![E97: [TEASER] Radical Reads – ‘Hezbollah: 10 Things You Need To Know’ - podcast episode cover](https://assets.metacast.app/images/episode/artwork/Q31Y82yq)
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As we come, Margin Martin and the Beauty of the Day, A million dark in kitchens, one thousand mil last grade are branden by the beauty, his sun Sun discloses, and the paople here as bretten' roses bad Roses.
Hi everyone, and welcome to the second episode in our Radical Reads series, a series in which we talk about historical and political texts that we think are important for workers and radicals to read, discuss, and inform our organizing. A quick note that this episode contains discussion of war crimes, sexual violence, and torture. Our Radical read for this episode is Alia A. Yub's recent article hes Bolla Ten Things
You Need to Know. Elia would introduce himself properly in a moment, but as a brief introduction to his introduction. He's a Lebanese Palestinian activist and co founder of the excellent Fire These Times podcast, which seeks to developed properly internationalist perspectives on politics, not just in the Middle East, but more generally in the Global South or what they sometimes call, quite usefully in my opinion, the global Periphery. So we invited Eleion to discuss his article on Hezbollah.
We felt that it was important to do so as a year after beginning its genocidal campaign in Gaza, Israel has now expanded its military actions into Lebanon, supposedly with the aim of degrading Hesbela's military capability and allow and evacuated Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel and the occupied Goden Heights. The reality of this is that Israel has launched yet another monstrous invasion of Lebanon.
Beyond the supposedly targeted pagro and radio attacks, which we discuss in more detail later, thousands of Lebanese civilians have already been killed and over a million displaced. Israeli attacks have also not been limited to southern Lebanon, but also the capital Beirute, where whole tower blocks have been leveled
by Israeli bombs, and even the North. Israeli attacks have forced hospitals to close, and firefighters, emergency rescue and hospital workers have all been killed while trying to save the victims of Israeli aggression, with euromed human rights monitors suggesting that the Israeli army is intentionally targeting rescue workers and for those laboring under the impression that somehow Israel's invasion
is supposed to protect Lebanese Christians. Israel has also bombed a church housing displaced people in southern Lebanon and a Christian majority town in the north. If all of this feels chillingly familiar, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya who spelled it out explicitly in a recent televised address. In it, he threatened the Lebanese people with quote the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.
End quote.
Here we see the genocide that Israel claims not to be carrying out in Gaza used as a threat against Lebanon and indeed others in the region. Unsurprisingly, much of this has even been left out of or de emphasized
in mainstream accounts of the conflict and of Hesbula itself. Furthermore, much of the narrative talks about Lebanon as a monolith and speaks about the conflict between Israel and Hesbola in in a way that simplifies a much more complex reality in Lebanon, not just in terms of religious and sectarian divisions, but also in terms of the class struggle and social antagonism in the country, some of which we discussed in
this episode. I've already gone on for far too long, but before we start, it's important to say that in our discussion me and Elijah sometimes mentioned some things that we didn't get around to explaining who or what they are. So here are some brief explanations of some of the key terms and names that we mention. These are also gathered together in a glossary that will put in the show notes. So Sunni and Shia refer to the two main branches of Islam, with Sunni Islam being the far
larger of the two. Sunni Islam is the official religion of Saudi Arabia, while Shia Islam is the official religion of Iran. Hassan Israla was the former General secretary of Hezbollah until his assassination by Israel earlier this year. Bashar al Asad is the current President of Syria, a position that he's held since July two thousand and when he took over from his dad, Hafez Alasad, who had himself
been president since nineteen seventy one. Within these fifty plus years of dictatorship run by father and son, Syria occupied Lebanon for almost thirty years, which Ala will speak more about. The occupation spanned almost the entirety of Halfes' reign, starting in nineteen seventy six and only ended when Bashah withdrew in two thousand and five. The PLO refers to the Palestine Liberation Organization. The PLO is made up of a number of largely secular nationalist groups and is the official
representative of the Palestinian people recognized by the UN and Israel. However, while in the past the PLO was called for the dissolution of the State of Israel and took part in armed action against it, and indeed some of its constituent members still do. It is often seen as having been co opted due to its official renunciation of political violence and recognition of Israel in the nineties. Notably, Hamas is
not a member of the PLO. The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational conservative Sunni Muslim organization that originated in Egypt. In Palestine, the Muslim Brotherhood was fundamental in creating the institutional basis for what would become HAMAS. In Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood is represented by a political party called the Islamic Group, which has its own military wing. We mentioned
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria. In both cases, many of these are individuals and their descendants who are expelled from Palestine by Zionist paramilitaries during the nineteen forty eight war, also known as the Nakba, which is the Arabic word for catastrophe. We cover these events in more detail in
our podcast episodes eighty six and eighty seven. There are around one hundred and seventy four thousand Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and four hundred and thirty eight thousand in Syria, all refuse the right to return home by Israel and with diminishtriting in their host countries, and in the case of Syria, victims to a number of massacres at the hands of pro Sad forces during the Syrian Civil War,
such as the Armuk massacre in twenty fourteen. Finally, we mentioned the Sabra and Shatila massacre, which was the nineteen eighty two massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut. Over a forty hour period between two thousand and three thousand, five hundred Palestinians were killed by Lebanese
Christian forces. This was done with the full support of the Israeli army, who had surrounded the camps to block Palestinians from escaping and allowed the Christian Malicius to enter, at which point they carried out acts of murder, rape and torture against the civilian population, including children as young as three or four. With that important and often harrowing context, will now let Eliyah introduce himself.
