Chapter 5

Key takeaways

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Reading notes

• Hizballah emerged in direct response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and its main activitiy for much of the 1980s was resistance

• Called for an islamic revolution and an islaimc state under the aegis of the islamic republic of Iran and modelled on wilayat al-faqih

• To achieve this lebanon had to be freed from Israel but also from its own secular, sectarian structures

• Lebanon would join an islamic republic soon to be followed by Iraq with Iran freeing them from US domination

• Hizballah have now moved away from this rhetoric into a field of mostly secular, defence of lebanese territory- agreeing certain terms of engagement with the Israelis

• Also reached out to christians and sunnis

• Origins of Hizballah

• Emerged out of three converging phenomena:

• 1970s political revival among Lebanons shia

• Modernisation and the onset of civil war in 1975 undermined the authroity of the shi notable families and alloowed for greater political mobilisation

• Socioeconcomi changes birtherd a new counter-elite and an impoverished underclass within the shia community

• Increased poximity due to urbanisation highlighted inequality and reinforced their sense of communal injustice

• Politically these issues expressed themsevles in two ways

• Shia clergy shedding traditional political quietism

• Hizballah emreged from this religious trend

• Dominated by two movements

• Movement of the disinherited

• Established by Imam Musa Al-Sadr seeking to counter corruption and ineffectiveness of the shia elite and to cimprove circumstances for shia

• Did not question the lebanese state or its multiconfessional nature

• Durign 1975 it established a milita called Amal- expanded exponetnially after 1978

• Following the disappearance of Sadr in 1978 the part began to abandon its religious rootsand under Nabih Berri became increasingly secular

• Berri's 1983 decision to join the National Reconciliation Committee (de facto governemtn) was the last straw

• Each of Hizballahs three secretaries general were once a member of Amal

• Hussain al-Musawi one of the co-founders of Hizballah and VP of Amal until 1982 left to form 'Islamic Amal'

• Lebanese Da'wa Party (affiliate Lebanese association of Muslim students)

• Linked to Sayyed Muhammad Hissein Fadllah

• Dalallah and his followers questions the very legitimacy of the lebanase state- a regional vision based on affiliation with islam

• The explusion of leabnese clerics studying in najaf under the increasingly anti-shia ba'th reime in iraq also led to growth of the Da'wa party

• Da'wa supporters became increasingly politicised spurred by the successes of Amal and the communist party

• Lebanese islamic da'wa party (had HQ in Iraq)

• Various left-wing political movemnets

• Leabanese communist parties and the establishment of the PLO militias in Lebanon created a secondary catylst for mobilisation amongst shias

• Islamist euphoria created by the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran

• Galvanised both Amal and Da'wa part

• Made avaibale new financial and politicl oppurtunities

• Iran had an active desire to forge closer links with shia communities as well as counter isralei influence

• Resistance to israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon

• Shia populations suffered disportionalty to isralei invasion

• It also left a power vaccum in teh south where the Palestinian militias had been destroyed

• Iran sent a contingent of revolutionary guards

• Allowed shias to establish an islamic order in the enclaves tehy dominated

• Amal initiially sided with the israelis because of its own struggle agaisnt the palestinians (syrias long term political ally int eh region- amal)

• Hizbohllah stepped into the gap amal left behind, becomign syrias 'proxy' army

• Replaced palestinian militais as a deidcatde fighting force, repalced Amal as Iran's and briefly syrias favourite shia party, and seeds were laid for Hizbohalah to take Amal's mantle as the part of the people as Amal had been more and more integrated itno the elite pact governing the country

• The bulk of hizbahllahs support came from inside the Da'wa party and from the more religiously inclined of the Amal movement

• Some also switched from the communist and Palestinian militias

• Few from hizbahllah came from elite familes- more and more had degrees but were not apart of elite society

• The less attached Hizbahlahh become towards lebanese society, the more it became attracted to the Iranian solution

• It emerged from a bloody invasion; 19,000 deaths, 32,000 casulaties and damgage to 80% of the souths villages

• Ensuing occupation consolidated the sense of outrage

• Its methods werea  relfection of the current climate

• Support from iran ensured that hard-liners within Hizbohallah prevalied

• Hizbahllahs initial approach was one fueled by utopian and uncompromising radicalism and that its methods were those made popular by the violent practices of the civil war