Hizb'Allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis

Key takeaways

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Reading notes

• Prior to 1982 and the formation of hizbollah, most inside and outside lebanon considered shiites to be politically irellevant

• The Najaf Background of Hizballah

• The origin of the radical networks of movements that merged to form hizbollah can be traced back to the 1960-70s of the religious academies of south iraq

• Shrine city of Najaf (holds eminance amongst shias in relation to first martys)

• Also close to the Da'wa revolutionary movement

• Iran had longstanding connections to lebanon via the historical ties to the shias of Jabal Amil (South Lebanon) which dates back to the 16th century when the safavids established shiism as the official religion in the persian empire

• The conflict that arose with the clerics and the Ba'ath regime had a strong influence on the political mobilisation of the shia community

• Ba'ath regime was repressive towards shia clergy and deproted them

• Iraqa al-Da'wa al-Islamiyya was a forerunner tot eh creation of hizbollah- provided the revolutionary ideological basies of the current movement in lebanon

• Both parties grow from the cocnern of rising secularism within their societies and communities and later as a counter to leftist and nationalist rhetoric

• Two main indiviudals were al-Sadr in Iraq who founded Da'wa and Shikh Muhammad Hussein Fadallah in Lebanon

• The laters more revolutionary tendencies only grew after the civil war started- solidified in July 1976 when the shia community with the Shiekh among them beign forcibly evicted from the slum district of Beirut by Chrisitan militas

• The lebanese da'wa wing came under the ideological guidance of al-Sadr

• Iraqi Ba'ath regime attempted to assasinate the Sheikh because of this connection

• Leabnease da'wa began to dissolve following the execution of Baquer al-Sadr by the Ba'ath regime

• Also the time the leadership of Da'wa in Lebanon began to integrate into hizbollah

• The shia community rose as a major political and military force against hte backdrop of social exclusion and economic depreivation in lebanon

• Three major events transformed the shia community;

• Disappearnce of Imam Musa al-Sadr in August 1978

• Israels invasion of sothern lebanon in 1978

• Establishment of a shia government in iran in 1979

• Though it was the invasion of israel in 1982 that provided the seminal event that facilited radical and militant shia movemetns

• The influence of Israels 1982 invasion for the creation of hizbollah

• Initial pleasure from hsia communities at the israelis mission to eradicate the PLO from lebanon turned into militancy following a realisation that israel had no intention to leave their occupation

• Lebanon offered iran an oppurtunity to test its exporting of revolutionary ideals

• Berri's belief in reconciliation over confronttation led to a major split in Amal (iran enocuraed indiviudals to move from Da'wa to infiltrate Amal)

• The split occured when Berri decided to join the National Salvation committee formed by president Ilyas Sarkis in mid June 1982

• Due to the unorganised relationhsip that many of the clerics had, iran found it initially hard to consolidate opposition to amal and the more radical thoughts into one orgnaisation

• The establishment and expanison of the hizbollah

• Phase 1: the establishment of hizbollah in the Biq'a

• Syrai agreed to alllow Iranian revolutionary guards into Lebanon in return for access to iranian oil supplies

• Althought the bulk of the force were instructers and soldiers, there were also some readical clergy among them that offered spiritual guidance

• Hizbollah shiekh nam al-Qassim 'the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard does not fight in southern lebanon. However, it is know that some of its members are present in teh al-Biq'a aread; they play and educational and training role and do not participate in other matters''

• There was a deep relationship between clerics translating iranian revolutionary shia teachings and the lebanese clerics translating from persian to arabic