders evidently having renounced the tactic.
Attacks against Western targets
Hezbollah is believed by the United States' intelligence agencies to have
*kidnapped
David S. Dodge
David Stuart Dodge (November 17, 1922 – January 20, 2009) was an American politician and university president. He was the Vice-President for Administration (1979–83), Acting President (1981–82) and President (1996–97) of the Ameri ...
, president of the
American University in Beirut
The American University of Beirut (AUB) ( ar, الجامعة الأميركية في بيروت) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, au ...
on June 19, 1982. . Hezbollah was "believed to be behind this abduction and that of most of the other 30 Westerners seized over the next 10 years."
["Timeline of Hezbollah Violence."](_blank)
'' CAMERA: Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America''. 17 July 2006. 18 November 2006. Later reprinted in ''On Campus'' magazine's Fall 2006 issue and attributed the article to author Gilead Ini.
*
car bomb
A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles.
Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
ed "the U.S. embassy in
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
on April 18, 1983, ... killing 63 people, 17 of whom
ereAmerican citizens."
["Hizbullah, the 'Party of God.'"](_blank)
''Israel News: Ynetnews''. 31 July 2006. 18 November 2006.
*truck bombed
''PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
''. 2001. 18 November 2006 "
U.S. Marine
The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...
barracks, on October 23, 1983, ... killing 241 American military personnel stationed in Beirut as past of a peace-keeping force. A separate attack against the French military compound in Beirut
illed58."
The truck that destroyed the American barracks was "rigged with 12,000 pounds of TNT."
[Jacoby, Jeff.]
"Hezbollah is our enemy, too."
''Boston.com''. 30 July 2006. 18 November 2006.
*kidnapped
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
Beirut Station Chief
William Francis Buckley on March 16, 1984, "After 15 months in captivity of torture and illness" he was killed, and responsibility claimed by Hezbollah. (Evidenced by numerous copies of video and photographic material sent by Hezbollah to Western Embassies and government offices depicting some of his torture sessions, which were claimed by the group at the time as proof of his captivity. The material was periodically delivered from May 1984 until October 1985 when the group made an announcement containing a photograph of Buckley's heavily scarred corpse along with the statement that they had killed him and would not return his body for burial.)
*car bombed "
the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut" on September 20, 1984, taking the lives of "two Americans and 22 others."
*
hijacked
Hijacking may refer to:
Common usage
Computing and technology
* Bluejacking, the unsolicited transmission of data via Bluetooth
* Brandjacking, the unauthorized use of a company's brand
* Browser hijacking
* Clickjacking (including ''like ...
"a
Kuwait Airlines Flight 221 on December 4, 1984. Hezbollah militants killed four passengers including two Americans."
*kidnapped and tortured to death U.S. Marine
Colonel William R. Higgins between 1989 and 1991 when his body was found dumped on the side of a small Beirut street after the group had made and distributed a video showing his scarred and disfigured body hanging from a ceiling.
*
kidnapped
Kidnapped may refer to:
* subject to the crime of kidnapping
Literature
* ''Kidnapped'' (novel), an 1886 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson
* ''Kidnapped'' (comics), a 2007 graphic novel adaptation of R. L. Stevenson's novel by Alan Grant and Ca ...
around 30 other Westerners between 1982 and 1992, including U.S. journalist
Terry Anderson, British journalist
John McCarthy, the
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...
's special envoy
Terry Waite and Irish citizen
Brian Keenan.
* of carrying out the 1985 hijacking of
TWA Flight 847
Trans World Airlines Flight 847 was a flight from Cairo to San Diego with en route stops in Athens, Rome, Boston, and Los Angeles. On the morning of June 14, 1985, Flight 847 was hijacked shortly after take off from Athens. The hijackers demande ...
en route from Athens to Rome.
These accusations are denied by Hezbollah.
In early 1998, Lebanon's highest court announced that it intended to arrest the Secretary-General (until 1991) of Hezbollah, Sheikh Subhi Tufayli, for the
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese ...
