Slate's Bizbox
dispatches: Notes from different corners of the world.

The Hezbollah War MuseumOne year after the Lebanese war, Hassan Nasrallah leads the cheering.

By Negar Azimi
Posted Friday, Aug. 17, 2007, at 5:18 PM ET
Celebrations in Lebanon. Click image to expand.

AL-DAHIYEH, Beirut—On a dry, flat playing field in Beirut's sprawling southern suburbs, tens of thousands of Lebanese assembled Tuesday night awaiting a figure of some celebrity. Just after 9 p.m., four gigantic plasma screens flashed the image of Sheik Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's opposition Hezbollah movement and, that night, the master of ceremonies in a commemoration of the first anniversary of the end of last summer's grueling 34-day war with Israel. Despite Nasrallah's spectral presence (his physical whereabouts remain secret), the air was unabashedly festive, even jubilant.

"Brothers and sisters of Lebanon," Nasrallah intoned, "the 14th of August this year falls on the first anniversary of the divine victory, the divine empowerment, and the divine promise to empower the oppressed." Some women in the crowd fashioned veils from Hezbollah's trademark yellow scarves. Others bore the movement's logo (a raised arm clutching a Kalashnikov) on their T-shirts or, occasionally, tube tops.

Nasrallah, characteristically charismatic and beaming, called upon the Lebanese people to remain strong "as the Zionists and Americans are beating the drums of war." He lambasted attempts to brand Hezbollah's mission as sectarian ("this is a victory for all of Lebanon"), praised the resistance, and warned against the foolhardiness of an attack on their forces, cautioning that any aggression would be returned with a "colossal surprise likely to change the fate of the war and the region." This last gesture inspired swells of applause. The memory of last summer's war is strong in this neighborhood, which makes up Hezbollah's principal support base in and around Beirut.

In mid-July of 2006, Israeli planes dropped flyers from the sky, warning residents that carpet bombs would soon follow. Dozens of buildings, including Hezbollah's security headquarters and the building housing Al-Manar, Hezbollah's TV station, were severely damaged or completely leveled, sending most of al-Dahiyeh's inhabitants scrambling to central Beirut or farther north as refugees. On this evening of festivities, the high-rises around the field—some of which also bear the pockmarklike scars of the 1975-90 civil war—were crowded with families peering out from their balconies.

"Hezbollah has shown the world that we can stand up to the strongest militaries in the world," said Mahmoud, the young man standing next to me. Last summer, his family's living room was sheered off by an Israeli bomb. Only one week after the cease-fire, he walked to the nearby Al Qaem mosque, where Hezbollah handed him $12,000 toward the reconstruction of his home. The group's reconstruction wing, Jihad al-Binna, swiftly tended to the repairs. As we spoke, my eye caught his lapel, which held a pin bearing a tiny image of Ayatollah Khomeini, the late architect of Iran's Islamic state. Khomeini was crucial to Hezbollah's evolution in the mid-1980s from a ragtag Shiite militia to a formidable military and political force. Iran is not only Hezbollah's principal inspiration, it is also almost certainly bankrolling at least part of the organization's massive postwar reconstruction efforts. Only days before, a ceremony had been held to commemorate the opening of a new pedestrian bridge in al-Dahiyeh, courtesy of the Iranian state (it was not unlike the unsightly concrete ones that hang over Tehran's wider boulevards). "In a world that does not understand us, the Iranians are our brothers," Mahmoud told me.

Just across from where we stood, families, young men, couples, and balloon-toting children were circling an enormous rectangular placard advertising Beit el Ankaboot, or the "House of the Spider." Its name a reference to the state of Israel ("this enemy is weaker than a spider's web," Nasrallah declared), the House of the Spider is a makeshift, temporary museum erected on a grassy knoll in al-Dahiyeh, curated by Hezbollah's Media Activities Unit. On the evening of the anniversary celebration, its grounds were brimming with people.

VIEW AS SINGLE PAGE
Print This ArticlePRINTDiscuss this in The FrayDISCUSSEmail to a FriendE-MAIL
Share on FacebookPost to MySpace!Share with MixxDigg ThisShare with RedditShare with del.icio.usShare with FurlShare with Ma.gnolia.comShare with SphereShare with Stumble Upon
Negar Azimi is senior editor of Bidoun.
Photograph of Hezbollah supporters by Marwan Naamani/AFP/Getty Images.
Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum
What did you think of this article?
POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES

Remarks from the Fray:

Lebanese taste buds know good coffee, but can they discern between good and evil? Lebanon can be such a beautiful place, a paradise really. If only you could forget politics. Really, is it worth it to carry someone else's water when yours is so sweet? Forget Syria! Forget Palestine! Forget Israel and France and the U.S. and everyone else! Be Lebanon. Love yourselves. That is the only way to be happy and free. Hey! Paris on the Mediterranean! Is that something worth giving up so you can lob rockets at the most insecure group of people to ever make fun of themselves? If you asked Danny Thomas he would favor you with one of his famous spit-takes. It's like a baptism. Try it. Repeat after me, "Destiny? Sppppppttttttt!"

--Danny Thomas

(To reply, click here.)

(8/18)

Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
Over the Line
Harold Ford Jr. | I know what it's like to be smeared by your opponent.
: The Positive in Negative Ads
PLUS » Milbank: The President's Lullaby