So my name is Idi, a yub from Lebanon.
Acre up there also better in origins, which has informed part of my politics, first within a Lebanese context, and then let's say internationally or towards like having more nuanced take on internationalism. Let's put it that way for now. I'm a post doctor researcher. I have a PhD on post to Elebanon from the University of Zurich, currently based in the UK. And yeah, I have a podcast qualified these Times, a newsletter called Ontologies. I do a bunch
of projects here and there. I contribute to a Jazeera at ninety seven to two mag a bunch of other places others. I'm an editor for Shadow mag. I do different tasks here and there, mostly on the Middle East, but not only Well, yeah, I know.
You sound extremely busy. I'm very pleased that you've found the time to come and chat to us.
I guess, yeah.
I mean the first thing really would be to say, you know, why do you feel the need to write this article right now at this moment.
Yeah. I wrote this piece on hesball Llah for my newsletter, mostly to kind of get it out of my head, to be honest with you, It did get much more attention than I expected it, especially as I framed it in the form of realistical, which is not I've never done that, but I kind of felt that it was important to do because I'm gonna say, eighty plus percent of things I've read in at the very least the English press, although honestly the French press has been more or less the same.
On hesbald Lah has been not.
Necessarily factually inaccurate all the time, although that has been a big problem.
But let's say, just missing the.
Mark a lot of the time, or focusing on certain things and not others as part of a wider narrative. That is not surprising. It's not the first time that this happens sot, not the first time that there's a war between Hesball and Israel, but I think the stakes have been so much higher now since the genocide Satin. This is about twelve over a year ago now that yeah, I felt like something to be said for whatever that's worth.
Yeah, no, absolutely, I mean I think for me, I think one of the starkest things was after the Israeli kind of pager attacks and kind of the response from a lot of the mainstream media being like, how could you want an attack to be any more precise? You know, It's like Hezbollah militants had these pages and how much more precise do you want Israel to be? And it's you feel like you're going mad because it's felt like so many people were saying something so insanely wrong that
you don't even know where to start, you know. And I guess we'll get onto that later about the page, but sor, I don't know if you wanted to.
Oh no, just that I think the very words targeted and precise and all of these have been just kind of meaningless been used in very different ways that and also used in ways that like they can be literally accurate and like for example, or this was the targeted strike on the hospital, Yeah, it was still a targeted strike on the hospital, right, like the fire.
That was targeted doesn't.
If anything, it makes your culpability higher because we also have intent now. So I don't know, there have been quite a lot of politics of language, which is actually part of my background as well, so I've been a bit obsessed on that.
But we can get into that maybe.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, I mean, I mean I guess now would be a great time to go into kind of what is his boola? And also, you know, can you say a little bit about their origins. Where did they come from?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, I've gone through this, the genesis of the party. I think i've memorized it by now.
Yeah.
So they really came into the scene roughly a decade into delib In in civil war. That's extremely important to understand. There was an entire decade before they were of any heat relevance. They didn't exist before eighty three, more or less, but they officially formed in eighty five, and the Liliberines Civil War, I should say, started in seventy five.
Even Thelibanese Civil War as a term is a bit.
Of a misnomer, just in the sense that there were a bunch of different wars, a munch of different episodes, a bunch of different actors, some not being there, you know, not being around by the time it ended in nineteen ninety and.
So on and so forth.
So that's important for number of reasons, because by the time they came into the scene in Lebanon, there were a bunch of different things already happening. There was they say,
in invasion in seventy six. There were multiple Israeli incursions, including the Factor invasion that was short lasting, before eighty two, and then obviously in nineteen eighty two the Israelis did the fal Skin invasion and siege of Bayhood, which was followed by the Sabuncatina massacre by their allies differentists, where the israet Is quite literally preventing partestinants from leaving the
camps for three entire days. And then of course the as I said the siege of Baywood and then they would do and they occupied South Lebanon until two thousand, so that's eighteen years of occupation. And it's in that period that Hesbula came into the game. There was no Hasbala. Before there was a movement called Amal, which means hope in Arabic. I'm gonna be genuinalistic about Amahe because they're very messy. But it started off as a working class movement,
largely among Shias in the South, but not just. One of their founders was a Greek Catholic Melchite bishop. It was secular and orientation borderline nationalists at times, but because it was mostly working class and most of the South was working class, and most of the working class in the South was Shias, it was mostly a Shia Muslim Out of Amal came a number of different parties. Long story short, Hesbela was one of them. Some of the early members of Hesbadla, some of their founders were part
of Nosola himself. If however, briefly, they were disillusioned with Amal for various reasons. One, Ammal did not have good funding and good weaponry. They by that time were already very corrupt because they had participated in the libyanes of war for ten years by then moles and so there was a lot of corruption, a lot of warlordism, all of that stuff. Moktata Sudd, who was the founder of Amal, was forcibly disappeared in Libya, very likely killed by Kadaffi.
