Hezbollah

Hezbollah (Arabic ‮حزب الله‬, meaning Party of God, for other designations or alternative spellings, see 'name 'part of this article) is a political and military party in Lebanon founded in 1982 to fight Israel in southern Lebanon. It is regarded by many in the Arab and Muslim world as a legitimate militant Shia political party in Lebanon and by many in the Western world, by various non-Arab governments, and by the Israeli government as an Islamist terrorist or Islamic fundamentalist organization. In addition to its military wing, Hezbollah maintains a civilian arm, which runs hospitals, various news services, and eductional facilities.

History

Origins

Hezbollah was formed from numerous other Lebanese Shia groups shortly after Israel's 1982 invasion, largely fought in mainly Shia southern Lebanon. The group was conceived by Iran, or at least was aided in its inception by the arrival in Lebanon of 1,500 Islamic revolutionary guards from Iran, three years after that country's own Islamic Revolution in 1979. Iran, as an Islamic republic ? a Shia one ? remains a close ally, financial backer, arms supplier and model for Hezbollah. Syria backs Hezbollah morally and has also supplied it with money and arms, such as Katyusha rockets. In return, Hezbollah protects Syria's interests in Lebanon and aligns with Syria in its confrontation with Israel over the occupation of the Golan Heights.

Related Topics:
Shia - Israel's 1982 invasion - Lebanon - Iran - Islamic revolutionary guards - Syria - Katyusha rockets - Golan Heights

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4314423.stm

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One of the main objective of Hezbollah at the time was to spread the Iranian Revolution. Since then, the party has publicly declared that it will suspend its attempts to create an islamic state in Lebanon "because the conditions are not met". It remained underground for a number of years and did not make a public announcement of its existence till 1985, until which time its earliest members operated under the auspices of the "Lebanese National Resistance", an amalgam of forces united in their opposition to the Israeli invasion.

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Hezbollah during the Lebanese war (1982-1990)

Combat Operations

After emerging during the civil war of the early 1980s as an Iranian-sponsored second militia (besides Amal) for Lebanon's Shia community, Hezbollah focused on expelling Israeli and Western forces from Lebanon. It is the principal suspect in several notable attacks on the American, French and Italian Multinational peacekeeping force, whose claimed purpose was the stabilization of Lebanon: the suicide bombings of the U.S. Embassy, which killed 63 including 17 Americans, of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut (see 1983 Beirut barracks bombing), which killed 241 American servicemen, and of the French multinational force headquarters which killed 58 French troops. Seven months after the U.S. withdrew its forces from Lebanon a second attack upon the United States embassy annex in Beirut in September 1984 killed 20 people including two Americans.http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/20/newsid_2525000/2525197.stm.

Related Topics:
Amal - Shia - Suicide bombing - U.S. Embassy - U.S. Marine - Beirut - 1983 Beirut barracks bombing - United States - Embassy - 1984

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Elements of the group have been linked to involvement in kidnapping, detention and torture of American and other Western hostages in Lebanon by groups such as Islamic Jihad who claimed the hostage-takings were in retaliation to the detentions, hostage-taking and torture by the Israeli ally South Lebanon Army (SLA).

Related Topics:
Torture - Hostage - Islamic Jihad - South Lebanon Army

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There may also have been (attempted) terrorist attacks against Hezbollah. According to Bob Woodward's book Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, the CIA asked Elie Hobeika to kill Hezbollah's spiritual leader Fadlallah, but asked for minimal bloodshed. The assassination attempt failed to kill Fadlallah but more than 80 civilans died. The fiasco lead the CIA to terminate its relationship with Elie Hobeika.

Related Topics:
Bob Woodward - Elie Hobeika - Fadlallah

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Alleged Terrorism

Using names like the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth and the Revolutionary Justice Organization, Hezbollah is also believed by the United States to have kidnapped and tortured to death U.S. Army colonel William R. Higgins and the CIA Station Chief in Beirut, William Buckley, and to have kidnapped around 30 other Westerners between 1982 and 1992, including the American journalist Terry Anderson, British journalist John McCarthy, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy Terry Waite and Irish citizen Brian Keenan. Hezbollah was accused by the US government to be behind the suicide truck bombings that killed 241 U.S. Marines in their barracks in Beirut in 1983; to be responsible of the 1984 truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 24; the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome. Hezbollah denies involvement in these attacks.