. After a shoot-out that left Lebanese soldiers and some of Tufayli's supporters dead, he escaped and has not been seen since.
End of Civil War: The Taif Agreement and Hezbollah's failure to disarm
After 16 years, the civil war halted following successful negotiation of the
Taif Agreement, which required the "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias" and required the government to "deploy the Lebanese army in the border area adjacent to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
."
Despite this agreement,
Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, in control of Lebanon at that time (with the support of
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
), allowed Hezbollah to maintain their arsenal, control the Shia areas in Southern Lebanon along the border with Israel.
The continued existence of Hezbollah's military wing after 1990 is considered by the UN to violate the
Taif Agreement.
Hezbollah, however, justifies maintaining its militia on the basis of Israel's continued presence in Sheba Farms, which the UN considers Syrian territory and the Lebanon government has not made moves to disarm Hezbollah as it considers it a legitimate resistance organization.
Conflict in South Lebanon
South Lebanon was occupied by Israel between 1982 and 2000. Hezbollah, along with the mainly leftist and secular groups in the Lebanese National Resistance Front, fought a guerilla war against Israel and the
South Lebanon Army
The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; ar, جيش لبنان الجنوبي, Jayš Lubnān al-Janūbiyy), also known as the Lahad Army ( ar, جيش لحد, label=none) and referred to as the De Facto Forces (DFF) by the United Nat ...
. The National Resistance Front militias disarmed in accordance with the Taif Accords, but Hezbollah remained defiant, claiming until all Lebanese soil was liberated and
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
expelled, resistance against occupation would continue.
The fighting culminated during
Operation Grapes of Wrath
Operation Grapes of Wrath ( he, מבצע ענבי זעם ''Mivtsa Enavi Zaam''), known in Lebanon as the April Aggression (), is the seventeen-day campaign of the Israeli Defense Forces against Hezbollah in 1996 which attempted to end rocket att ...
in April 1996 when Israel launched an assault and air-campaign against Hezbollah. The campaign resulted in the deaths of 106 civilian refugees in
an aerial bombardment of a United Nations base at Qana. Popular feeling that the shelling of Qana was intentional fuelled Shia radicalism and enhanced support for Hezbollah, as did resentment of large-scale civilian evacuations made necessary (on as little as two hours notice) by the fighting.
[Augustus Richard Norto]
Hizballah: From Radicalism to Pragmatism?
Accessed August 11, 2006
In January 2000, Hezbollah assassinated the commander of the South Lebanon Army's Western Brigade, Colonel Aql Hashem, at his home in the security zone. Hashem had been responsible for day-to-day operations of the SLA.
On 24 May, after the collapse of the SLA and the rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon, more than six weeks before its stated deadline of 7 July." Hezbollah and many other Lebanese considered this to be a victory, and since then its popularity has been boosted in Lebanon.
[ Ted Koppel on NPR report]
''Lebanon's Hezbollah Ties''
All Things Considered
''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...
, July 13, 2006.
Claims of terrorist activities
* The US government claims Hezbollah carried out two terrorist attacks in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
during the early 1990s: the 1992
Israeli embassy bombing in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people, and the
bombing of a Jewish community center there, killing 85. Hezbollah denies these claims. Responsibility for the former attack was claimed by
Imad Mughniyah
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh ( ar, عماد فايز مغنية; 7 December 1962 – 12 February 2008), alias al-Hajj Radwan (), was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. Information about ...
's
Islamic Jihad Organization - considered to be a unit of Hezbollah - within 24 hours of the attack.
[CIA Report F-2001-00844 (Partially Redacted]
Lebanon's Hizballah: Testing Political Waters, Keeping Militant (page 4)
Accessed August 12, 2006
* On July 26, 1994, eight days after the community center bombing, the
Israeli Embassy in London was car bombed by two Palestinians. The United Kingdom, Israel and Argentina blamed Hezbollah for the attack.
