BBC Hezbollah Profile

This is BBC's introduction to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah:

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BBC guide to Hezbollah, the 2008 version:

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BBC - Wednesday, 21 May 2008 16:13 UK

Who are Hezbollah?

photo: Hezbollah presents itself as a force of resistance for Lebanon and the region
photo: Israel threw considerable military might against Hezbollah in the 2006 war

Hezbollah - or the Party of God - is a powerful political and military organisation in Lebanon made up mainly of Shia Muslims.

It emerged with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and began a struggle to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon.

Hostility to Israel has remained the party's defining platform since May 2000, when the last Israeli troops left Lebanon due largely to the success of Hezbollah's military arm, the Islamic Resistance.

Hezbollah's popularity peaked in the 2000s, but took a massive dent among pro-Western Lebanese people when it was at the centre of a huge, destructive war with Israel following the capture of two Israeli soldiers in 2006.

Lebanese divisions

Hezbollah is the strongest member of Lebanon's pro-Syrian opposition bloc which has been pitted against the pro-Western government of Fouad Siniora elected in 2005.

It has several seats in parliament and was part of a unity government until November 2006, when it withdrew in a row over veto powers.

It also blocked the election of a new president by repeatedly boycotting sessions of parliament.
The stalemate ended on 21 May 2008, when the group reached a deal with the government under which its power of veto was recognised.

Washington has long branded Hezbollah a terrorist organisation and has accused it of destabilising Lebanon in the wake of Syria's withdrawal of its troops from the country following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The movement long operated with neighbouring Syria's blessing, protecting its interests in Lebanon and serving as a card for Damascus to play in its own confrontation with Israel over the occupation of the Golan Heights.

Hezbollah leaders have continued to profess its support for Syria, while stressing Lebanese unity by arguing against "Western interference" in the country.

As well as a political clout, Hezbollah has wide popular appeal by providing social services and health care. It also has an influential TV station, al-Manar.

Hezbollah's biggest test came in mid-2006, when its fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border attack, killing a number of others.

The incident triggered a fierce month-long war with Israel, which ended in a ceasefire.

Having survived a massive military onslaught, Hezbollah declared victory, enhancing its reputation among many in the Arab world.

Its critics, however, blamed it for provoking the massive destruction which Israel wreaked in Lebanon.

Despite two UN resolutions (1559 passed in 2004, and 1701, which halted the war) calling for disarming of militias in Lebanon, Hezbollah's military arm remains intact.

Starting out

Hezbollah was conceived in 1982 by a group of Muslim clerics after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

It was close to a contingent of some 2,000 Iranian Revolutionary guards, based in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, which had been sent to the country to aid the resistance against Israel.

Hezbollah was formed primarily to offer resistance to the Israeli occupation.

It also initially dreamed of transforming Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Iranian-style Islamic state, although this idea was later abandoned in favour of a more inclusive approach that has survived to this day.

The party's rhetoric calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. It views the Jewish state as occupied Muslim land and it argues that Israel has no right to exist.

The party was long supported by Iran, which provided it with arms and money.

Passionate and demanding

Hezbollah also adopted the tactic of taking Western hostages, through a number of freelance hostage taking cells.

In 1983, militants who went on to become members of Hezbollah are thought to have planned a suicide bombing attack that killed 241 US marines in Beirut.

Hezbollah has always sought to further an Islamic way of life. In the early days, its leaders imposed strict codes of Islamic behaviour on towns and villages in the south of the country - a move that was not universally popular with the region's citizens.

But the party emphasises that its Islamic vision should not be interpreted as an intention to impose an Islamic society on the Lebanese.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4314423.stm

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The 2002 version:

BBC - Thursday, 4 April, 2002, 11:04 GMT 12:04 UK

Who are Hezbollah?

Photo: "Hezbollah guerrillas celebrate"
"Hezbollah guerrillas forced Israel to withdraw from Lebanon"
(BBC's comment on a picture of jubilant Hezbollah fighters)

By Kathryn Westcott - BBC News Online

Hezbollah - or Party of God - emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980s and became the region's leading radical Islamic movement, determined to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon.

