History of Hezbollah - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Origins

Hezbollah originated within the Shia block of Lebanon

Lebanon

Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

society, which has lived there for more than a millennium. According to a United States Central Intelligence Agency estimate they include 41 percent of Lebanon population. After Lebanon gained its independence on November 22, 1943 and by the time French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

army withdrew its soldiers from Lebanon in 1946, the Lebanese National Pact

National Pact

The National Pact is an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state, and has shaped the country to this day. Following negotiations between the Shi'ite, Sunni, and Maronite leaderships, the National Pact was born in the summer of 1943 allowing Lebanon to...

, which is a notional and unofficial understanding, had allocated the seat of Speaker of the Parliament to the Shia in recognition of demographic and political importance, but they remained socially and financially marginalized.

Shi'a political movement before Hezbollah

The Shi'a society began exploding during 1960s and 70s. In 1960 Imam Musa Sadr came to Lebanon to become the leading Shi'ite figure in the city of Tyre. He quickly became one of the most prominent advocates for the Shi'ite population of Lebanon, a group that was both economically and politically disadvantaged. In 1969 he was appointed as the first head of the Supreme Islamic Shi'ite Council, an entity meant to give the Shi'ites more say in government. In 1974 he founded the "Movement of the Deprived" to press for better economic and social conditions for the Shi'ites. He established a number of schools and medical clinics throughout southern Lebanon, many of which are still in operation today. During Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...

he at first aligned himself with the Lebanese National Movement

Lebanese National Movement

The Lebanese National Movement or Mouvement National Libanais in French, was a front of parties and organizations active during the early years of the Lebanese Civil War...

, and the Movement of the Disinherited developed an armed wing known as Afwaj al-Mouqawma Al-Lubnaniyya, better known as Amal

Amal Movement

Amal Movement is short for the Lebanese Resistance Detachments the acronym for which, in Arabic, is "amal", meaning "hope."Amal was founded in 1975 as the militia wing of the Movement of the Disinherited, a Shi'a political movement founded by Musa...

. Although Amal had its genesis in the Movement of the Dispossessed (Harakat al-Mahrumin), founded by the charismatic scholar Musa as-Sadr, when Sadr was abducted it turned briefly to the secular leadership of Husayn Husayni in 1979, and since 1980, Nabih Berri

Nabih Berri

Nabih Berri is the Speaker of the Parliament of Lebanon. He heads the mostly Shi'a Amal Movement.-Biography:He was born in Bo, Sierra Leone to Lebanese parents. He went to school in Tebnine and Ain Ebel in southern Lebanon and later studied at the Makassed and the Ecole de la Sagesse in Beirut...

. Under Berri's leadership, Amal alienated many religious Shiites by supporting the Syrian-backed presidency of Elias Sarkis

Elias Sarkis

Elias Sarkis was the President of the Lebanese Republic from 1976 to 1982.-Early career:Born in Shabbaniah, Sarkis graduated with a Law degree from Saint Joseph University in 1948. After joining the judicial corps in 1953, he became a judge with the Accounting Department...

and compromising Sadr's struggle for social and political reforms. The secularization of Amal provided the Najaf

Najaf

Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...

deportees with an ideal setting to spread their militant brand of Shiite activism.

Whereas Musa Sadr viewed the Lebanese state as a legitimate entity in need of reform and had developed close ties with reform-minded Christian politicians, some Lebanese seminarians in Najaf

Najaf

Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...

refused to accept the state of Lebanon, its current borders, or its consociational power-sharing formula as unassailable facts. This group organized under supervision of Ayatollah

Ayatollah

Ayatollah is a high ranking title given to Usuli Twelver Shī‘ah clerics. Those who carry the title are experts in Islamic studies such as jurisprudence, ethics, and philosophy and usually teach in Islamic seminaries. The next lower clerical rank is Hojatoleslam wal-muslemin...

Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr

Shahid-e-Khamis Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr was an Iraqi Shi'a cleric, a philosopher, and ideological founder of Islamic Dawa Party born in al-Kazimiya, Iraq. He is the father-in-law of Muqtada al-Sadr and cousin of both Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr and Imam Musa as-Sadr...

(the cousin of Musa), one of the leading clerics in the Shiite seminary (hawza) of Najaf in Iraq. These clerics theorized about an Islamic state woven of a clandestine network that became known as Hizb al-Da'wa

Islamic Dawa Party

The Islamic Dawa Party or Islamic Call Party is a political party in Iraq. Dawa and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council are two of the main parties in the religious-Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, which won a plurality of seats in both the provisional January 2005 Iraqi election and the longer-term...

(the "Party of the Calling"). This network was established in Lebanon by clerics who returned from Najaf like Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi

Abbas al-Musawi

Abbas al-Musawi was an influential Shia cleric and co-founder and Secretary General of Hezbollah. He was killed by Israeli forces in 1992.Al-Musawi was born in the village of al-Nabi Shayth in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon....

Hezbollah's emergence

According to Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh in "In the Path of Hizbullah" four crisis conditions catalyzed the emergence of Hezbollah:

1. Identity crisis and persecution

When Lebanon became independent on November 22, 1943, "the Shiites felt that they were the despised stepchildren of a state governed by a Maronite-Sunni alliance."(Hamzeh, 2004: 12) The Shiites were ripe for every Shi'a protective organization like Hezbollah.

2. Structural imbalance

Shiites were politically underrepresented, based on the National Pact of 1943, which vested legislative and executive as well as military positions in rough proportion to the demographic size of the country's eighteen recognized sectarian groupings. In 1946, the Christian Maronites and the Sunni Muslims occupied 40 and 27 percent, respectively, of the highest civilian posts. The Shiite occupied but 3.2 percent. By the 1980s, Shiites had become Lebanon's largest single confessional community with almost 1,400,000 people, surpassing the Maronite and Sunni populations, which were each estimated at nearly 800,000 a piece (Hamzeh, 2004: 13) The Shiites believed that their representation was not commensurate with their numerical size. Economically the broader Shiite community in Lebanon was very poor. Almost 85 percent lived in the rural region of South Lebanon and in one area of the Beqaa Valley

Beqaa Valley

The Beqaa Valley is a fertile valley in east Lebanon. For the Romans, the Beqaa Valley was a major agricultural source, and today it remains Lebanon’s most important farming region...