Hezbollah after the Israeli withdrawal
On May 25, 2000, Israel withdrew from
Lebanon
Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...
to the UN-agreed Israeli border, and their pullout was certified by the UN as complete. Lebanon and Syria claim the
Shebaa Farms, a 35 km
2 area, to be occupied Lebanese territory despite the UN ruling, and on that basis Hezbollah has continued to engage Israeli forces in that area. The UN recognizes the Shebaa farms as part of the
Golan Heights
The Golan Heights ( ar, هَضْبَةُ الْجَوْلَانِ, Haḍbatu l-Jawlān or ; he, רמת הגולן, ), or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about . The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between di ...
, and thus Syrian (and not Lebanese, though both countries deny that) territory occupied by Israel since the 1967
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...
.
Hezbollah's role in the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon gained the organization much respect within Lebanon and the wider Arab and Islamic world, particularly among the country's large
Shi'a
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
community. The
Maronite
The Maronites ( ar, الموارنة; syr, ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group native to the Eastern Mediterranean and Levant region of the Middle East, whose members traditionally belong to the Maronite Church, with the larges ...
President of Lebanon,
Émile Lahoud
Émile Jamil Lahoud (born 12 January 1936) was a Lebanese politician who served as the 16th president of Lebanon from 1998 to 2007. His main foreign-policy achievement was to end the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon in May 2000, which was ...
, said: "For us Lebanese, and I can tell you the majority of Lebanese, Hezbollah is a national resistance movement. If it wasn't for them, we couldn't have liberated our land. And because of that, we have big esteem for the Hezbollah movement."
After Israeli forces left Southern Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah provided military defense of the area. It is suggested by some that the Lebanese Government has at times viewed Hezbollah as the army of South Lebanon. Since summer 2006, though, foreign peacekeepers and Lebanese army troops have also been stationed in the South.
Fouad Siniora
Fouad Siniora ( ar, فؤاد السنيورة, translit=Fu'ād as-Sanyūrah; born 19 July 1943) is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to 25 May 2008. He stepped down on 9 November 2009 ...
said that "the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the
Shebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms."
[Associated Press, July 20 2006]
/ref> Hezbollah says Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon proves that the Jewish state only understands the language of resistance. It defends its right to keep its weapons as a deterrent against Israeli attack, to liberate the disputed Shebaa Farms border area, which is occupied by Israel.
Since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and until the conflict arising in July 2006, Hezbollah has used the period of quiet to create the Hezbollah rocket force
Hezbollah has the armed strength of a medium-sized army. Hezbollah is generally considered the most powerful non-state actor in the world, and to be stronger than the Lebanese Army. A hybrid force, the group maintains "robust conventional and un ...
, which it claims number over 10,000. Placing them, according to many reports, in civilian locations, including family homes, crowded residential neighborhoods and mosques.
The United Nations considers the Shebaa Farms to be Syrian territory, not Lebanese and has stated that Israel has withdrawn from all Lebanese territory. However, both Syria and Lebanon consider the Shebaa Farms as part of Lebanese territory. Furthermore, various United Nations Security Council resolutions require Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories, including all Lebanese and Syrian territories.
Clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces continued, albeit at a relatively low level, in the years following 2000.
Overflights
Israeli aircraft continue to fly over Lebanese territory, eliciting condemnation from the ranking UN representative in Lebanon. Hezbollah's retaliatory anti-aircraft fire, doubling as small caliber artillery, has on some occasions landed within Israel's northern border towns, inciting condemnation from the UN Secretary-General. On November 7, 2004, Hezbollah responded to what it described as repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace by flying an Iranian-built unmanned drone aircraft over northern Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
.
Israeli / Hezbollah prisoner exchange
On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah abducted three Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
soldiers (Adi Avitan, Omer Soued and Binyamin Avraham) from Shebaa Farms and sought to obtain the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners, some of whom had been held since 1978.