In May 2000 - due partly to the success of the party's military arm - one of its main aims was achieved. Israel's battered and bruised army was forced to end its two-decade occupation of the south.

Photo: "Hezbollah has embraced the Palestinian cause"

Hezbollah now serves as an inspiration to Palestinian factions fighting to liberate occupied territory.

The party, in turn, has embraced the Palestinian cause and has said publicly that it is ready to open a second front against Israel in support of the intifada.

Hezbollah was conceived in 1982 by a group of clerics after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It was formed primarily to offer resistance to the Israeli occupation.

Inspired by the success of the Iranian Revolution, the party also dreamt of transforming Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Iranian-style Islamic state. Although this idea was abandoned and the party today is a well-structured political organisation with members of parliament.

Photo: "Hezbollah's spiritual head Sheikh Fadlallah is close to Iran"

Terror

Hezbollah's political rhetoric has centred on calls for the destruction of the state of Israel. Its definition of Israeli occupation has also encompassed the idea that the whole of Palestine is occupied Muslim land and it has argued that Israel has no right to exist.

The party was long supported by Iran, which provided it with arms and money.

In its early days, Hezbollah was close to a contingent of some 2000 Iranian Revolutionary guards, based in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, which had been sent to Lebanon in 1982 to aid the resistance against Israel.

As Hezbollah escalated its guerrilla attacks on Israeli targets in southern Lebanon, its military aid from Iran increased.

The movement also adopted the tactic of taking Western hostages, through a number of freelance hostage taking cells: The Revolutionary Justice Organisation and the Organisation of the Oppressed Earth, which seized Terry Waite.

For many years, Hezbollah was synonymous with terror, suicide bombings and kidnappings. In 1983, militants who went on to join Hezbollah ranks carried out a suicide bombing attack that killed 241 US marines in Beirut.

Photo: "Hezbollah proved to be a formidable fighting force"

Passionate and demanding

The party has operated with neighbouring Syria's blessing - with the guerrilla war against being a card for Damascus to play in its own confrontation with Israel over the occupation of the Golan Heights.

Over the two decades, Hezbollah evolved into a movement with thousands of trained guerrillas, members of parliament and a dynamic welfare programme benefiting thousands of Lebanese.

It was passionate, demanding of its members and devoted to furthering an Islamic way of life.
In the early days, its leaders imposed strict codes of Islamic behaviour on towns and villages in the south - a move that was not universally popular with the region's citizens.

But, despite the early history of coercion, the party emphasises that its Islamic vision should not be interpreted as an intention to impose an Islamic society on the Lebanese.

Political moves

In recent years, Hezbollah has won considerable backing within Lebanon. Its social services programme was popular with the Shia community.

The group's successful hit-and-run guerrilla war on Israel's much-vaunted army assured it some support and a lot or respect from other religious communities.

While, the US listed the group as a terrorist organisation, the government in Beirut declared it a national resistance movement.

Its popularity with the Shia community - which makes up almost 40% of Lebanon's three million people - was confirmed in the 1992 parliamentary elections when Hezbollah led a successful campaign and won eight seats in parliament.

But it is not popular with all of Lebanon's different communities - the Christians, for example, have accused it of trying to destabilise the country.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1908671.stm

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BBC's 2006 Nasrallah profile:

BBC - Thursday, 13 July 2006, 12:52 GMT

Profile: Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary-General of Hezbollah - or Party of God - has re-positioned the Shia organisation as a major player in Lebanese politics. Viewed by many Israelis as a terrorist and religious fanatic, Sheikh Nasrallah has become a vastly influential figure in Lebanon.

Diplomats and others who have met him describe him as highly intelligent, widely-read and politically astute.

Hassan Nasrallah was born in 1960 in southern Beirut, one of nine children of a poor grocer.

After Lebanon erupted into civil war in 1975, his family fled the city to its ancestral village in the south of the country.