, and subsisted on what they earned, mostly from selling tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

to the state monopoly or growing vegetables. They were also exposed to the military fighting between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization

Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...

(PLO). To escape these conditions, many Shiites migrated to the slums of eastern Beirut and shantytowns in the suburbs south of Beirut. Hamzeh writes that "[t]hese two areas, known as the "belt of misery," became the breeding ground of Shiite militancy in the 1980s. (Hamzeh, 2004: 14) Even in the 1960s and 70s, the charismatic leader Imam Musa al-Sadr began to activate the politically quiescent Shiites of Lebanon.

3. Military Defeat

"When identity crisis and structural imbalance are reinforced by military defeat, a society's militancy potential increases markedly. Military defeat followed by foreign occupation opens the way for militant movements fostering political organization or employing guerrilla warfare and enjoying widespread grassroots support. (Hamzeh, 2004: 15) This is what happened when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978 (Operation Litani

Operation Litani

The 1978 South Lebanon conflict was an invasion in Lebanon up to the Litani River carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in 1978. It was a military success for the Israeli Defense Forces, as PLO forces were pushed north of the river...

) and 1982 (Lebanon War

Lebanon War

The term Lebanon War can refer to any of the following wars, fought in Lebanon:*Lebanese Civil War *Hundred Days' War 1978 *1982 Lebanon War...

), to remove the PLO from Lebanon and disassociate Lebanon from Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

's influence. Israel hoped that "a Lebanon freed form Syria and the PLO, with a Christian-dominated regime, would bring peace and closer connections between the two countries." (Hamzeh, 2004: 16) But these operations oppressed Shi'a which lived in south Lebanon. The Israelis killed more than one thousand civilian Shiites, leading to a mass exodus of yet more Shiites refugees to the Beirut slums. Israel's 1982 invasion and occupation of Lebanon bolstered the fortunes of Hizbullah by "providing a politic-military environment that legitimated the group and gave a rationale for its guerrilla warfare. Similarly, the presence of the Western foreign troops in Lebanon, particularly of the U.S. Marines, also boosted the fortunes of Hezbollah, which considered fighting such forces to be as legitimate as fighting the Israeli occupation." (Hamzeh, 2004: 16).

4. Demonstration Effect ( Iran's Islamic Revolution)

According to Hamzeh "Iran's revolution had its greatest impact in Lebanon," even though the two countries are not adjacent, because Lebanon's long-suffering Shiites were most receptive to Iran's Islamic revolutionary message(Hamzeh, 2004: 18). Shiite clerics from Lebanon, Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

and Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, in particular Khomeini, had known each other well in the Shiite city of Najaf

Najaf

Najaf is a city in Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2008 is 560,000 people. It is the capital of Najaf Governorate...

in Iraq where they participated in their "circles of learning." Soon after Khomeini's victorious return to Iran on February 1, 1979, he became the unchallenged leader and chief ideologue of the Shiites inside and outside Iran." (Hamzeh, 2004: 19) He met with militant Shiite clergy (e.g., Shaykh al-Tufayli, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi

Abbas al-Musawi

) and other militants in August 1982 at the Islamic Movements conference in Tehran—the so-called First "Conference for the Downtrodden".(Hamzeh, 2004: 25)

Foundation

Hezbollah is a Shiite Islamic organization in Lebanon. Scholars differ as to when Hezbollah came to be a distinct entity. Various sources list the official formation of the group as early as 1982 whereas Diaz and Newman maintain that Hezbollah remained an amalgamation of various violent Shi'a extremists until as late as 1985. Another version states that it was formed by supporters of Sheikh

Sheikh

Not to be confused with sikhSheikh — also spelled Sheik or Shaikh, or transliterated as Shaykh — is an honorific in the Arabic language that literally means "elder" and carries the meaning "leader and/or governor"...

Ragheb Harb

Sheikh Ragheb Harb was a Lebanese resistance leader and Muslim cleric. He was born in Jebsheet, a village in the Jabal Amel region of Southern Lebanon. Harb was an imam and led regional resistance against Israeli occupation Shiite resistance until he was assassinated by Israelis on 16 February 1984...

, a leader of the southern Shiite resistance killed by Israel in 1984. Regardless of when the name came into official use, a number of Shi'a groups were slowly assimilated into the organization, such as Islamic Jihad

Islamic Jihad Organization

The Islamic Jihad Organization – IJO or Organisation du Jihad Islamique in French, but best known as ‘Islamic Jihad’ for short, was a fundamentalist Shia group known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War...

, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth and the Revolutionary Justice Organization . These designations are considered to be synonymous with Hezbollah by the US, Israel and Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

.
The organization developed in a milieu, which included the Iranian revolution

Iranian Revolution

The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...

in 1979, oppression of Shiites by Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon, and Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. In 1982, the Palestine Liberation Organization

Palestine Liberation Organization

(PLO) was based in Southern Lebanon and was firing Katyusha rockets into northern Israel from Lebanon. Israel invaded Lebanon to evict the PLO, and Hezbollah became an armed organization to expel the Israelis.

Hezbollah's strength was enhanced by the dispatching of one thousand to fifteen hundred (or even two thousand) members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards

Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

The Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution , often called Revolutionary Guards, is a branch of Iran's military, founded after the Iranian revolution...

and the financial backing of Iran. Iranian clerics, most notably Fzlollah Mahallati supervised this activity It became the main politico-military force among the Shia community in Lebanon and the main arm of what became known later as the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon.

Hezbollah follows a Shiite Islamist ideology shared by the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini. There are some reports that it has abandoned its goal of establishing a fundamentalist Shiite state in Lebanon although doubts remain.

After announcing the formation of Hizbullah in 1985, Sheikh

Sheikh

Subhi Tufaili became its first Secretary-General

Secretary-General

-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...

. In 1991 Sheikh

Sheikh

Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi

Abbas al-Musawi

substituted as Secretary-General

Secretary-General

-International intergovernmental organizations:-International nongovernmental organizations:-Sports governing bodies:...

