Hezbollah's Youth
By Fatima el Issawi
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat- In a small office which also doubles as a temporary Hezbollah media center in the southern fringes of Beirut, Ali, 23, tries to explain the complexities of his relationship with Hezbollah's weapons.
Ali has witnessed the Israeli occupation firsthand and has remained loyal to the resistance movement. He carried food to the soldiers in their trenches, and helped them move weapons from one hiding place to another.
Next to Ali sat some of his colleagues in what is known as Hezbollah's "educational mobilization" department. There, they talked about the dual nature of Hezbollah's youth, which is what renders them capable of adapting to so many different circumstances, unlike other youth.
This is because Hezbollah's youth, according to these young men, are university students, employees, and professionals at the same time. All the while they are also Mujahideen [fighters for the cause of Islam] who are ever-ready to exchange their civilian clothes for a military uniform serving a greater military cause, the dimensions of which are not understood fully by everyone.
Hezbollah's youth are men who are capable of adapting to two lives, that of the military man and that of the civilian. The educational mobilization department is just one of Hezbollah’s organizations. It is a military organization that emerged in the 1980's during the Israeli incursion into Lebanon [summer of 1982] under the name "Islamic Amal," [it seceded from the Amal Movement and was led by Nabih Berri].
As the organization evolved, it expanded to resemble a basic military nucleus that offers a number of social and political services. It also assumes dual tasks in that it repairs the social fabric so that it complements Hezbollah's ideology and offers a myriad of social services, as well as assuming its military role.
However, the organization's military role is far less important than that played by those at the top of the pyramid, i.e. the veteran frontline fighters, or Hezbollah's Elite Fighters, as they are known. The Elite Fighters, according to consistent estimates, form a group that ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 members of highly-trained village dwellers who have no other job. These soldiers have accumulated much expertise in the field of fighting that goes back to the 1980's, (the average age of the members is 40 years old). It is most likely that these fighters played a key role in the most recent war's frontline, and hence made up the bulk of casualties.
Alongside the Elite Fighters, there are the men of the reserve apparatus, who are no longer active in the role of fighting. This is either due to old age or their occupation of other posts. Their previous experiences coupled with the intensified training courses that had taken part in allow these men to carryout sideline tasks in times of war. Such tasks include sending messages, weapons, and food to different units, as well as observation and communication tasks. These are significant duties that do not require physical fitness and military readiness, both of which are imperative for professional fighting.
The military dimension of Hezbollah is ever-apparent on all three levels, [the social, the military, and the Elite Fighters]. It manifests itself, however, according to the situation and how much military preparation is required.
In the small office where we met, the young men of Hezbollah's Educational Mobilization department, who introduced themselves as Ali, Husayn, Rida, and Bashar, avoided referring to the military dimensions of their posts. Whenever one of them slipped up and began to discuss security issues, for example, the female media official interrupted to kindly remind us of our agreement, namely to restrict this interview to personal experiences and nothing more.
When asked whether they participated in the most recent war, the young men decided to answer, “When it is time for studies, we study. But we are all trained and ready to confront our enemies if and when the need arises.”
The young men continued to dodge military questions so much that it would seem that they were living by the Arabic proverb, "Every situation hath its statement, and every incident its dialogue," which Husayn happened to repeat ardently. Instead, the young men decide to laughingly tell the story of an instance when they took their uniforms off and replaced them with that a janitors uniform. In those clothes, they say, they helped remove the rubble from the streets after the war ended. They believed that, when required, there would be no shame in carrying a broom. Still, they contended, carrying a rifle remains the "highest honor."
After I persisted to ask them military-related questions, the young men gave me a simple explanation: Hezbollah in its entirety is a society of resistance. Hezbollah's youth have the ability to adjust to many different circumstances. No one can match Hezbollah in this regard, they say.
"No one knows the full military structure of Hezbollah," explained the boys, "because no one knows absolutely everything about the other. For instance, one of our colleagues was martyred during the war while we did not even know he was fighting. Each one of us has a private side that no one else knows about, even though we are very close to one another."