On October 16, 2000, Hezbollah announced the kidnapping of Elchanan Tannenbaum
Elhanan Tannenbaum, ( he, אלחנן טננבוים, born 12 August 1946) is an Israeli colonel (res.), who was kidnapped in 2000 and held for more than three years by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. He was released in a prisoner exchange ...
, an Israeli businessman.
On January 25, 2004, Hezbollah successfully negotiated an exchange of prisoners with Israel, through German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
mediators. The prisoner swap was carried out on January 29: 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, the remains of 60 Lebanese militants and civilians, 420 Palestinian prisoners, and maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon were exchanged for an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum
Elhanan Tannenbaum, ( he, אלחנן טננבוים, born 12 August 1946) is an Israeli colonel (res.), who was kidnapped in 2000 and held for more than three years by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. He was released in a prisoner exchange ...
kidnapped in 2001 and the remains of the three Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the Israel, State of Israel. It consists of three servic ...
(IDF) soldiers mentioned above, who were killed either during the Hezbollah operation, or in its immediate aftermath. For the entire period between the abduction (October 2000) and the end of the negotiations (January 2004), Hezbollah did not provide information about the death of the 3 kidnapped soldiers (Adi Avitan, Beni Avraham and Umar Suad) even though Israel intelligence has suspected them to be already dead.
Assassinations of Hezbollah Officials
Abbas Mussawi, Secretary General of Hezbollah, was assassinated in February, 1992,[CIA Report (Partially Redacted]
Lebanon's Hizballah: Testing Political Waters, Keeping Militant (page 2)
Accessed August 12, 2006 after which Nasrullah was elected to the position.
On July 19, 2004, a senior Hezbollah official, Ghaleb Awwali, was assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
. Hezbollah blamed Israel; credit was claimed, and then retracted, by a previously unheard of Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
group called Jund Ash Sham
Jund al-Sham ( ar, جند الشام, lit=The Sham Division) is or was the name of multiple Sunni Islamic jihadist militant groups.
Founded around 1991 in Jordan and trained in 1999 in Afghanistan with financial support from Osama bin Laden, the ...
, while Israel denied involvement. According to Al-Arabiya
Arabiya ( ar, العربية, transliterated: '; meaning "The Arabic One" or "The Arab One") is an international Arabic news television channel, currently based in Dubai, that is operated by the media conglomerate MBC.
The channel is a flag ...
, unidentified Lebanese police also identified the group as a cover for Israel.
In June 2006, the Lebanese military arrested an alleged assassination squad led by former South Lebanese Army
The South Lebanon Army or South Lebanese Army (SLA; ar, جيش لبنان الجنوبي, Jayš Lubnān al-Janūbiyy), also known as the Lahad Army ( ar, جيش لحد, label=none) and referred to as the De Facto Forces (DFF) by the United Nat ...
corporal Mahmoud Abu Rafeh. According to army statements, the cell was trained and supported by the Israeli Mossad
Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...
and "used ... to carry out assigned assassinations in Lebanon." Among the killings attributed to the squad are those of Hezbollah officials Ali Saleh (2003) and Ali Hassan Dib (1999).
During Awwali's funeral, Nasrallah
Nasrullah ( ar, نصرالله , lit=victory of God) is a masculine given name, commonly found in the Arabic language and is used by Muslims and Christians alike. It may also be transliterated as Nasralla, Nasrollah, Nasrullah, and Al-Nasrallah. ...
proclaimed that Awwali was "among the team that dedicated their lives in the last few years to help their brothers in occupied Palestine," which some take to refer to aiding Hamas.
On February 12, 2008, senior operative Imad Mughniyah
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh ( ar, عماد فايز مغنية; 7 December 1962 – 12 February 2008), alias al-Hajj Radwan (), was the founding member of Lebanon's Islamic Jihad Organization and number two in Hezbollah's leadership. Information about ...
was killed in Damascus
)), is an adjective which means "spacious".
, motto =
, image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg
, image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg
, seal_type = Seal
, map_caption =
, ...
, Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. He was buried two days later in the presence of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and a high-ranking Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ian delegation.
Border conflict
* On March 12, 2002, in a Hezbollah shooting attack on the Shelomi-Metzuba route in northern Israel, six Israelis civilians were killed.
* On August 10, 2003, a 16-year-old Israeli boy was killed by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell fired by Hezbollah, and four others were wounded.
* In January 2005, Hezbollah planted five "improvised explosive devices" (IEDs) just on the Israeli side of the border near Zarit. An armored bulldozer
The armored bulldozer is a basic tool of combat engineering. These combat engineering vehicles combine the earth moving capabilities of the bulldozer with armor which protects the vehicle and its operator in or near combat. Most are civilian bu ...
sent to remove the mines was fired upon by anti-tank missiles, killing the bulldozer's driver, Sgt. Maj. Jan Rotzanski.
* On April 7, 2005, Two Israeli Arab
The Arab citizens of Israel are the largest ethnic minority in the country. They comprise a hybrid community of Israeli citizens with a heritage of Palestinian citizenship, mixed religions (Muslim, Christian or Druze), bilingual in Arabic an ...
s from the village Ghajar near the Israel-Lebanon border were abducted by Hezbollah operatives. They were later released.
* On November 21, 2005, Hezbollah launched a heavy attack along the entire border with Israel In response to an Israeli attack on Lebanese villages in the south of Lebanon Harel The attack failed when IDF Paratroopers
A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...
ambushed and killed 4 Hezbollah members and scattered the rest. The IDF counter-attacked and destroyed Hezbollah's front line outposts and communication centers. The scope of the attack forced Lebanon (whose army does not control southern Lebanon) to request a cease-fire. Following the attack the UN Security Council denounced Hezbollah. Commentators have speculated that the attack was an attempt to draw Israel into renewed conflict in Lebanon, alleviating diplomatic pressure on its backers Syria (which is under investigation for the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri
Rafic Bahaa El Deen Al Hariri ( ar, رفيق بهاء الدين الحريري; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005) was a Lebanese business tycoon and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from ...
) and Iran (which is under UN investigation regarding alleged violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty).
* On December 27, 2005, BM-21 Grad rockets fired from Hezbollah territory smashed into houses in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona wounding three people. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the Lebanese Government "to extend its control over all its territory, to exert its monopoly on the use of force, and to put an end to all such attacks." Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
Fouad Siniora ( ar, فؤاد السنيورة, translit=Fu'ād as-Sanyūrah; born 19 July 1943) is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to 25 May 2008. He stepped down on 9 November 2009 ...
denounced the attack as "aimed at destabilizing security and diverting attention from efforts exerted to solve the internal issues prevailing in the country." Hezbollah denied any responsibility or knowledge that an attack was going to take place.
Hezbollah activities in the al-Aqsa Intifada
In December 2001 three Hezbollah operatives were caught in Jordan while attempting to bring BM-13 Katyusha rockets into the West Bank. Sayyeed Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Def ...
, secretary general of Hezbollah, responded that "It is every freedom loving peoples right and duty against occupation to send arms to Palestinians from any possible place."
In June 2002, shortly after the Israeli government launched Operation Defensive Shield, which culminated in the invasion of the Jenin refugee camp, Nasrallah
Nasrullah ( ar, نصرالله , lit=victory of God) is a masculine given name, commonly found in the Arabic language and is used by Muslims and Christians alike. It may also be transliterated as Nasralla, Nasrollah, Nasrullah, and Al-Nasrallah. ...
gave a speech in which he defended and praised suicide bombings of Israeli targets by members of Palestinian groups for "creating a deterrence and equalizing fear."
During 2002, 2003 and 2004, the Israeli Security Forces thwarted numerous suicide bombing
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
attacks, some of which Israel claims were planned and funded by Hezbollah and were to have been carried out by Tanzim
''Tanzim'' ( ar, تنظيم ', "Organization") is a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement.