That he hated the power vacum, which led to Nebhiberia, who is still in power to this day, who is not oliously curbed. Long story short, They were seen as complacent at the very least, if not complicit, in this radioccupation of South Lebanon.
Amal was battling a bunch.
Of Palestinian armed groups at the same time at that time, and that he hated a bunch of resentment. If you want, we're want to put it that way, that led to the oas of Hesbadla, which unlike Amal, had.
A very religious character.
So Hesbela came out of the Iranian revolution in nineteen seventy nine, the theocratic one that put the Iotola in power. Now we're with the second Ayatola. Of course, doesn't mean that they are an Iranian party. They are a Lebanese party, but they were filmed with that ideology constructure in a
very specific context, which was South Lebanon. Their leaders, whether it's Mussawi the first leader, obviously Noscula after him, whether it's a made Mornillier who was actually the leader of Islamic Jihad organization but then became the number two of Hesballlah, and others that are Some have minor roles, some have political, overtly political roles, other more like let's say, religious leaders.
Some both. Nozula was both a clerk and a wordlord at the same time.
They managed to kind of, let's say, impose discipline on a nascent militia that then became a de facto army to resist the Israelio occupation in South Lebanon, and for many people this was the first time they see anything remotely effective targeting the Israelis, which has helped has.
Balalah go in power. Now.
Parallel to all of this, hasbal Llah launched a campaign of assassinations against prominent leftists who were also from the same community, so she has This was two prominent names that are usually mentioned, or there were more than that.
Seen Rue who was in his Ibeti seventies or eighties, even better than I think, suffering from cancer or something like that, and was assassinated in the middle of the night like gunshot, and about three months later I believe this was in nineteen eighty seven, Mehdia Amel, who was by then already in hiding because he knew that Hesballa was coming for him, and he wrote about it at the time. They found him after three or four months and they killed him as well. This served the same
purpose kind of. I described it as kind of the Iranian playbook. For those who know the Iranian Revolution had a pretty sizable participation of communists in the early days until the toppling of the show, and then once that happened. Even if I'm not missing, I don't know Irani history as well. But if I'm not mistaken, even before that that really happened. They cracked down started against them by the nascent aetol Cotola movement effectively, which would become the the theocratic regym, which.
Which continues to this day.
So Hesbeula kind of did more or less the same thing, really, but in the Lebanese context, and this did not really stop or most recent assassination was twenty twenty one against the Lacom and Slim in early days in early twenty twenty one.
Sorry, so this is the eighties.
By the time the Libinies of war officially ended in nineteen ninety, all of the militias were expected or were supposed to hand their weapons to the army or be absorbed into the Libine's army. There was an exception that was imposed by halves Lessad, Serian dictator at the time Basha's father, of course, that the exception would be to Hasbela because of Hesballa's role and resisting. Is again the quick background to that is that Hesbella and Ammal were
actually at war. They called it the harbel Ekue the War of brothers in the late eighties.
They later called it that.
At the time, they did not call it that, and The long story shoot again is that Ammal was backed by the Syrians and Hesbella was backed by the Iranians.
They fought each other, they killed each other.
Hesbala I that battle or battle, and part of that compromises that Hesbella would take care of weapons stuff, military stuff, resistant stuff, and Amal would get into government. Hence why and Nebhibberia became the leader of Amal became a Speaker of parliament in nineteen ninety three, three years after the end of the civil war and the Toifik came in which officially ended it, and remains speaker of Parliament basically my entire life to this day.
That was the nineties, so the nineties has Bla grew.
By then, the communists, secular nationalist pro Palestinians, including Palestinian militias and armed groups, had been, if not entirely crushed by the various invasions, first the Syrion one Houfves Lesserds and then the Israeli one, who were both invading Lebanon with the stated intention of crushing the Palestinian resistance against is Raeli occupation, including Hufs Lessered, which people don't like to think about too much, and then yeah, so they
were kind of weakened by the nineties and Hesbala was basically the only game in town.
That brings us to the end of this episode. Preview To listen to the full thing and help support our work researching and promoting people's history, join us on Patreon at patreon dot com slash working class history link in the show notes.