Hizbullah Hammered with Criticism amid Lebanon's Crises

W460

Driving back to base after firing rockets toward Israeli positions from a border area last month, a group of Hizbullah fighters was accosted by angry villagers who smashed their vehicles' windshields and held them up briefly.

It was a rare incident of defiance that suggested many in Lebanon would not tolerate actions by the powerful group that risk triggering a new war with Israel.

As Lebanon sinks deeper into poverty, many Lebanese are more openly criticizing Iran-backed Hizbullah. They blame the group — along with the ruling class — for the devastating, multiple crises plaguing the country, including a dramatic currency crash and severe shortages in medicine and fuel.

"Hizbullah is facing its most consequential challenge in maintaining control over the Lebanese system and what is called the 'protective environment of the resistance' against Israel," said Joe Macaron, a Washington-based Middle East analyst.

The incident along the border and other confrontations — including a deadly shooting at the funeral of a Hizbullah fighter and rare indirect criticism by the country's top Christian religious leader — have left the group on the defensive.

The anger has spread in recent months, even in Hizbullah strongholds where many have protested electricity cuts and fuel shortages as well as the currency crash that has plunged more than half the country's 6 million people into penury.

In its strongholds, predominantly inhabited by Shiite Muslims, it is not uncommon now for people to speak out against the group. They note that Hizbullah is paying salaries in U.S. dollars at a time when most Lebanese get paid in Lebanese currency, which has lost more than 90% of its value in nearly two years.

Protests and scuffles have broken out at gas stations around Lebanon and in some Hizbullah strongholds. In rare shows of defiance, groups of protesters have also closed key roads in those areas south of Beirut and in southern Lebanon.

In recent speeches, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has appeared angry, blaming the shortages on what he describes as an undeclared Western siege. The chaos in Lebanon, he said, is being instigated from a "black room" inside the U.S. Embassy.

Critics say that rather than push for reform, Hizbullah has stood by its political allies who resist change. They say the group is increasingly pulling Lebanon into Iran's orbit by doing its bidding, and that U.S. sanctions against Iran and Hizbullah have made things harder.

Where Hizbullah was once considered an almost sacred, untouchable force fighting for a noble cause — the fight against the Israeli enemy — it is now seen by many simply as part of the corrupt political clique responsible for the country's epic meltdown. Still, when it comes to fighting Israel, the group enjoys unwavering backing within its base of support.

Often criticized for operating as a state within a state, Hizbullah has tried to ease the effects of the crisis on its supporters in similar fashion.

While the government has been working for months to issue ration cards to poor families, Hizbullah has been well ahead. It has issued two such cards to poor families living in Hizbullah bastions, one called Sajjad after the name of a Shiite imam, and a second called Nour, or light, for its fighters and employees of its institutions who number about 80,000.

"We will serve you with our eyelashes," is Hizbullah's slogan to serve the extremely poor in its communities — a Lebanese term meaning they are ready to sacrifice anything to help others.

The tens of thousands carrying Sajjad cards not only can buy highly subsidized products from dozens of shops spread around Lebanon — mostly staples made in Lebanon, Iran and Syria — but can also get medical treatment and advice at 48 Hizbullah-run clinics and medical centers around Lebanon.

Nasrallah is also organizing a sea corridor carrying oil from Iran to Lebanon to help alleviate the fuel shortages, with the first tanker believed to be on its way. The move has been praised by Hizbullah's supporters and heavily criticized by its opponents, who say it risks bringing more sanctions on Lebanon.

In the border incident, villagers from the minority Druze sect intercepted Hizbullah fighters on their way back after firing rockets toward a disputed area held by Israel. The villagers briefly detained them and the mobile rocket launcher they used after accusing them of putting them at risk if Israel strikes back.

The fighters and the launcher were then handed over to Lebanese troops, who released them on the same day.

Later, Hizbullah angered many Christians after supporters launched a social media campaign against the head of Lebanon's Maronite Catholic church, the country's largest, accusing him of treason after he criticized the group for firing the rockets on Israeli positions.

The widely feared group has been hammered by accusations from its local opponents. They include silencing its opponents, facilitating smuggling of fuel and other subsidized items to neighboring Syria, and alienating oil-rich Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, leading them to halt financial assistance because of Hizbullah's dominance of Lebanon.