Overview
The Tanzim militia, founded in 1995 by Yasser Arafat and other Fatah leaders to counter Palestinian Islamism, is widely consider ...
(Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...
's armed wing) activists. Israeli officials accused Hezbollah of aiding Palestinian political violence
Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence perpetrated for political ends in relation to the State of Palestine or in connection with Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and soverei ...
and participating in weapon smuggling (see also: Santorini
Santorini ( el, Σαντορίνη, ), officially Thira (Greek: Θήρα ) and classical Greek Thera (English pronunciation ), is an island in the southern Aegean Sea, about 200 km (120 mi) southeast from the Greek mainland. It is the ...
, Karin A
Karin may refer to:
*Karin (given name)
Karin or Carin is a common feminine given name in various Germanic languages (geographically including Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Switzerland), and Estonia and Slovenia, and in some Fre ...
).
After Israel's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin ( ar, الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين; 1 January 1937 – 22 March 2004) was a Palestinian politician and imam who founded Hamas, a militant Islamist and Palestinian nationalist organiz ...
in March 2004, Hezbollah attacked the IDF along the Blue Line.
It has been claimed that a Hezbollah expert advised on construction of the bomb used for the March 2002 bombing of the Park Hotel.
On June 23, 2004, another allegedly Hezbollah-funded suicide bombing
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
attack was foiled by the Israeli security forces.
In February 2005 the Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian National Authority (PA or PNA; ar, السلطة الوطنية الفلسطينية '), commonly known as the Palestinian Authority and officially the State of Palestine, accused Hezbollah of attempting to derail the truce signed with Israel. Palestinian officials and former militants described how Hezbollah promised an increase in funding for any occupation resistance group able to carry out an attack on Israeli military targets.
UN resolution 1559
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 was a resolution sponsored by France and the United States and adopted on September 2, 2004. It called upon Syria to end its military presence in Lebanon by withdrawing its forces and to cease intervening in internal Lebanese politics. The resolution also called for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias". The Lebanese army did not disarm or disband Hezbollah prior to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Leva ...
.
2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict
Political activity
Early rivalry with Amal
Amal Amal may refer to:
* Amal (given name)
* Åmål, a small town in Sweden
* Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party
** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia
* Amal language of Papua New Guinea
* Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...
reached its peak of influence in Lebanese affairs in 1985, but was challenged by Hezbollah by claims that Amal collaborated with Israel and the United States and was inefficient and corrupt. This rivalry reached a peak in the latter part of 1990 that required a ceasefire, effective in December 1990.
Hassan Nasrallah
Hassan Nasrallah ( ar, حسن نصر الله ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Def ...
, elected leader of Hezbollah in 1992 after the assassination of Abbas Musawi, was responsible for the Beka'a area on behalf of the Amal Movement in the early 1980s. He left the organization in 1982 and affiliated with Hizbullah, taking with him many of his followers.
Lebanese election: 1992
In 1992, under pressure from Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
, Hezbollah agreed to participate in the 1992 elections. Hezbollah had previously refused to license itself as a political party, arguing that the system was corrupt.
Ali Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...
, supreme leader of Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, endorsed Hezbollah in the election. Former Hezbollah secretary general, Subhi al-Tufayli
Subhi al-Tufayli ( ar, صبحي الطفيلي) (born 1948) was the first Secretary-General or leader of Hezbollah for a year. Al-Tufayli is a Shia Islamist, but is a very vocal critic of Iran and the current Hezbollah leadership. He has been an ...
, contested this decision which led to schism in Hezbollah. Then Hezbollah published its political program which contains liberation of Lebanese land from Zionist occupation, abolishment of political sectarianism, ensuring political and media freedom, amending in electoral law to make it more representative of the populace. This program led to the victory of all of twelve seats which were on its electoral list. At the end of that year Hezbollah began to dialog with Lebanese Christians. Hezbollah regards cultural, political and religious freedoms in Lebanon as sanctified. This dialog expands to other groups except those who have relation with Israel.