The social backgrounds of these young men vary, despite the fact that share similar ages. Husayn comes from a family with close ties to the Shia political spectrum; he joined Hezbollah when he was 13-years old. His family was opposed to this and had even beaten him for his decision.
Bashar, on the other hand, did not perform his five daily prayers [Salat] until he reached the age of 17. He also claims to have been influenced, at one point in his life, by Marxist dialectics.
Rida, who despite having been brought up in Hezbollah's Imam al Mahdi Scouts [a youth wing of Hezbollah], claims that he only recently joined Hezbollah, after becoming more religious.
Lastly, Ali, who was born in the south, grew up in a home of resistance. His parents and neighbors have all fought in the war, some of whom he has had to say goodbye to throughout the years. In his own words, Ali claims he "defied and rebelled" when he was younger, until, as years went by, this rebelliousness turned him to religion.
Bashar, who holds a senior position in the educational mobilization department and is responsible for youth activities, describes belonging to Hezbollah as, "A bare necessity to survive, like eating and drinking. Hezbollah and I are inseparable."
This quiet young man, who barely speaks but whose colleagues never interrupt him when he does, says of his commitment to Hezbollah's ideology that he was inspired to join it upon hearing a story that one member wrote ‘Be free, O men of Hussein,’ in his own blood, before dying on the battlefield.
"I felt that this gave new meaning to concepts such as 'life' and 'freedom'. These people gave me new meaning even as they were dying," he explained. "It was a turning point in my life; I felt that I wanted to find God."
Ali, on the other hand, says that he experienced the suffering of occupation firsthand. His elder brothers were members of the resistance. His cousins were martyred in a battle. He passionately went on to explain that even his own mother was a mother to all members of the resistance. Ali soon became consumed by the ideology of resistance. As a young boy, he helped young soldiers move their weapons from one place to another. He waved goodbye to the soldiers as he watched them brave the battlefields, knowing that some if not many of them would never return.
Ali says that he joined the ‘Imam al Mahdi scouts’ when he was a child and grew up as part of it. "However, I reached a stage in life where I asked myself: Do I really want to join Hezbollah?" he explained. "I kept asking myself questions that challenge Hezbollah's ideology, in order to test my faith and identity. Instead of being mired with doubt, I found that my faith was only being reaffirmed." "Now, I thank God for an upbringing like mine, despite the fact that I was deprived of the delight of discovering Hezbollah, for the first time, like my friends,” Ali added.
“Unlike my colleagues, my relationship with the resistance is not merely that of a shared ideology. It is also a relationship of spirituality. I have experienced the suffering firsthand, and thus as a Lebanese from the south, I understand our need for resistance,” concluded Ali, a student of political science at Beirut's Universite Libanaise.
Still I had to ask, does the phrase "Lebanese resistance" still carry the same connotation now that the south has been liberated for over 7 years, and now that we hear talk of Arab states negotiating with Israel?
"This question irritates me!" snapped Husayn bitterly. "You say that Arab states do not care about the resistance. In that case, I shall be a role model for the Arabs. As a young Arab man, I do not accept to see our mothers being humiliated and the Israelis rape and humiliate them on a daily basis. My own aunts were raped and killed by the Israelis."
"My blood is boiling!" he continues. "I won't take this lying down. I will fight if I have to?" At this point, Husayn's colleagues try to calm him down, but their efforts soon prove futile.
"My problem with Israel," says Bashar, "is not only that it marched into Lebanon uninvited and stole parts of our land but is that we cannot survive as long as Israel exists. It is a foul entity that is consistently ever-ready to attack. I believe it to be the cause of all conflict in the Middle East."
"In fact it is because of Israel that a civil war erupted in Lebanon, and it is because of it that dictatorial regimes dominate the region. Shia-Sunni tensions are also a result of Israeli tactics. The weakness of the Arab world can thus be blamed on Israel," he concludes.
I couldn't help but ask, "Do you want to annihilate Israel in that case?"
Bashar quickly contains himself and says, "I may aspire to wipe Israel off the map, but I realize that this is not our responsibility. My responsibility as a young Lebanese is to liberate my land, and bring our prisoners of war back home."
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Hezbollah's Youth
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