Related Topics:
William R. Higgins - William Buckley - Terry Anderson - John McCarthy - Terry Waite - Brian Keenan - TWA Flight 847

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The South Lebanon period (1990-2000)

The continued existence of Hezbollah's military wing after 1990 violates the Taif Agreement that ended the Lebanese civil war, which requires the "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias" and requires the government to "deploy the Lebanese army in the border area adjacent to Israel." The Lebanese government did not try to disarm the Hezbollah during the 1990-2000 period, justifying its position by the fact that Hezbollah was fighting for the liberation of the south, then occupied by Israel.

Related Topics:
Taif Agreement - Lebanese civil war

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Conflict in South Lebanon

South Lebanon was occupied by Israel between 1982 and 2000. Hezbollah fought a guerilla war against Israel and the South Lebanon Army. The fighting culminated during Operation Grapes of Wrath in April 1996 when Israel launched an assault and air-campaign against Hezbollah. The campaign failed and resulted in the Israelis killing more than 100 civilians in one incident alone (see Qana).

Related Topics:
Operation Grapes of Wrath - Qana

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In January 2000, Hezbollah assassinated the commander of the Israeli proxy South Lebanon Army Western Brigade, Colonel Aql Hashem, at his home in the security zone. Hashem had been responsible for day to day operations of the SLA.http://www.asylumlaw.org/docs/lebanon/ind01b_lebanon_ca.pdf

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In May 2000, Israel withdrew its army from south Lebanon. This was widely considered a victory for Hezbollah and boosted its popularity in Lebanon. The move did not end the conflict because Hezbollah is still contesting Israel's control of the Shebaa farms region.

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Hezbollah's role in the Israeli withdrawal from southern gained the organization respect in Lebanon, particularly among the country's Shia community, which comprises 40% of Lebanon's three million citizens. The President of Lebanon, Emile Lahoud, said: "For us Lebanese, and I can tell you a 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." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/18/60minutes/main550000.shtml.

Related Topics:
President of Lebanon - Emile Lahoud

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However, others in Lebanon, particularly the Christian community, criticize the movement as extremist and divisive. Michel Aoun, a prominent Christian parliamentarian, has repeatedly called for Hizbullah's disarmament. Saad Hariri and his Sunni bloc also favor disarmament, though with more equivocation than Aoun. Walid Jumblatt, the paramount Druze leader, supports Hizbullah retaining its arms, though at times he has suggested that Hizbullah could be folded into the Lebanese military. Overall, many prominent Lebanese politicians resist international pressure to disarm Hizbullah, saying that Hizbullah is an internal Lebanese issue. The common fear among Lebanese is that the army might disintegrate if the attempt were made to disarm Hizbullah without its consent.

Related Topics:
Michel Aoun - Saad Hariri - Walid Jumblatt

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Alleged Terrorism

Note: Hezbollah has been suspected or accused of complicity in the following attacks although they deny involvement.

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• On February 16, 1992 Abbas al-Musawi, Hezbollah's secretary was killed by an Israeli helicopter. On March 17 1992, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was car-bombed. Responsibility for the attack that killed 29 people was claimed by a group that identified itself as Islamic Jihad. The stated motive was retaliation for Israel's assassination of Abbas al-Musawi.
• On July 18, 1994 a Jewish community center in Argentina was bombed (AMIA Bombing) killing 85 people. A Lebanon-based group called "Partisans of God" claimed to be the author of the attack. The Argentinian government formally charged Imad Mughniyah as a suspect in both attacks.
• On July 19, 1994 a Panamanian flight was bombed in the (Alas Chiricanas bombing) leaving 21 people dead, incluing 12 Jews. The bombing was claimed by an unknown group called Ansar Allah.
• On July 26, 1994 eight days after the AMIA Bombing in Argentina, a car bomb exploded outside the Israeli embassy in London, injuring 14 people. Thirteen hours later a similar car bomb exploded outside a Jewish charity in North London.

Hezbollah after the Israeli withdrawal

In May 22, 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanon to the UN-agreed Israeli border, and their pullout was certified by the UN as completehttp://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2000/20000618.sc6878.doc.html. However, Hezbollah claims the Shebaa Farms, a 28 sq. km. area, which is still occupied by Israel, to be Lebanese territory, and on that basis has continued to attack Israeli forces in that area. The UN recognizes the Shebaa farms as part of the Golan Heights, and thus occupied Syrian (and not Lebanese) territory.