, but he was killed within months by Israel and Sheikh

Sheikh

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah

Hasan Nasrallah, became the third Secretary General of the Lebanese political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah after Israel assassinated the previous leader, Abbas al-Musawi, in 1992. Hezbollah in its entirety is considered a terrorist organization by The United States, the Netherlands,...

succeeded him.

Hezbollah during the Lebanese Civil war (1982-1990)

After emerging during the civil war of the early 1980s as an Iranian-sponsored second resistance movement (besides Amal

Amal Movement

) for Lebanon's Shia community, Hezbollah focused on expelling Israeli and Western forces from Lebanon. Although Hezbollah battled the Amal militia for control of Shiite areas and vigorously attacked Israel's Lebanese proxies(SLA)

South Lebanon Army

The South Lebanon Army , also "South Lebanese Army," was a Lebanese militia during the Lebanese Civil War. After 1979, the militia operated in southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad's Government of Free Lebanon...

, unlike other wartime militias, it never engaged in sectarian bloodletting (or fought a major engagement with the army) during the war.

Suicide attacks

Hezbollah is reputed to have been among the first Islamic resistance groups to use tactical suicide bombing in the Middle East, and early bombings attributed to the group (e.g. the Tyre truck bombings and the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing

1983 Beirut barracks bombing

The Beirut Barracks Bombing occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen...

) inspired other militant extremist groups to adopt the tactic for their own purposes.
The predominantly Shiite residents of south Lebanon had born the brunt of the Israeli invasion, which sent floods of refugees into the Beqaa and Beirut (already teaming with a 300,000 strong southern "poverty belt" of newly urbanized Shiites), eager for recruitment. Many politicized Shiites also felt victimized by the entry of an American and European multi-national force

Multinational Force in Lebanon

The Multinational Force in Lebanon was an international peacekeeping force created in 1982 and sent to Lebanon to oversee the withdrawal of the Palestine Liberation Organization...

(MNF) into Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

in 1982, not only because it was perceived as pro-Israeli, but also because its mission was to support a government beholden to the right-wing Christian Phalange Party (led by then-President Amine Gemayel

Amine Gemayel

Amine Pierre Gemayel was President of Lebanon from 1982 to 1988 and is the leader of Kataeb Party.Born in the Lebanese village of Bikfaya, Amine Gemayel is the son of Pierre Gemayel, founder of the Kataeb Party...

) and Sunni Beiruti notables (e.g. Prime Minister Shafik Wazzan

Shafik Wazzan

Shafik Dib al-Wazzan was the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1980 until 1984. In December 1991, Wazzan was wounded when a car bomb exploded in the Beirut neighborhood of Basta as he was passing through in an armored car....

) and quick to assert its newfound strength by unceremoniously ejecting Shiite squatters from posh neighborhoods of West Beirut near the airport. Although Hezbollah avoided direct confrontation with the state, it lashed out with fury at the MNF, most notably with the October 1983 twin suicide bombings that killed more than 300 American and French servicemen (1983 Beirut barracks bombing

1983 Beirut barracks bombing

), forcing its withdrawal in 1984. The following year, in the face of mounting Hezbollah attacks, the Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...

(IDF) began redeploying to a thin "security zone" in the south.

Jeffrey Goldberg writes in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

that during this period Hezbollah

"quickly became the most successful terrorist organization in modern history, [serving] as a role model for terror groups around the world, ...and virtually invent[ing] the multipronged terror attack when, early on the morning of October 23, 1983, it synchronized the suicide bombings, in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

, of the United States Marine barracks and an apartment building housing a contingent of French peacekeepers
Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....

. Those attacks occurred just twenty seconds apart."

(note: Hezbollah did not claim responsibility for these attacks. Despite targeting military forces - actually peacekeepers - the bombing is considered an act of terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

because it was carried out by illegal combatants acting outside of the Combatants Privilege provided by the Third Geneva Convention

Third Geneva Convention

The Third Geneva Convention, relative to the treatment of prisoners of war, is one of the four treaties of the Geneva Conventions. It was first adopted in 1929, but was significantly updated in 1949...

)

According to Robert Pape

Robert Pape

Robert Anthony Pape, Jr. , is an American political scientist known for his work on international security affairs, especially the coercive strategies of air power and the rationale of suicide terrorism. He is currently a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and founder of the...

's Dying to Win,
Hezbollah conducted three distinct suicide bombing campaigns against forces it deemed to be occupying Lebanon:

1983–1984: 5 acts against the US and France, including these specific acts:
- April 18, 1983: U.S. embassy bombing in Beirut.
- October 23, 1983: Beirut barracks bombing
  1983 Beirut barracks bombing
  The Beirut Barracks Bombing occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen...
  
  , targeting French
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
  soldiers and United States Marines
  United States Marine Corps
  The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
  
  ; responsibility for this is disputed (see 1983 Beirut barracks bombing
  1983 Beirut barracks bombing
  The Beirut Barracks Bombing occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen...
  
  ).
1982–1985: 11 acts against Israel.
1985–1986: 20 acts against Israel and the South Lebanon Army
South Lebanon Army
The South Lebanon Army , also "South Lebanese Army," was a Lebanese militia during the Lebanese Civil War. After 1979, the militia operated in southern Lebanon under the authority of Saad Haddad's Government of Free Lebanon...

.

In addition to these campaigns, Pape documents six other isolated suicide attacks taken by Hezbollah between 1985 and 1999.

Upon Israel's withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000, according to Pape, the necessary conditions for Hezbollah's continuing use of suicide attacks evaporated. Hezbollah has not directly participated in suicide bombings since 1999, its leaders evidently having renounced the tactic.

Attacks against Western targets

Hezbollah is believed by the United States' intelligence agencies to have

kidnapped David S. Dodge
David S. Dodge
David Stuart Dodge was the Vice-President for Administration , Acting President and President of the American University of Beirut .-Background:...