The most serious charge has been a claim by opponents at home that the group brought in the hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded at Beirut's port last year, killing at least 214 people, wounding thousands and destroying parts of the capital.

No direct connection to Hizbullah has emerged, but unsubstantiated theories that tie the group to the stockpile abound. One claim is that Hizbullah imported the chemicals on behalf of the Syrian government, which used them in barrel bombs against rebel-held areas during the neighboring country's 10-year conflict.

"Hizbullah's agencies are active at the port and this is known to security agencies and all Lebanese. Why is Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah above questioning?" asked Samy Gemayel, head of the right-wing Christian Kataeb Party recently.

Hizbullah has repeatedly denied any link to the ammonium nitrate. But Nasrallah further angered families of the victims and other Lebanese recently by criticizing the judge leading the investigation into the blast, suggesting he should be replaced. Nasrallah described Judge Tarek Bitar as "politicized" after he filed charges against some legislators and former Cabinet ministers allied with Hizbullah.

"There is an attempt to satanize Hizbullah and tarnish its image," said Lebanese University political science professor Sadek Naboulsi. The professor, who has ties to the group, accused foreign powers including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and the U.S. of seeking to incite internal strife between Lebanon's Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities with the aim of weakening Hizbullah. He added that Hizbullah had overcome such pressures in the past and emerged more powerful.

A serious test for Hizbullah came in early August when a funeral of a militant came under fire by suspected Sunni gunmen on the southern entrance of Beirut. Three Hizbullah supporters were killed and 16 were wounded in the shooting in the town of Khaldeh.

Hizbullah did not retaliate and instead called on Lebanese authorities to investigate the case.

"An increasing number of Lebanese are realizing that the concept of a Lebanese state cannot coexist with a powerful armed militia serving an outside power," wrote Michael Young, editor of Diwan, the blog of the Carnegie Middle East Center.

Macaron said Hizbullah will not be the same after the crisis and will have to adapt to ensure political survival in the long term.

"What they can do at this point is to limit losses as much as possible," he said.

Comments 9
Thumb joebustani 01 September 2021, 11:56

Bless anyone person, entity, organization, brigade or country that inflicts extreme pain and unbearable suffering, death, torture, and destruction upon the iranian sectarian terrorist militia and its members, supporters or followers wherever they may be.

Thumb i.report 01 September 2021, 16:41

‏ work in progress على الطريق

Thumb chrisrushlau 02 September 2021, 18:54

You Florida freedom fighters make my day.

Thumb Mystic 01 September 2021, 17:07

Hammered with criticism only on pro american/Israel newspapers such as Annahar

Thumb Mystic 01 September 2021, 17:12

"In the border incident, villagers from the minority Druze sect intercepted Hizbullah fighters on their way back after firing rockets toward a disputed area held by Israel. The villagers briefly detained them and the mobile rocket launcher they used after accusing them of putting them at risk if Israel strikes back."

It was one truck, and the driver was ethnic Druze himself, not Shia.
Many Druze supports Resistance in both Syria and Lebanon, only the cowards supports Jumblat and sells themselves to the zionist and dollars.
Jumblat sold his own sect in Syria to be slaughtered by western supported AL Nusra front.

Thumb Mystic 01 September 2021, 17:14

Lebanon should remove the dollar currencies.

Default-user-icon GermanLeb (Guest) 01 September 2021, 17:38

True, the iranian Rial would make much more sense.

Thumb Mystic 01 September 2021, 17:16

The most serious charge has been a claim by opponents at home that the group brought in the hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate that exploded at Beirut's port last year, killing at least 214 people, wounding thousands and destroying parts of the capital."

It was Prime Minister Hariris government whom accepted the chemicals to be stored in Beirut port.

Default-user-icon cocoman (Guest) 02 September 2021, 08:10

Indeed, Kizb has lost all its legitimacy pretending to be a resistance and blaming foreign intervention in Lebanon, while being on Iran's payroll.. what a joke... Just like your masters, you have achieved nothing except destructions and chaos, and the only reason why Lebanon is in this mess is that the terrorist militia (kizb) is protecting the corrupt mafia (rest of the PoS politicians) and the corrupt mafia is protecting the terrorist militia...