As a teenager, he studied both politics and the Koran, spending three years at the Shia seminary in Najaf in Iraq, where he met Sayyad Abbas Musawi, his predecessor as leader of Hezbollah.

In 1978, Sheikh Nasrallah was expelled from Iraq and became heavily involved in Lebanese politics, first as a member of the Shia Amal militia, then as the Amal political representative for the Bekaa region.

Praised suicide bombers

He also studied and taught religion at a school founded by Musawi in the Baalbek area.

But Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon transformed the situation. Nasrallah and many of his colleagues broke away from Amal, which was being pressured to join a National Salvation Front, which had established relations with Israel.

With the formation of a new organisation, Hezbollah, Sheikh Nasrallah concentrated on political work.

Hezbollah's military wing is believed to have been behind a large number of deadly attacks, hijackings, kidnappings of Westerners, including Terry Waite, and the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut which killed 241 people in 1983.

After Musawi was assassinated by the Israelis in 1992, Sheikh Nasrallah, aged just 32, was elected his successor.

Weeks later a suicide bomber killed 29 people and injured 100 more in an attack on the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires.

Another bombing, of a Jewish community centre in the same city in 1994, killed 85 and injured more than 200.

Hezbollah is widely believed to have been involved in these attacks.

Sheikh Nasrallah then used a twin-track approach, supporting Hezbollah charities while masterminding the low-intensity war with the Israeli Defence Force which ended with its withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.

More recently, he is believed to have been involved in providing information and intelligence for Palestinian groups. He has praised Palestinian suicide bombers for "creating a deterrence and equalising fear."

And, in the months following the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, in February 2005, Sheikh Nasrallah - who, tellingly, no longer calls for Lebanon to become an Islamic state - has emerged as an influential arbitrator between the country's many political factions.

Sheikh Nasrallah, his wife and their three children, are said to live simply in a poor area of south Beirut. It is said that he has read books written by the former Israeli prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu.

His eldest son, Hadi, became a fighter with Hezbollah, and was killed in 1997 during a fire-fight with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/5176612.stm

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The BBC version for children of Hezbollah's profile:


BBC Guides: Israel and Lebanon

Last Updated: Tuesday July 18 2006 16:04 GMT

Who are Hezbollah?

The Hezbollah organisation represents a particular group of Muslims (called Shia Muslims) who live in Lebanon.

They're an armed force but they are also involved in politics. They've fought against Israel but they are Lebanese and not Palestinian.

There are lots of different people in Lebanon, including Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims and Christians.

The Shia Muslims are the country's largest single community. Hezbollah has received money and help from Iran, a country where most people are Shia Muslims.

How did they start?

The group was started in the early 1980s and fought against the Israeli armed forces who were occupying part of Lebanon at the time. The Israeli troops withdrew in 2000 and the military part of Hezbollah gained the credit for this from many Lebanese people who were opposed to the Israeli invasion.

What do people around the world think of Hezbollah?

America and Israel view it as a terrorist group. They point out its members have been involved in kidnapping westerners and also with attacks on foreign troops who were based in Lebanon during the civil war. The UK says the military part of Hezbollah is a terrorist group, but not the political side of the organisation.

The United Nations wants Hezbollah to get rid of its weapons. A UN resolution was passed in 2004 saying that armed groups like Hezbollah (called militias) should disarm. Hezbollah has not done this. It's remained active on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Iran and Syria are important countries in the Middle East, they don't get on very well with the USA and are against Israel. They think its fair for Hezbollah to behave as they do because they say the organisation is fighting to resist Israel.

What do they do in Lebanon?

The political part of Hezbollah is represented in the Lebanese parliament where it has 23 of the 128 seats. It has gained support by organising things like health care for some Lebanese people. It also has an important TV station, called al-Manar.

What do Hezbollah want?

They want to make Muslims in the Middle East stronger and they want to get rid of Israel and give its land to the Palestinians. They also want to change the way that western countries like the USA get involved in politics in this part of the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_5190000/newsid_5191400/5191466.stm