Over the past six weeks,
hundreds and hundreds of articles have been published describing Hezbollah as a
terrorist group.Those who have
supported Israel’s war crimes against the Lebanese people have certainly made this
claim, with Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Peter MacKay, going so far as to
describe Hezbollah as a “cancer” in the Middle East when testifying in front of
the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.
However, even a
cursory review of some of the group’s literature and published interviews with
Hezbollah leaders reveals the organization has always opposed terrorism and in
fact has consistently denounced terrorist acts carried out by other
Islamic-based groups. (Hezbollah, for example, issued a statement condemning
the attacks on the World Trade Centre on September 12, 2001.Most recently, the group condemned the
beheading of Nicholas Burg by al-Qaeda in Iraq, calling it “an act of terror
and an affront to Islam.”)
The organization
that became Hezbollah (“Party of God”) was formed in Lebanon
in 1982 as an ad hoc coalition of
Shia Muslim groups aimed at resisting Israel’s invasion of the
country.From this inception, the group
has unequivocally declared its right to resist Israeli and all foreign aggression.In an interview with the Washington Post
conducted months before Israel’s
withdrawal from Lebanon
in 2000, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was asked: “Western
countries have often associated Islam with terrorism. What is Hezbollah's perspective
on this and what message would you like to convey to the American public and
policy makers about this?”Nasrallah
replied: “In truth, the most conspicuous examples of terrorism are the actions
undertaken by Israel in
occupying Palestine
and other Arab territories, its aggression against peaceful civilians and civilian installations, its destruction of villages and
water sources, and the tremendous damage which it aggressively inflicts. All of
this is done under the full protection of the American administration and with
its help in the form of funds, weapons and political support. Truly, this is
the terrorism. We are involved in legitimate resistance which is fully
justified. This is what all people do when their land is occupied.”
While Hezbollah
emerged following Israel’s
invasion of Lebanon,
according to several reports, the group was officially founded on February 16,
1985, with the declaration of the group’s manifesto.Published in pamphlet form, the manifesto
declares Hezbollah has three primary objectives:
1.To expel the Americans, the French and their allies
definitely from Lebanon,
putting an end to any colonialist entity on our land;
2.To submit the Phalanges [the Israeli-backed Lebanese
militia which assisted Israel
in its occupation of Lebanon]
to a just power and bring them all to justice for the crimes they have
perpetrated against Muslims and Christians;
3.To permit all the sons of our people to determine their
future and to choose in liberty the form of government they desire. We call
upon all of them to pick the option of Islamic government which, alone, is
capable of guaranteeing justice and liberty for all. Only an Islamic regime can
stop any further tentative attempts of imperialistic infiltration into our
country.
The pamphlet further
states:“As for our friends, they are
all the world's oppressed peoples. Our friends are also those who combat our
enemies and who defend us from their evil. Towards these friends, individuals
as well as organizations, we turn and say: Friends, wherever you are in
Lebanon... we are in agreement with you on the great and necessary objectives:
destroying American hegemony in our land; putting an end to the burdensome
Israeli Occupation; beating back all the Phalangists' attempts to monopolize
power and administration.
Even though we
have, friends, quite different viewpoints as to the means of the struggle, on
the levels upon which it must be carried out, we should surmount these tiny
divergences and consolidate cooperation between us in view of the grand
design.”
Characterized in
recent years by the Bush administration and Israel
and its apologists as “fanatics” and “Islamo-fascists”
seeking to impose a “Taliban-like state in Lebanon”, Hezbollah has always
stressed that it does not believe Islam can be imposed on an unwilling
population.In the founding manifesto,
the group declares:“… we don't want to
impose Islam upon anybody, as much as we don’t want that others impose upon us
their convictions and their political systems. We don't want Islam to reign in Lebanon by
force as is the case with the Maronites today.”
This view has
remained consistent.In an interview
with an editor from The Nation in
1999, Hezbollah’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah, said, “We believe the
requirement for an Islamic state is to have an overwhelming popular desire, and
we're not talking about fifty percent plus one, but a large majority. And this
is not available in Lebanon
and probably never will be.”
Unlike many
other Islamic movements, Hezbollah also not only recognizes the role of women
but actually enables women to fully participate in political and social
life.While Hezbollah’s armed wing was
concerned primarily with resisting the Israeli occupation, its social wing has
also been active since the group’s formation, providing food, health care and
other social services as well as building and repairing homes, schools and
hospitals destroyed during the two decades of Israeli invasion and civil
war.Special emphasis was placed on
creating services that would assist women – daycares, neighbourhood
communal kitchens, residences for the elderly – to enable women to work outside
the home.
In the 1990s,
Hezbollah also created a political wing, which participated in the Lebanese
elections of 1996 and currently holds 28 seats in the Lebanese parliament, with
three members in cabinet.
Nasrallah
assumed the role of Secretary General in 1992, after Israel assassinated Abbas
Musawi.By all accounts, Nasrallah has
played a critical role in both broadening support for Hezbollah throughout Lebanon as well
as in strengthening the group’s military wing.Nasrallah refused point blank to disarm the group following Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in
2000, noting: “We believe that it serves
the Lebanese interest [not to disarm].The Israelis are afraid of war and afraid of peace. They do not want
peace even in the [limited] extent accepted by some of the Arabs. This is the
nature of a people that isolates itself, this is the
nature of a racist people..."Nasrallah maintained that disarming would be an act of treason, one
which would enable another foreign occupation of Lebanon.
Nasrallah has consistently maintained that Israel is not a legitimate
state.In an interview published on June
21, 1999, in the Syrian newspaper Thisreen,
he noted “Everybody talks nowadays about accepting the reality and coexistence,
or any other form of settlement with Israel. But I view realism in a
different way. Israel
is an illegal usurper entity, which is based on falsehood, massacres, and
illusions, and there is no chance for its survival. This is the historical rule
that governs human societies. It goes back to its [Israel's] hostile and exploiting
nature."
This, and similar quotes, have been used by Israel and its apologists to paint Hezbollah as
an extremist group which seeks to destroy the state of Israel.It is therefore worth comparing Nasrallah’s comments to those published in The Guardian
on Sept. 15, 2003, in an article written by Avraham Burg, a former speaker of
the Israeli Knesset.“The Zionist
revolution has always rested on two pillars: a just path and an ethical
leadership. Neither of these is operative any longer. The Israeli nation today
rests on a scaffolding of corruption, and on foundations of oppression and
injustice. As such, the end of the Zionist enterprise is already on our
doorstep. There is a real chance that ours will be the last Zionist generation.
There may yet be a Jewish state here, but it will be a different sort, strange
and ugly.”
Nasrallah and
other Hezbollah leaders have also repeatedly stressed a distinction between
Zionism and the Jewish people.Nasrallah, in an interview on Lebanese TV on the question of the state
of Israel,
said, “any Jewish minority in a Palestinian state must
be protected by the Muslim majority”, describing the co-existence of Jews and
Muslims as part of “Islam’s proud heritage”.