, president of the American University in Beirut on June 19, 1982, , was . Hezbollah was "believed to behind this abduction and that of most of the other 30 Westerners seized over the next 10 years."

car bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...

ed "the U.S. embassy in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

on April 18, 1983, ... killing 63 people, 17 of whom [were] American citizens."

truck bombed "U.S. Marine barracks, on October 23, 1983, ... killing 241 American military personnel stationed in Beirut as past of a peace-keeping force. A separate attack against the French military compound in Beirut [killed] 58." The truck that destroyed the American barracks was "rigged with 12,000 pounds of TNT."

kidnapped CIA operative William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley was a United States Army officer and a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division of the CIA. He died on or around June 3, 1985 while in the custody of Hezbollah...

on March 16, 1984, "After 15 months in captivity of torture and illness" he was killed.

car bombed "the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut" on September 20, 1984, taking the lives of "two Americans and 22 others."

hijacked
Aircraft hijacking
Aircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...

"a Kuwait Airlines Flight 221 on December 4, 1984. Hezbollah militants killed four passengers including two Americans."

kidnapped and tortured to death U.S. Marine Colonel William R. Higgins and the CIA station chief in Beirut, William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley
William Francis Buckley was a United States Army officer and a Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division of the CIA. He died on or around June 3, 1985 while in the custody of Hezbollah...

;
kidnapped
Lebanon hostage crisis
The Lebanon hostage crisis refers to the systematic kidnapping in Lebanon of 96 foreign hostages of 21 national origins – mostly American and western European – between 1982 and 1992...

around 30 other Westerners between 1982 and 1992, including U.S. journalist Terry Anderson, British journalist John McCarthy
John McCarthy (journalist)
John Patrick McCarthy CBE is a British journalist, writer and broadcaster, and one of the hostages in the Lebanon hostage crisis...

, the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...

's special envoy Terry Waite
Terry Waite
Terry Waite CBE is an English humanitarian and author.Waite was Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie's Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages including journalist John...

and Irish citizen Brian Keenan.
of carrying out the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847
TWA Flight 847 was an international Trans World Airlines flight which was hijacked by Lebanese Shia extremists, later identified as members of Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, on Friday morning, June 14, 1985, after originally taking off from Cairo. The flight was en route from Athens to Rome and then...

en route from Athens to Rome.

These accusations are denied by Hezbollah.

In early 1998, Lebanon's highest court announced that it intended to arrest the Secretary-General (until 1991) of Hezbollah, Sheikh Subhi Tufayli, for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing

1983 Beirut barracks bombing

. After a shoot-out that left Lebanese soldiers and some of Tufayli's supporters dead, he escaped and has not been seen since.

End of Civil War: The Taif Agreement and Hezbollah's failure to disarm

After 16 years, the civil war halted following successful negotiation of the Taif Agreement

Taif Agreement

The Taif Agreement was an agreement reached to provide "the basis for the ending of the civil war and the return to political normalcy in Lebanon." Negotiated in Taif, Saudi Arabia, it was designed to end the decades-long Lebanese civil war, politically accommodate the demographic...

, which required the "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias" and required the government to "deploy the Lebanese army in the border area adjacent to Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

."

Despite this agreement, Syria

Syria

, in control of Lebanon at that time (with the support of Iran

Iran

), allowed Hezbollah to maintain their arsenal, control the Shiite areas in Southern Lebanon along the border with Israel.

The continued existence of Hezbollah's military wing after 1990 is considered by the UN to violate the Taif Agreement

Taif Agreement

.

Hezbollah, however, justifies maintaining its militia on the basis of Israel's continued presence in Sheba Farms, which the UN considers Syrian territory and the Lebanon government has not made moves to disarm Hezbollah as it considers it a legitimate resistance organization.

The South Lebanon period (1990-2000)

Conflict in South Lebanon

See: South Lebanon conflict
South Lebanon conflict
South Lebanon conflict may refer to:*1978 South Lebanon conflict*1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict...

South Lebanon was occupied by Israel between 1982 and 2000. Hezbollah, along with the mainly leftist and secular groups in the Lebanese National Resistance Front, fought a guerilla war against Israel and the South Lebanon Army

South Lebanon Army

. The National Resistance Front militias disarmed in accordance with the Taif Accords, but Hezbollah remained defiant, claiming until all Lebanese soil was liberated and Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

expelled, resistance against occupation would continue.

The fighting culminated during Operation Grapes of Wrath

Operation Grapes of Wrath

Operation Grapes of Wrath is the Israeli Defense Forces code-name for a sixteen-day campaign against Lebanon in 1996 in an attempt to end shelling of Northern Israel by Hezbollah. Israel conducted more than 1,100 air raids and extensive shelling...

in April 1996 when Israel launched an assault and air-campaign against Hezbollah. The campaign resulted in the deaths of 106 civilian refugees in an aerial bombardment of a United Nations base at Qana

1996 shelling of Qana

The 1996 shelling of Qana or the First Qana massacre, took place on April 18, 1996 near Qana, a village in Southern Lebanon, when artillery shells fired by the Israeli Defence Force hit a United Nations compound. Of 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in the compound, 106 were killed and...

. Popular feeling that the shelling of Qana was intentional fuelled Shia radicalism and enhanced support for Hezbollah, as did resentment of large-scale civilian evacuations made necessary (on as little as two hours notice) by the fighting.

In January 2000, Hezbollah assassinated the commander of the South Lebanon Army's Western Brigade, Colonel Aql Hashem, at his home in the security zone. Hashem had been responsible for day to day operations of the SLA.

On 24 May, after the collapse of the SLA and the rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, Israel withdrew its troops from southern Lebanon, more than six weeks before its stated deadline of 7 July." Hezbollah and many other Lebanese considered this to be a victory, and since then its popularity has been boosted in Lebanon.

Claims of Terrorist Activities

The US government claims Hezbollah carried out two terrorist attacks in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

during the early 1990s: the 1992 Israeli embassy bombing in Buenos Aires
Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires
The attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was a bomb attack on building of the Israeli embassy of Argentina located in Buenos Aires which was carried out on March 17, 1992. 29 civilians were killed in the attack and 242 additional civilians were injured.- The attack :On March 17, 1992...