Related Topics:
May 22 - 2000 - Lebanon - Shebaa Farms

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Israel continues to overfly Lebanese territory, eliciting condemnation from the UN Secretary-General's representative in Lebanon. Hezbollah's anti-aircraft fire has on some occasions landed within the northern border region of Israel, inciting condemnation from the UN Secretary-General http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=449. On November 7, 2004, Hezbollah responded to what it described as repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace by flying an unmanned drone aircraft over northern Israel.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3990773.stm

Related Topics:
November 7 - 2004 - Unmanned drone aircraft - Israel

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Hezbollah abducted three IDF soldiers during an October 2000 attack in Shebaa Farms, and sought to obtain the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners, some of whom had been held since 1978. On January 25, 2004, Hezbollah and Israel agreed on an exchange of prisoners. 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 kidnapped in 2001 and the remains of the three IDF soldiers mentioned above, who may have been killed during the Hezbollah operation.

Related Topics:
IDF - Soldier - 1978 - January 25 - 2004 - January 29 - 2001

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On July 19, 2004, a senior Hezbollah official, Ghaleb Awwali, was assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut. Hezbollah blamed Israel; credit was claimed, and then retracted, by a previously unheard of Sunni group called Jund Ash Sham, while Israel denied involvementhttp://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2004/07/19/story157767.asp. According to Al-Arabiya, unidentified Lebanese police also identified the group as a cover for Israelhttp://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aGFhFUAb_8d0&refer=top_world_news. Israel alleges that Hezbollah had been increasingly involved in training and arming Hamas (see section in this article: Hezbollah activities in the al-Aqsa Intifada.) This claim has been strengthened by Nasrallah's own words. In 2001 Jordan arrested three Hezbollah members attempting to smuggle Katyusha rockets into the West Bank. Nasrallah responded that "it is a duty to send arms to Palestinians from any possible place."http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/lebanon/2004/0914lcard.htmhttp://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=6519 After Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin Hezbollah attacked the IDF along the Blue Linehttp://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?article_ID=1315&categ_ID=2&edition_id=1. Most recently, during Awwali's funeral, Nasrallah proclaimed that Aawali was "among the team that dedicated their lives in the last few years to help their brothers in occupied Palestine"http://www.moqawama.org/archive/drep_2004/july/dr_0720.htm, which some take to refer to aiding Hamas. On February 9, 2005 Palestinian Authority officials blamed Hezbollah of attempting to derail the recent truce between Israel and Palestine by offering increased funding and bonuses to the militant cells it operates in Israel and Palestine for any terrorist attack they carry outhttp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20050209/wl_nm/mideast_hizbollah_dc http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20050209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/hezbollah_threat.

Related Topics:
July 19 - 2004 - Ghaleb Awwali - Beirut - Sunni - Jund Ash Sham - Al-Arabiya - Hamas - Ahmed Yassin - Blue Line - February 9 - 2005 - Palestinian Authority

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UN resolution 1559

On September 2, 2004 the UN Security Council adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1559, authored by France and the U.S. in an uncommon show of cooperation. Echoing the Taif Agreement, the resolution "calls upon all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon" and "for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias." Lebanon is currently in violation of Resolution 1559 over its refusal to disband the military wing of Hezbollah. Syria was also in violation of the resolution until recently because of their military presence in Lebanon.

Related Topics:
September 2 - 2004 - UN Security Council - UN Security Council Resolution 1559 - Agreement

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On October 7, 2004 the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported to the Security Council regarding the lack of compliance with Resolution 1559. Mr. Annan concluded his report by saying: "It is time, 14 years after the end of hostilities and four years after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, for all parties concerned to set aside the remaining vestiges of the past. The withdrawal of foreign forces and the disbandment and disarmament of militias would, with finality, end that sad chapter of Lebanese history." http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12147&Cr=lebanon&Cr1=

Related Topics:
October 7 - 2004 - UN Secretary General - Kofi Annan

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The January 20, 2005 UN Secretary-General's report on Lebanon states: "The continually asserted position of the Government of Lebanon that the Blue Line is not valid in the Shab'a farms area is not compatible with Security Council resolutions. The Council has recognized the Blue Line as valid for purposes of confirming Israel?s withdrawal pursuant to resolution 425 (1978). The Government of Lebanon should heed the Council?s repeated calls for the parties to respect the Blue Line in its entirety." http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sc8299.doc.htm