This election was largely boycotted by Christian parties, which allowed a large number of independents to replace them in the parliament.[AME Inf]
Lebanon » History and Government
Accessed August 4, 2006 Hezbollah won a total of eight seats and Nabih Berri, Leader of Amal, was elected parliamentary speaker.
Lebanese election: 1996
Hezbollah's electoral platform for the 1996 elections prominently featured "Resisting the occupation" as a primary goal.[Hezbollah via Al-Manar TV and al-Mashri]
The Electoral Program of Hizbullah, 1996
Accessed August 6, 2006 The party announced its own nominees separate from the Syrian-backed coalition, which it refused to join.
Hezbollah won nine seats in 1996. Following the 1996 elections, Hariri continued as premier and the ex-Amal Amal may refer to:
* Amal (given name)
* Åmål, a small town in Sweden
* Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party
** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia
* Amal language of Papua New Guinea
* Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...
leader, Nabih Berri, continued as speaker of the assembly.
Lebanese election: 2000
The Lebanese election of 2000 saw Hezbollah forming an electoral alliance with Amal Amal may refer to:
* Amal (given name)
* Åmål, a small town in Sweden
* Amal Movement, a Lebanese political party
** Amal Militia, Amal Movement's defunct militia
* Amal language of Papua New Guinea
* Amal (film), ''Amal'' (film), 2007, directed ...
that took all 23 seats in South Lebanon (of 128 total). This was the first election to include South Lebanon since 1972, due to the intervening 1975–90 civil war and the Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
i occupation that followed.
Hezbollah and the "Cedar Revolution"
After the assassination of Rafik Hariri in February 2005, Hezbollah strongly supported Syria through demonstrations. On March 8, in response to the demonstrations of the Cedar Revolution which resulted in Syria's withdrawal, Hezbollah organized a counterdemonstration, reiterating Hezbollah's rejection of Resolution 1559 and its support for a Lebanese-Syrian alliance.
Lebanese election: 2005
After the 2005 elections, Hezbollah held 14 seats (up from eight previously in 2000) in the 128-member Lebanese Parliament. The Resistance and Development Bloc centered in South Lebanon won a total of 23 seats in the Second Round of voting only (of which Hezbollah was a part). Hezbollah won one seat in the First & Third Rounds of voting, and Hezbollah ended up with a total of 14 controlled seats as a part of the March 8 Alliance in the end. It also participated for the first time in the Lebanese government of July 2005
This is the list of the Lebanese government that was formed by Fouad Siniora on 19 July 2005 after the general elections of 2005, who was appointed by then president Émile Lahoud. All the main political blocs were included in it except for the F ...
. Hezbollah has two ministers in the government, and a third is Hezbollah-endorsed. It is primarily active in the Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
, and southern Lebanon.
2006–2008 crisis
In spite of having a foot inside the government, Hezbollah has been frequently at odds with certain members of Fouad Siniora
Fouad Siniora ( ar, فؤاد السنيورة, translit=Fu'ād as-Sanyūrah; born 19 July 1943) is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to 25 May 2008. He stepped down on 9 November 2009 ...
's cabinet and in early 2006 formed an alliance with Michel Aoun
Michel Naim Aoun ( ar, ميشال نعيم عون ; born 30 September 1933) is a Lebanese politician and former military general who served as the President of Lebanon from 31 October 2016 until 30 October 2022.
Born in Haret Hreik to a Mar ...
and his anti-Syrian Free Patriotic Movement.
2006 Lebanon War
The 2006 Lebanon War
The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, ''Ḥarb Tammūz'') and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, ''Milhemet Leva ...
, also called the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War ( ar, حرب تموز, Ḥarb Tammūz) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War ( he, מלחמת לבנון השנייה, Milhemet Levanon HaShniya), was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. Due to unprecedented Iranian military support to Hezbollah before and during the war, some consider it the first round of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict
The Iran–Israel proxy conflict, also known as the Iran–Israel proxy war or Iran–Israel Cold War, is an ongoing proxy war between Iran and Israel. The conflict involves threats and hostility by Iran's leaders against Israel, and their decla ...
