Lina Khatib - The Hizbullah Phenomenon

Politics and Communication

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Copyright 2014 Lina Khatib, Dina Matar, Atef Alshaer

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Khatib, Lina.

The Hizbullah phenomenon : politics and communication / Lina Khatib, Dina Matar, Atef Alshaer.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-19-938440-2 (paperback)

eISBN 978-0-19-025758-3

1. Hizballah (Lebanon) 2. Political parties--Lebanon. 3. Lebanon--Politics and government. I. Matar, Dina. II. Alshaer, Atef. III. Title.

JQ1828.A98H62466 2014

324.25692082--dc23

2014004953

Dina Matar and Lina Khatib

Lina Khatib

Dina Matar and Atef Alshaer with Lina Khatib

Lina Khatib

Atef Alshaer

Dina Matar

Lina Khatib and Dina Matar

The authors would like to thank the Leverhulme Trust in the UK for generously supporting the research for this book through a Research Project Grant.

Thanks are due to the following people who have assisted with research: Jacqueline Barkett, Mona El-Hamdani, Elizabeth Buckner, Hikmat El-Khatib, Hisham Issa, Maha Issa, Zahera Harb, Tarik Harb, the Harb family in Lebanon, Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Yousef Chweiri, Sophia Saadeh, Muna Sukkariyeh and Kay Dickinson; Khalil Ahmad Issa for reciting some of the poems quoted in ; and Hizbullahs Media Relations Department personnel.

Thanks to Elias Muhanna for providing valuable comments on parts of this book and to Nadim Shehadi for his support.

An early version of

Hizbullah, the Lebanese Party of God, is a late twentieth-century phenomenon, the outcome of a series of socio-historical and political junctures marked by domestic political upheaval and regional conflicts. It also has long-term strategic links with Syria, which has acted as a conduit for the supply of arms and personnel from Iran and serves as an important ally in domestic politics. In the space of thirty years, Hizbullah has established itself as the most powerful political force in Lebanon and as a dynamic actor in the broader region through its use of a sophisticated political communication strategy which blends military, social, economic and religious elements while remaining adaptive to changing socio-political contexts. This strategy, as this book will show, has been a central tool that the group has used to disseminate its image and ideology.

Hizbullahs emergence as an Islamic jihadi group in 1982 came at a new nadir in Lebanons prolonged and complex history of domestic In 1969 he became head of the Lebanese Supreme Shiite Council and in 1974 he founded the Movement of the Deprived to help the poor and dispossessed in Lebanon regardless of their sectarian or ethnic affiliations, although the movement came to be strongly associated with the Shiite community. A year later he established the paramilitary group Afwaj al-muqawama al-lubnaniya (the Brigades of the Lebanese Resistance), known by its acronym Amal, an activist movement involved in social and political reform and the liberation of South Lebanon.

Hizbullah bears many similarities to the other Islamist parties that emerged in the twentieth century. But unlike other regional Islamist movements, such as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, whose principal raison dtre was to oppose authoritarian regimes, Hizbullah emerged in a country with a long history of open struggles, where power with other political forces in Lebanon.

Hizbullahs ideological aims and political intentions were not made public until the publication of its 1985 manifesto, the Open Letter. This document detailed the groups ideology and presented an image of Hizbullah as a grassroots Islamist jihadi movement that sought to establish an Islamic state in Lebanon on a similar basis to Irans wilayat al-faqih (the guardianship of the jurisprudence)

To this end, when competing Lebanese factions signed the Taif Accord (which ended the countrys fifteen-year civil war in 1989), Hizbullah began a concerted policy of infitah, or opening up, which was designed to integrate the movement into the Lebanese political and social spheres and to ease its transformation into a distinct Lebanese political party. This goal was to be achieved largely by playing according tothough also by manipulatingthe rules set by the existing political regime. Thus in 1992, headed by the charismatic Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah as its Secretary General, the group participated in Lebanons first post-civil war elections, a move that marked a distinct phase in its gradual integration into Lebanons multi-confessional system. Throughout the 1990s, Hizbullah consistently presented a public image that was intended to show that its transformation from an Islamist movement into a mainstream political party was authentic and legitimate. It also sought to demonstrate that it was a nationalist rather than a purely Islamic movement, a tactic that allowed it to maintain its Islamic identity while accommodating Lebanons Christian population and liberal components of Lebanese society. In May 2000 Hizbullah increased its share of seats in the new parliamentary elections held after the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, an event in which the group had played a major role, thereby strengthening its identity as a national party and heralding a new phase of political jihad to enhance its domestic position as a civilian political party accommodated by the Lebanese political system. The liberation of southern Lebanon, Hizbullahs support for the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) from 2000 onwards and its public condemnation of the US-led war on terror and invasion of Iraq further increased its bargaining power in the domestic sphere and enhanced its regional reputation.

Within five years, Hizbullahs war of position with Lebanese political parties and civilians opposed to its insistence on maintaining arms and its relationship with Syria turned into open political confrontation in the 2005 Cedar Revolution following the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri on 14 February 2005. The July 2006 war with Israel, however, helped change the balance of power in Hizbullahs favour by furnishing the group with an opportunity to re-indigenise its image as a national Lebanese party. The 2006 war began when Israel responded with a disproportionate display of force to a provocation by Hizbullah in the Souththe subsequent armed conflict killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Lebanese nationals, and displaced 1 million others. Although Israel managed to destroy most of Hizbullahs strategic missile arsenal and a large number of its rocket launchers, the movements endurance in the face of the attacks allowed it to present itself as the victor. While the outcome of the war was ultimately inconclusive, this did not prevent Hizbullahs charismatic and powerful leader Hassan Nasrallah from describing it as a Divine Victory, thus strengthening Hizbullahs image as an Arab national force within Lebanon and beyond.