, killing 29 people, and the bombing of a Jewish community center
AMIA Bombing
The AMIA bombing was an attack on the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina building in Buenos Aires on July 18, 1994, that killed 85 people and injured hundreds. It was Argentina's deadliest bombing...

there, killing 85. Hezbollah denies these claims. Responsibility for the former attack was claimed by Imad Mughniyah's Islamic Jihad Organization
Islamic Jihad Organization
The Islamic Jihad Organization – IJO or Organisation du Jihad Islamique in French, but best known as ‘Islamic Jihad’ for short, was a fundamentalist Shia group known for its activities in the 1980s during the Lebanese Civil War...

- considered to be a unit of Hezbollah - within 24 hours of the attack.

On July 26, 1994, eight days after the community center bombing, the Israeli Embassy in London was car bombed
Israeli Embassy Attack in London
The Attack on the embassy of Israel in London was an attack on the Israeli embassy building in London on July 26, 1994, that injured 20 civilians.- The attack :...

by two Palestinians. The United Kingdom, Israel and Argentina blamed Hezbollah for the attack.

ώΜΏΎΎύΏ

Hezbollah after the Israeli withdrawal

On May 25, 2000, Israel withdrew from Lebanon

Lebanon

to the UN-agreed Israeli border, and their pullout was certified by the UN as complete.
Lebanon and Syria claim the Shebaa Farms

Shebaa farms

The Shebaa Farms are a small uninhabited territory claimed by Lebanon, but occupied by Israel which claims they are in Syria's Golan Heights. Syrian policy is to vaguely accept the Lebanese claim, while refusing any binding demarcation until Israeli forces withdraw from the area.The United Nations...

, a 35 km² area, to be occupied Lebanese territory despite the UN ruling,
and on that basis Hezbollah has continued to engage Israeli forces in that area. The UN recognizes the Shebaa farms as part of the Golan Heights, and thus Syrian (and not Lebanese, though both countries deny that) territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War

Six-Day War

The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...

.

Hezbollah's role in the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon gained the organization much respect within Lebanon and the wider Arab and Islamic world, particularly among the country's large Shi'a community. The Shi'a are the single largest religious group in Lebanon, comprising at least 40% of the three million citizens (see Demographics of Lebanon

Demographics of Lebanon

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Lebanon, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....

). The Maronite President of Lebanon, Émile Lahoud

Émile Lahoud

General Émile Jamil Lahoud is a former President of Lebanon. Lahoud is a Maronite-Catholic, as is required for the Lebanese presidency. Under Lebanon's unwritten constitutional agreement, the National Pact, the presidency is earmarked for Maronite_Catholic, the parliament speaker's post for a Shia...

, said: "For us Lebanese, and I can tell you the majority of Lebanese, Hezbollah is a national resistance movement. If it wasn't for them, we couldn't have liberated our land. And because of that, we have big esteem for the Hezbollah movement."
Even 74 percent of Lebanese Christians viewed Hezbollah as a resistance organization.

After Israeli forces left Southern Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah provided military defense of the area. It is suggested by some that the Lebanese Government has at times viewed Hezbollah as the army of South Lebanon. Since summer 2006, though, foreign peacekeepers and Lebanese army troops have also been stationed in the South. Fouad Siniora

Fouad Siniora

Fuad Siniora is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to May 25, 2008 the date of the election of the new President of Lebanon; he was renominated to the post on 28 May 2008 and held the post as Acting President between those...

said that "the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Shebaa Farms

Shebaa farms

region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms." Hezbollah says Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon proves that the Jewish state only understands the language of resistance. It defends its right to keep its weapons as a deterrent against Israeli attack, to liberate the disputed Shebaa Farms

Shebaa farms

border area, which is occupied by Israel.

Since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and until the conflict arising in July 2006, Hezbollah has used the period of quiet to create the Hezbollah rocket force

Hezbollah rocket force

In October 2006 Hezbollah claimed to have an arsenal of at least 33,000 rockets. The Pentagon believes that Hezbollah has a rocket arsenal of around 30.000...

, which it claims number over 10,000. Placing them, according to many reports, in civilian locations, including family homes, crowded residential neighborhoods and mosques.

The United Nations considers the Shebaa Farms

Shebaa farms

to be Syrian territory, not Lebanese and has stated that Israel has withdrawn from all Lebanese territory. However, both Syria and Lebanon consider the Shebaa Farms as part of Lebanese territory. Furthermore, various United Nations Security Council resolutions require Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories, including all Lebanese and Syrian territories.

Clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli forces continued, albeit at a relatively low level, in the years following 2000.

Overflights

Israeli aircraft continue to fly over Lebanese territory, eliciting condemnation from the ranking UN representative in Lebanon. Hezbollah's retaliatory anti-aircraft fire, doubling as small caliber artillery, has on some occasions landed within Israel's northern border towns, inciting condemnation from the UN Secretary-General. On November 7, 2004, Hezbollah responded to what it described as repeated Israeli violations of Lebanese airspace by flying an Iranian-built unmanned drone aircraft

Unmanned aerial vehicle

An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...

over northern Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

Israeli / Hezbollah Prisoner Exchange

On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah abducted three Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

soldiers (Adi Avitan, Omer Soued and Binyamin Avraham) from Shebaa Farms

Shebaa farms

and sought to obtain the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners, some of whom had been held since 1978.

On October 16, 2000, Hezbollah announced the kidnapping of Elchanan Tannenbaum

Elchanan Tannenbaum

Elhanan Tannenbaum, is an Israeli businessman and formerly a colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, who was kidnapped for some years by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.-Kidnapping:...

, an Israeli businessman.

On January 25, 2004, Hezbollah successfully negotiated an exchange of prisoners with Israel, through German

Bundesnachrichtendienst

The Bundesnachrichtendienst [ˌbʊndəsˈnaːχʁɪçtnˌdiːnst] is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinated to the Chancellor's Office. Its headquarters are in Pullach near Munich, and Berlin . The BND has 300 locations in Germany and foreign countries...

mediators. The prisoner swap was carried out on January 29: 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, the remains of 60 Lebanese militants and civilians, 420 Palestinian prisoners, and maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon were exchanged for an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum kidnapped in 2001 and the remains of the three Israel Defense Forces

Israel Defense Forces

(IDF) soldiers mentioned above, who were killed either during the Hezbollah operation, or in its immediate aftermath. For the entire period between the abduction (October 2000) and the end of the negotiations (January 2004), Hezbollah did not provide information about the death of the 3 kidnapped soldiers (Adi Avitan, Beni Avraham and Umar Suad) even though Israel intelligence has suspected them to be already dead.