, rather than a continuation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. On 11 August 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved UN Resolution 1701 in an effort to end the hostilities. The resolution, which was approved by both Lebanese and Israeli governments the following days, called for disarmament of Hezbollah, for withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon, and for the deployment of Lebanese soldiers and an enlarged United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the south.
2008 unrest
May 2008's crisis saw the worst sectarian fighting since Lebanon's civil war, with over 80 people killed and sections of West Beirut taken over by Hezbollah in a bid to push the Siniora government to give in to its demands.
2009–2010
In 2009, the United Nations special tribunal investigating the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri
Rafic Bahaa El Deen Al Hariri ( ar, رفيق بهاء الدين الحريري; 1 November 1944 – 14 February 2005) was a Lebanese business tycoon and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from ...
reportedly found evidence linking Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
to the murder.
In October 2010, Hezbollah conducted a drill simulating a takeover of Lebanon – an operation which it threatened was to be carried out in the event that the international tribunal for the assassination of Hariri indicts Hezbollah.
Syrian Civil War
In the Syrian Civil War, Hezbollah supported the government of Bashar al-Assad. Though Hezbollah denied it for a time, this included direct military support.
Notes
Literature
* Bregman, Ahron (2002). ''Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947''. London: Routledge.
* Judith Palmer Harik (2006
''Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism''
I.B. Tauris. .
* Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh (2004)
In The Path Of Hizbullah
'. Syracuse University Press.
*Hala Jaber
Hala Jaber is a Lebanese-British journalist. She was born in West Africa and writes for ''The Sunday Times''.
Work
Her first book, ''Hezbollah: Born With a Vengeance'', was published in 1997. The book describes the rise and political agenda of ...
(1997)
Hezbollah
'. Columbia University Press.
*Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
Amal Abdo Saad-Ghorayeb ( ar, أمل سعد غريب) is a Lebanese writer and political analyst known for her writings on the Israeli–Lebanese conflict and Hezbollah.
Life
Saad-Ghorayeb was an assistant professor of political science at the Leb ...
(2001)
Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion
'. London: Pluto Press.
* Judith Palmer Harik (2004)
Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism
'. I.B Tauris.
* Augustus Richard Norton (1987).
Amal and the Shi'a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon
' (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1987)
* Augustus Richard Norton (2000). Hizballah of Lebanon: Extremist Ideals vs. Mundane Politics. Council on Foreign Relations.
* Augustus Richard Norton (2007).
Hezbollah: A Short History
'. Princeton University Press. .
*Naim Qassem
Naim Qassem ( ar, نعيم قاسم; born 1953) is a Shia Lebanese cleric and politician, who was the second-in-command of Hezbollah with the title of deputy secretary-general.
Early life and education
Qassem was born into a Shiite family in Kfar ...
(2005)
Hizbullah: The Story from Within
'. Saqi Books.
*Magnus Ranstorp
Per Magnus Ranstorp (born 13 March 1965 in Hästveda) is a Swedish scholar who has written about Hezbollah, Hamas, Al-Qaeda and other militant Islamic movements. He is the Research Director of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the ...
(1996)
Hizb'Allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis
'. St. Martin's Press.
*Jamal Sankari
Jamal ( ar, جمال ''/'') is an Arabic masculine given name, meaning "beauty",[Jamal]
at BehindTheName.com and a surna ...
(2005)
Fadlallah: The Making of a Radical Shi'ite Leader
'. Saqi Books.
* Tom Diaz, Barbara Newman (2005)
Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil
'. Presidio Press.
* Avi Jorisch (2004)
Beacon of Hatred: Inside Hizballahs Al-Manar Television
'. Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Hezbollah
Hezbollah
Israeli–Lebanese conflict
History of militant organizations