Related Topics:
January 20 - 2005

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On January 28, 2005 UN Security Council Resolution 1583 called upon the Government of Lebanon to fully extend and exercise its sole and effective authority throughout the south, including through the deployment of sufficient numbers of Lebanese armed and security forces, to ensure a calm environment throughout the area, including along the Blue Line, and to exert control over the use of force on its territory and from it. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sc8299.doc.htm

Related Topics:
January 28 - 2005 - UN Security Council Resolution 1583

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Hezbollah activities in the al-Aqsa Intifada

Main article: al-Aqsa Intifada

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In December 2001 three Hezbollah operatives were caught in Jordan while attempting to smuggle BM-13 Katyusha rockets into the West Bank. Nasrallah responded that "It is a duty to send arms to Palestinians from any possible place."http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=6519

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During 2002, 2003 and 2004, the Israeli Security Forces thwarted numerous suicide bombing attacks, some of which Israel claims were planned and funded by Hezbollah and were to have been carried out by Tanzim activists. Israeli officials accused Hezbollah of aiding Palestinian terrorism and participating in weapon smuggling (see also: Santorini, Karin A).

Related Topics:
2002 - 2003 - 2004 - Israeli Security Forces - Suicide bombing - Tanzim - Palestinian terrorism - Santorini - Karin A

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On June 16, 2004, two Palestinian girls ? aged 14 and 15 ? were arrested by the IDF for plotting a suicide bombing. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/439981.html According to IDF statement, the two minors were recruited by Tanzim (Fatah's armed wing) activists, and guided by Hezbollah. http://www1.idf.il/DOVER/site/mainpage.asp?sl=EN&id=7&docid=32081.EN

Related Topics:
June 16 - 2004 - IDF - Tanzim - Fatah

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On June 23, 2004, another allegedly Hezbollah-funded suicide bombing attack was foiled by the Israeli security forces. http://www.maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=8960.

Related Topics:
June 23 - 2004 - Suicide bombing - Israeli security forces

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In February 2005 the Palestinian Authority 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 cell able to carry out a terrorist attack http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=736&e=1&u=/ap/20050209/ap_on_re_mi_ea/hezbollah_threat.

Related Topics:
February - 2005 - Palestinian Authority

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Since the May 2000 Israeli withdrawal, Hezbollah has continued fighting the Israel Defense Forces around the disputed 10 km²-Shebaa Farms area on the Lebanese-Syrian border. Although the UN regards Shebaa Farms ? 14 farms on the western slope of Mount Hermon, near the village of Shebaa — as Syrian territory, Hezbollah considers the area a part of Lebanon. The Shebaa farms were taken by Israel from Syria during the 1967 war. Syria was asked to notify the UN that it considered the Shebaa farms to be part of Lebanon, but no official statement was ever sent. This has led some specialists to believe that Hezbollah?s attempt to recapture the area was a Syrian-backed pretext to keep Israel under military pressure. Some argue that Hezbollah is being used by Syria and Iran as a proxy against Israel. http://www.merip.org/mero/mero042803.html

Related Topics:
Israel Defense Forces - Shebaa Farms - 1967 war - Proxy

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Hezbollah and the cedar revolution

After the assassination of Rafik Hariri in February 2005 Hezbollah strongly supported Syria's presence through demonstrations. It opposed the cedar revolution which resulted in Syria's withdrawal. However Hezbollah won a number of representatives during the parliamentary elections of May 2005 and managed to join the government in July 2005 in the name of national unity. Hezbollah still holds a large quantity of weapons and the subject remains extremely controversial in Lebanon.

Related Topics:
Rafik Hariri - Cedar revolution - Government in July 2005

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Post-Lebanese election

After the 2005 elections, Hezbollah held 23 seats (up from eight previously) in the 128-member Lebanese Parliament. It also participated for the first time in the Lebanese government that was formed in July 2005. Hezbolla 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, and southern Lebanon. The group is headed by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and is financed largely by Iran and Syria, though it also raises funds itself through charities and commercial activities.

Related Topics:
2005 elections - 2005 - Bekaa Valley - Beirut - Hassan Nasrallah

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