Hanin Ghaddar

We liberated the land, so we have the right to do whatever we want with it and the people who live on it. That has been Hezbollah’s logic since 2000, but especially after the 2006 July War. For many Lebanese, this logic is unacceptable because it does not respect the state and its institutions. However, most of the Shia community in the South consented to it, because Hezbollah provided them with services, and a sense of security and dignity. But today things are changing.

Each week, a village or town in the South is the scene of clashes or tension between Hezbollah members and residents for varying reasons, whether the party was trying to enforce a ban on selling alcohol, as was the case in Haldoun, or personal squabbles, as was the reason for tension between the party and village residents recently in Mhaibeb.

The reason behind tensions between Hezbollah and residents of Adloun this weekend was political. When members of the Communist Party in the southern village decided to organize a ceremony to commemorate the 29th anniversary of the founding of the Lebanese National Resistance Front, some saw it as a threat to Hezbollah, which is supposed to be the sole resistance movement in the collective memory of the people. Attendees at the event had raw eggs pelted at them, and organizers were requested to leave the premises.

The LNRF was never as militarily strong as Hezbollah by any means; the party was made up of Lebanese who thought they had the right to resist. But no, Hezbollah has monopolized the concept of resistance, and has used it as a tool to lobby popular support and boost political power in both Lebanon and the region, especially Iran.
And while many Communists and other secular parties under the LNRF sacrificed their lives during the 1980s, for Hezbollah it is inappropriate to pay respect to any “martyrs” outside the party.

Hezbollah never included the history of these people or their parties in any of its speeches or literature. In fact, following a major prisoner swap with Israel in early 2004, in which more than 400 prisoners were released to Hezbollah in exchange for an Israeli reservist colonel and the bodies of three IDF soldiers, members of the Communist Party were not even allowed to attend the reception held at the airport, despite the fact that most of the Lebanese prisoners were Communists.

Hezbollah has acted in dishonorable ways on many occasions, but has swept it all under the carpet in order to focus on resisting occupation. But this cause is not as big as it used to be, for several reasons.

First of all, Hezbollah has managed to make itself look like a protector of dictatorships after its expression of support for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad. It also put its double standards of full display when the party’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, offered all sorts of aid and support to the Shia Bahraini uprising.

Secondly, even though Hezbollah effectively runs the government after it led the effort to collapse the old one in January, nothing has changed. The poor are still poor and the rich are getting richer. Since 2006, Hezbollah has always taught its supporters to blame the government, and today, the party is doing just as lousy a job as the government before.

Three, Hezbollah, fearing its losses if the Assad regime falls, has been making desperate attempts to retain its Lebanese allies, the most recent of which was pushing to reduce the sentence of Free Patriotic Movement member Fayez Karam, who admitted to spying for Israel. It seems that Hezbollah is now protecting enemy spies.

Four, Hezbollah has turned its legendary army in the South into a petty police force that practices thuggish behavior, arresting, attacking or threatening anyone who dares insult any of its members, as happened this weekend in Adloun.

Some or all of the above factors have caused discontent among many Shia in the South, mostly leftists and members of big families who have started to note the hegemony of Hezbollah now that most of its resisting is just rhetoric. It is still too early to say whether this will eventually lead to real damage to Hezbollah’s power, but the events in Syria, combined with local frustration, could seriously disturb the Party of God.

And while many leftists, including Communists, joined the Party of God because they endorsed the same goals of resistance and defending the underprivileged, their principles of secularism, equality and human rights were brushed aside.

Today, Hezbollah is defending the dictator in Syria against the people whose only fault is calling for democracy and basic human rights. It is becoming obvious that resistance is no longer a tool to fight for justice, but rather to achieve political power.

During times like this, when people across the region are calling for the downfall of their dictators, Hezbollah is looking a lot like just another dictator right now. It is shooting itself in the foot.

Hanin Ghaddar is the Managing Editor of NOW Lebanon