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Hezbollah ( Arabic حزب الله, meaning Party of God) is regarded by the Arab and Muslim world, and by some European Union countries, as a legitimate, militant, Shia political party in Lebanon, and by the Israeli government and some Western governments as an Islamic fundamentalist, or Islamist, terrorist organization.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage recently called Hezbollah the "A-team" of terrorism and Al Qaeda the "B-team." See this November 12 2004 New Yorker article on Hezbollah. Supporters of the group regard this kind of statement as typical anti-Arab American and Israeli propaganda.
The organization was conceived in 1982 as a guerrilla group, initiated by Lebanese clerics and financed by Iran, to oppose the 1982 Israeli invasion and subsequent occupation of southern Lebanon. The group's critics believe it was set up by Iran solely to spread the Iranian Islamic revolution into Lebanon and throughout the Arab world. It maintains an active fighting force, or militia, known as the Islamic Resistance. Since the May 2000 Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, Hezbollah has continued fighting the Israeli Defense Forces around the disputed, Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area. Although the United Nations regards Shebaa Farms as Syrian territory, Hezbollah considers the area a part of Lebanon.
In addition to its military wing, Hezbollah maintains a civilian arm, which runs hospitals, schools, orphanages and a television station. Hezbollah currently holds eight seats in the 128-member Lebanese Parliament and is primarily active in the Bekaa Valley , the southern suburbs of Beirut, and southern Lebanon. The group is headed by Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and is financed largely by Iran and Syria, though it also raises funds itself through charities and commercial activities.
The group's designation by some governments as "terrorist" is controversial.
Hezbollah is listed as a terrorist organization in the United States, Canada and the UK, with the U.S. State Department alleging that Hezbollah is responsible for the deaths of over 300 American citizens. The European Union has designated Hezbollah's so-called External Security Organization or international wing as "terrorist," thereby affording legitimacy to the group's political wing. The group is not banned in Australia, but it is a criminal offence there to fund it. The United Nations has not included Hezbollah on its list of terrorist groups.
Hezbollah has denounced some acts of terror, like the September 11 attacksThe attacks of September 11, 2001 were a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001. Nineteen members of the al-Qaida militant Islamist group hijacked four aircraft. They crashed two into the two towers of the[1] and the murder of Nick BergOctober 2003 Nicholas Evan Berg ( April 2, 1978 May 2004) was an American businessman seeking telecommunications work in Iraq during the U. led occupation of Iraq. He was captured and beheaded in May 2004. Islamic militants have been accused of killing Be[2]. However, as a stated aim of Hezbollah is the destruction of the state of Israel, it expresses support [3] for the activities of HamasHamas acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah ( Arabic: Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas is also Arabic for 'zeal' or 'courage') is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary and political organization, regarded by some as a militant organization and by o, an Islamist group responsible for suicide attacks inside the Arab-Israeli disputed territories, as well as inside Israel itself: acts that many consider terroristic in nature, while others argue they are legitimate paramilitary moves against an occupier.
Most of Hezbollah's attacks have been aimed at what the group regards as Israeli military targets. However, using names like the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth and the Revolutionary Justice Organization, Hezbollah is also believed by the United States to have kidnapped and murdered U.S. Army colonel William Higgins and the CIA Station Chief in Beirut, William BuckleyWilliam Buckley is the name of two Americans: William Francis Buckley, CIA employee who was captured and tortured by Hezbollah. William F. Buckley, Jr. no relation), conservative commentator who founded the National Review''. and one Australian William Bu, and to have kidnapped around 30 other Westerners between 1982 and 1992, including the American journalist Terry AndersonAnderson (born October 27, 1947) is the best known, and longest held, of a group of American hostages captured by Shiite Hezbollah partisans in an attempt to drive the U. from Lebanon. Anderson was born in Lorain, Ohio and raised in Batavia, New York., British journalist John McCarthyComputer scientist, inventor of the term " artificial intelligence" and much more. See John McCarthy (computer scientist) British journalist, kidnapped by terrorists in Lebanon during the late 1980s. See John McCarthy (journalist) Linguist, phonologist., the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy Terry WaiteTerry Waite (born May 31, 1939), CBE (1992), is a British humanitarian and author best known for his work as a hostage negotiator who was himself held hostage in Lebanon for more than four years, from January 1987 to November 17, 1991. Today he is involve and Irish citizen Brian KeenanBrian Keenan is an Irish writer whose work includes the book An Evil Cradling an account of the five years he spent as a hostage in the Lebanon. In 1986, while teaching at the American University of Beirut, Keenan was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad. After spe.
Hezbollah was also implicated in the suicide truck bombings that killed 241 U.S. Marines in their barracks in Beirut in 1983; the 1984 truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut that killed 24; the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome; the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina, which killed 29; and the 1994 bombing in Argentina of a Jewish community center, which killed 95. Hezbollah denies involvement in some or all of these attacks, but its supporters would anyway argue that any Israeli target is a legitimate one, as are American targets so long as America supports Israel financially and militarily.
Hezbollah's role in the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon gained the organization widespread respect in Lebanon, particularly among the country's Shia community, which makes up 40 per cent of Lebanon's three million citizens. The President of Lebanon, Émile Lahoud, said: "For us Lebanese, and I can tell you a 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." [4]. However, others in Lebanon, particularly the Christian community, criticize the movement as extremist and divisive.
The continued existence of Hezbollah's military wing, and its presence on the Israeli border, violates the Taif Agreement that ended the Lebanese civil war, which stipulates the "disbanding of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias" and requires the government to "deploy the Lebanese army in the border area adjacent to Israel." However, the Lebanese government has expressed no interest in enforcing this aspect of the agreement.
Some argue that Hezbollah is being used by Syria and Iran as a proxy against Israel.[5]
On September 2, 2004 the UN Security Council adopted UN Security Council Resolution 1559, authored by France and the U.S. in an uncommon show of cooperation. Echoing the Taif Agreement, the resolution "calls upon all remaining foreign forces to withdraw from Lebanon" and "for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias." Lebanon is currently in violation of Resolution 1559 over its refusal to disband the military wing of Hezbollah. Syria is also in violation of the resolution because of its own military presence in Lebanon.
On October 7, 2004 the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reported to the Security Council regarding the lack of compliance with Resolution 1559. Mr. Annan concluded his report by saying: "It is time, 14 years after the end of hostilities and four years after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, for all parties concerned to set aside the remaining vestiges of the past. The withdrawal of foreign forces and the disbandment and disarmament of militias would, with finality, end that sad chapter of Lebanese history." [6]
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