Assassinations of Hezbollah Officials

Abbas Mussawi, Secretary General of Hezbollah, was assassinated in February, 1992, after which Nasrullah

Hassan Nasrallah

was elected to the position.

On July 19, 2004, a senior Hezbollah official, Ghaleb Awwali

Ghaleb Awwali

Ghaleb Awwali was a senior Hezbollah official who was assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut, Lebanon on July 19, 2004. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attack. However, credit was claimed by a previously unheard of Sunni group called Jund Ash Sham. Ghaleb Awwali has been called a martyr of...

, was assassinated in a car bombing in Beirut

Beirut

. Hezbollah blamed Israel; credit was claimed, and then retracted, by a previously unheard of Sunni group called Jund Ash Sham

Jund Ash Sham

Jund Ash Sham aka Jund al-Sham is an anti-Fatah Sunni Muslim group formed in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in 2004 and is considered a splinter group of Osbat al-Nour...

, while Israel denied involvement. According to Al-Arabiya, unidentified Lebanese police also identified the group as a cover for Israel.

In June 2006, the Lebanese military arrested an alleged assassination squad led by former South Lebanese Army corporal Mahmoud Abu Rafeh. According to army statements, the cell was trained and supported by the Israeli Mossad

Mossad

The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....

and "used ... to carry out assigned assassinations in Lebanon." Among the killings attributed to the squad are those of Hezbollah officials Ali Saleh (2003) and Ali Hassan Dib (1999).

During Awwali's funeral, Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah

proclaimed that Awwali was "among the team that dedicated their lives in the last few years to help their brothers in occupied Palestine," which some take to refer to aiding Hamas.

On February 12, 2008, senior operative Imad Mughniyah was killed in Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

, Syria

Syria

. He was buried two days later in the presence of Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and a high-ranking Iran

Iran

ian delegation.

Border Conflict

On March 12, 2002, in a Hezbollah shooting attack on the Shelomi
Shelomi
Shlomi is a town in the Northern District of Israel. As of 2010, Shlomi had 6,000 inhabitants.It was founded as a [ [development town]] in 1950 by Jewish immigrants from Tunisia and Morocco on the ruins of a Palestinian village Al-Bassa destroyed during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War...

-Metzuba route in northern Israel, six Israelis civilians were killed.

On August 10, 2003, a 16 year old Israeli boy was killed by shrapnel from an anti-aircraft shell fired by Hezbollah, and four others were wounded.

In January 2005, Hezbollah planted five "improvised explosive devices" (IEDs) just on the Israeli side of the border near Zarit. An armored bulldozer sent to remove the mines was fired upon by anti-tank missiles, killing the bulldozer's driver, Sgt. Maj. Jan Rotzanski.

On April 7, 2005, Two Israeli Arabs from the village Ghajar
Ghajar
Ghajar is an Alawite village on the Hasbani River on the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights. It has a population of 2,000.-Early history:...

near the Israel-Lebanon border were abducted by Hezbollah operatives. They were later released.

On November 21, 2005 Hezbollah launched a heavy attack along the entire border with Israel In response to an Israeli attack on Lebanese villages in the south of Lebanon Harel The attack failed when IDF Paratroopers ambushed and killed 4 Hezbollah members and scattered the rest. The IDF counter-attacked and destroyed Hezbollah's front line outposts and communication centers. The scope of the attack forced Lebanon (whose army does not control southern Lebanon) to request a cease-fire. Following the attack the UN Security Council denounced Hezbollah. Commentators have speculated that the attack was an attempt to draw Israel into renewed conflict in Lebanon, alleviating diplomatic pressure on its backers Syria (which is under investigation for the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri) and Iran (which is under UN investigation regarding alleged violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, commonly known as the Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT, is a landmark international treaty whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and to...

).

On December 27, 2005, BM-21
BM-21
The BM-21 launch vehicle , a Soviet truck-mounted 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, and a M-21OF rocket were developed in the early 1960s. BM stands for boyevaya mashina, ‘combat vehicle’, and the nickname means ‘hail’. The complete system with the BM-21 launch vehicle and the M-21OF rocket...

Grad rockets fired from Hezbollah territory smashed into houses in the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona
Kiryat Shmona
Kiryat Shmona is a city located in the North District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley on the Lebanese border. The city was named for the eight people, including Joseph Trumpeldor, who died in 1920 defending Tel Hai....

wounding three people. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on the Lebanese Government "to extend its control over all its territory, to exert its monopoly on the use of force, and to put an end to all such attacks." Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora
Fouad Siniora
Fuad Siniora is a Lebanese politician, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position he held from 19 July 2005 to May 25, 2008 the date of the election of the new President of Lebanon; he was renominated to the post on 28 May 2008 and held the post as Acting President between those...

denounced the attack as "aimed at destabilizing security and diverting attention from efforts exerted to solve the internal issues prevailing in the country." Hezbollah denied any responsibility or knowledge that an attack was going to take place.

Hezbollah activities in the al-Aqsa Intifada

In December 2001 three Hezbollah operatives were caught in Jordan while attempting to bring BM-13 Katyusha rockets into the West Bank. Sayyeed Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah

, secretary general of Hezbollah, responded that "It is every freedom loving peoples right and duty against occupation to send arms to Palestinians from any possible place."

In June 2002, shortly after the Israeli government launched Operation Defensive Shield, which culminated in the invasion of the Jenin refugee camp, Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah

gave a speech in which he defended and praised suicide bombings of Israeli targets by members of Palestinian groups for "creating a deterrence and equalizing fear."

During 2002, 2003 and 2004, the Israeli Security Forces

Israeli Security Forces

Security forces in Israel include a variety of organizations, including law enforcement, military, paramilitary, governmental, and intelligence agencies.-Military:...

thwarted numerous suicide bombing attacks, some of which Israel claims were planned and funded by Hezbollah and were to have been carried out by Tanzim

Tanzim

Tanzim is a militant faction of the Palestinian Fatah movement.-Overview:The Tanzim militia, founded in 1995 to counter Palestinian Islamism, is widely considered to be an armed offshoot of Fatah with its own leadership structure...

(Fatah

Fatah

Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...

's armed wing) activists. Israeli officials accused Hezbollah of aiding Palestinian political violence

Palestinian political violence

Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence undertaken to further the Palestinian cause. These political objectives include self-determination in and sovereignty over Palestine, the liberation of Palestine and establishment of a Palestinian state, either in place of both Israel and...

and participating in weapon smuggling (see also: Santorini

Santorini (ship)

The Santorini was a fishing boat used for weapons-smuggling, which was captured in May 2001 by the Israeli Shayetet 13 Naval Commando Unit. This was the first ship caught in an attempt to smuggle weapons to Palestinian-controlled territories...

, Karin A).

After Israel's assassination of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

Ahmed Yassin

Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin was a founder of Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian paramilitary organization and political party. Yassin also served as the spiritual leader of the organization...

in March 2004, Hezbollah attacked the IDF along the Blue Line

Blue Line (Lebanon)

The Blue Line is a border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel published by the United Nations on 7 June 2000 for the purposes of determining whether Israel had fully withdrawn from Lebanon...

.

It has been claimed that a Hezbollah expert advised on construction of the bomb used for the March 2002 bombing of the Park Hotel.

On June 23, 2004, another allegedly Hezbollah-funded suicide bombing attack was foiled by the Israeli security forces

Israeli Security Forces

Security forces in Israel include a variety of organizations, including law enforcement, military, paramilitary, governmental, and intelligence agencies.-Military:...

.

In February 2005 the Palestinian Authority accused Hezbollah of attempting to derail the truce signed with Israel. Palestinian officials and former militants described how Hezbollah promised an increase in funding for any occupation resistance group able to carry out an attack on Israeli military targets.

UN resolution 1559

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559 was a resolution sponsored by France and the United States and adopted on September 2, 2004. It called upon Syria to end its military presence in Lebanon by withdrawing its forces and to cease intervening in internal Lebanese politics. The resolution also called for "the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias". The Lebanese army did not disarm or disband Hezbollah prior to the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict

The 2006 Lebanon War, also called the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War and known in Lebanon as the July War #Other uses|Tammūz]]) and in Israel as the Second Lebanon War , was a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied territories. The principal parties were Hezbollah...

Early Rivalry with Amal

Amal

Amal Movement

reached its peak of influence in Lebanese affairs in 1985, but was challenged by Hezbollah by claims that Amal collaborated with Israel and the United States and was inefficient and corrupt. This rivalry reached a peak in the latter part of 1990 that required a ceasefire, effective in December 1990.

Hassan Nasrallah

Hassan Nasrallah

, elected leader of Hezbollah in 1992 after the assassination of Abbas Musawi, was responsible for the Beka'a area on behalf of the Amal Movement

Amal Movement

in the early 1980s. He left the organization in 1982 and affiliated with Hizbullah, taking with him many of his followers.

Lebanese election : 1992

In 1992, under pressure from Syria

Syria

, Hezbollah agreed to participate in the 1992 elections. Hezbollah had previously refused to license itself as a political party, arguing that the system was corrupt.

Ali Khamenei

Ali Khamenei

Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...

, supreme leader

Supreme leader

A supreme leader typically refers to a figure in the highest leadership position of an entity, group, organization, or state, who exercises strong or all-powerful authority over it. In religion, the supreme leader or supreme leaders is God or Gods...

of Iran

Iran

, endorsed Hezbollah in the election. Former Hezbollah secretary general, Subhi al-Tufayli

Subhi al-Tufayli

Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli is a former secretary-general of Hezbollah. Tufayli was an Islamist ideologue and close follower of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini....

, contested this decision which led to schism in Hezbollah. Then Hezbollah published its political program which contains liberation of Lebanese land from Zionist occupation, abolishment of political sectarianism, ensuring political and media freedom, amending in electoral law to make it more representative of the populace. This program led to the victory of all of twelve seats which were on its electoral list. At the end of that year Hezbollah began to dialog with Lebanese Christians. Hezbollah regards cultural, political and religious freedoms in Lebanon as sanctified. This dialog expands to other groups except those who have relation with Israel.

This election was boycotted by Christian groups, which allowed Hezbollah and other Muslim groups to take control of parliament. Hezbollah won a total of eight seats and Nabih Berri

Nabih Berri

, Leader of Amal, was elected parliamentary speaker.

Lebanese election : 1996

Hezbollah's electoral platform for the 1996 elections prominently featured "Resisting the occupation" as a primary goal.

Hizballah won nine seats in 1996. Following the 1996 elections, Hariri

Hariri

Hariri is a surname and derivative of harir which indicates a mercantile background at one point in that field.-Lebanon:*Bahia Hariri, Lebanese politician; sister of Rafic Hariri...

continued as premier and the ex-Amal

Amal Movement

leader, Nabih Berri

Nabih Berri

, continued as speaker of the assembly.

Lebanese election : 2000

The Lebanese election of 2000 saw Hezbollah forming an electoral alliance with Amal

Amal Movement

that took all 23 seats in South Lebanon (of 128 total). This was the first election to include South Lebanon since 1972, due to the intervening 1975-90 civil war and the Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

i occupation that followed.

Hezbollah and the "Cedar Revolution"

After the assassination of Rafik Hariri

Rafik Hariri

Rafic Baha El Deen Al-Hariri , was a business tycoon and the Prime Minister of Lebanon from 1992 to 1998 and again from 2000 until his resignation, 20 October 2004.He headed five cabinets during his tenure...

in February 2005, Hezbollah strongly supported Syria through demonstrations. On March 8, in response to the demonstrations of the Cedar Revolution

Cedar Revolution

The Cedar Revolution or Independence Intifada was a chain of demonstrations in Lebanon triggered by the assassination of the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.The primary goals of the original activists were the...

which resulted in Syria's withdrawal, Hezbollah organized a counterdemonstration, reiterating Hezbollah's rejection of Resolution 1559 and its support for a Lebanese-Syrian alliance.

Lebanese election : 2005

After the 2005 elections

Lebanese general election, 2005

The 2005 Lebanese General Elections were the first elections in thirty years without a Syrian military or intelligence presence in Lebanon. These elections were the first in Lebanese history to be won outright by a single electoral block and were also the first to be monitored by the United...

, Hezbollah held 14 seats (up from eight previously in 2000) in the 128-member Lebanese Parliament. The "resistance" bloc centered in South Lebanon won a total of 23 seat of which Hezbollah is a part. It also participated for the first time in the Lebanese government of July 2005

Lebanese government of July 2005

This is the list of the Lebanese government that was formed by Fouad Siniora on 19 July 2005 who was appointed by then president Émile Lahoud. All the main political blocs were included in it except for the Free Patriotic Movement-led bloc headed by General Michel Aoun...

. Hezbollah has two ministers in the government, and a third is Hezbollah-endorsed. It is primarily active in the Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut

Beirut

, and southern Lebanon.

2006-2008 crisis

In spite of having a foot inside the government, Hezbollah has been frequently at odds with certain members of Fouad Siniora

Fouad Siniora

's cabinet and in early 2006 formed an alliance with Michel Aoun

Michel Aoun

Michel Naim Aoun is a former Lebanese Army Commander and he is one of the allies of Hezbollah. From 22 September 1988 to 13 October 1990, he has served as Prime Minister of the legal one of two rival governments that contended for power. He declared "The Liberation War" against the Syrian...

and his anti-Syrian Free Patriotic Movement

Free Patriotic Movement

The Free Patriotic Movement , also known as the "Aounist Movement" , is a Lebanese political party, led by Michel Aoun and allied with Hezbollah, The movement was officially declared a political party on September 18, 2005Though most of the party's support comes from Lebanon's...

2008 unrest

May 2008's crisis saw the worst sectarian fighting since Lebanon's civil war, with over 80 people killed and sections of West Beirut taken over by Hezbollah in a bid to push the Siniora government to give in to its demands.

2009-2010

In 2009, the United Nations special tribunal investigating the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri reportedly found evidence linking Hezbollah to the murder.

On October 2010, Hezbollah conducted a drill simulating a takeover of Lebanon – an operation which it threatened was to be carried out in the event that the international tribunal for the assassination of Hariri indicts Hezbollah.

Literature

Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28716-2
Judith Palmer Harik (2006) Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism I.B. Tauris.. ISBN 1-84511-024-2.
Ahmad Nizar Hamzeh (2004) In The Path Of Hizbullah. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 0-8156-3053-0
Hala Jaber
Hala Jaber
Hala Jaber is a Lebanese-British journalist. She was born in West Africa and currently writes for The Sunday Times. Jaber was awarded the Amnesty International Journalist of the Year Award in 2003. She won Foreign Correspondent of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2005 and 2006 for her...

(1997) Hezbollah. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10834-6
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
Amal Abdo Saad-Ghorayeb is a Lebanese writer and political analyst known for her writings on the Israeli-Lebanese conflict and Hezbollah.-Life:...

(2001) Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 0-7453-1792-8
Judith Palmer Harik (2004) Hezbollah: The Changing Face of Terrorism. I.B Tauris. ISBN 1-86064-893-2
Augustus Richard Norton
Augustus Richard Norton
Augustus R. Norton is an American professor and retired army officer. He is currently a professor of international relations and anthropology at Boston University. He is best known for his writing on Middle East politics, and as an occasional commentator on U.S...

(1987). Amal and the Shi'a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon (Austin and London: University of Texas Press, 1987)
Augustus Richard Norton
Augustus Richard Norton
Augustus R. Norton is an American professor and retired army officer. He is currently a professor of international relations and anthropology at Boston University. He is best known for his writing on Middle East politics, and as an occasional commentator on U.S...

(2000). Hizballah of Lebanon: Extremist Ideals vs. Mundane Politics. Council on Foreign Relations.
Augustus Richard Norton
Augustus Richard Norton
Augustus R. Norton is an American professor and retired army officer. He is currently a professor of international relations and anthropology at Boston University. He is best known for his writing on Middle East politics, and as an occasional commentator on U.S...

(2007). Hezbollah: A Short History. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13124-5.
Naim Qassem
Naim Qassem
Sheikh Naim Qassem is the second in command of Hezbollah, with the title of deputy secretary-general.On Aug. 1, 2011 Qassem attended a ceremony for the eighth edition of his book Hezbollah, where he made the statement that "Billions of dollars have been offered to us to rebuild the deprivedsouth...

(2005) Hizbullah: The Story from Within. Saqi Books
Saqi Books
Saqi Books is an independent UK publisher co-founded in 1984 by author and feminist Mai Ghoussoub to "print quality academic and general interest books on the Middle East". It now claims to be "the UK's largest publisher of Middle Eastern and Arabic titles"...

. ISBN 0-86356-517-4
Magnus Ranstorp
Magnus Ranstorp
Dr Magnus Ranstorp, born March 13, 1965 in Hästveda, studies Hizballah, Hamas, al-Qaeda and other militant Islamic movements. He is the Research Director of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defence College, directing a project on Strategic Terrorist Threats to Europe...

(1996) Hizb'Allah in Lebanon: The Politics of the Western Hostage Crisis. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-16491-2
Jamal Sankari (2005) Fadlallah: The Making of a Radical Shi'ite Leader. Saqi Books. ISBN 0-86356-596-4
Tom Diaz
Tom Diaz
Tom Diaz is a senior policy analyst at the Violence Policy Center and is one of the more prominent advocates for a strict system of federal gun control in the United States.-Biography:...

, Barbara Newman (2005) Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil. Presidio Press. ISBN 0-345-47568-2
Avi Jorisch (2004) Beacon of Hatred: Inside Hizballahs Al-Manar Television. Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ISBN 0-944029-88-4

External links

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