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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb09232008.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb09232008.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>September 23, 2008 <br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Can the Party of
God Deliver Them From Exile? <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Hezbollah and the Palestinians
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By FRANKLIN
LAMB <br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd><font face="Verdana" size=2>“The response to the massacre at
Sabra-Shatila was for the resistance to become active in Lebanon. If the
Lebanese people had given up on the resistance, they too would have been
complicit in the massacres of Qana and Sabra and Shatila.”<br><br>
<dd>– Hasan Nassallah June 4, 2002<br><br>
<dd>“We renew our pledge to Jerusalem, to the Palestinians, and to the
cause and Imam of Jerusalem; their city will forever remain in our souls,
and will continue to be our cause, our battle, and our ultimate
objective.”<br><br>
<dd>– Hasan Nassallah October 28, 2005<br><br>
</font>
</dl><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">T</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>he fundamental consequences of the 1982
Massacre at Sabra-Shatila and the founding of Hezbollah are two seismic
events from the same time and place which some argue are locked in an
embrace that will return Palestine to the Palestinians<br><br>
In fewer than 45 minutes following the explosion in Islamabad at the
315-room Marriott Hotel during the Ramadan Iftar mealtime, Saturday,
Hezbollah security units nearly invisibly secured the area of the
162-room Beirut Marriott Hotel. One of the embassies they secured
was that of Palestine, which opened last year.<br><br>
The security precautions were less out of love for the Bush
administration, which the movement considers a rogue terrorist regime, or
love for the Zionist-owned hotel chain, than the fact that the Marriott
is within one of Hezbollah’s densely populated base areas. Dahiyeh,
which includes several southern Beirut neighborhoods, often erroneously
referred to as “suburbs”, is less than a mile from the Palestinian
refugee area known as Sabra-Shatila.<br><br>
Hezbollah works regularly to intercept elements openly boasting of or
secretly planning on attacking its neighborhoods. Some being watched and
infiltrated are Al Qaida inspired Sunni Salafist cells, who consider Shia
Hezbollah more their enemy than they do the US or Israeli governments.
Contrary to Robert Fisk’s recent reports, these groups are indeed growing
in Lebanon and inside the Palestinian Camps, particularly Ain el Helwe,
Bedawi. They are trying to launch in the so far peaceful
camps near Tyre. This observer would agree with Fisk that it will not be
easy for Al Qaida to find enough supporters and adherents of the
Salafi-Jihadi ideology to challenge the strength of Hezbollah’s
well-organized partisans. Yet, no fewer than 11 Al Qaida-inspired groups,
eager to destabilize Lebanon, and sometimes related to US-Israel
projects, have been organizing according to Palestinian Popular Committee
Representatives inside the Camps. Some of their goals are being
telegraphed by the rising campaign of threats coming from their
sometime-sponsors in Tel Aviv and Washington.<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">The Angry Bear Returns
to the Levant<br><br>
</b></font>When the rest of the story is able to be told concerning what
really was happening during the late April and early May events in West
Beirut, the facts will support a very different conclusion than the
narrative offered by the Welch Club. Researchers expect to elucidate
contents of ten and one half hours of taped conversations between
Washington and its Lebanese surrogates. Conversations are referred to
during a meeting between Hezbollah’s number two, Sheifk Naim Qassim, and
a former US Ambassador with his American delegation during a July 2008
dialogue in Dahiyeh. A full report of the May events will also document
details of what is known by many here, that every incoming and outgoing
communication at the US Embassy is carefully monitored, analyzed and
contemplated. The same with Israeli Sunday Cabinet meetings.<br><br>
This week the Israeli Army’s Information Security Chief, Colonel Ram Dor,
complained in the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot (Latest News) that
Russia is relaying intelligence information to Hezbollah. Dor said
Russian Navy spy ships and Russian personnel serving at monitoring
stations on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights carry out intercept and
hacking missions and relay Israeli secrets to Hezbollah.<br><br>
“My evaluation is that such facilities can cover most of Israel’s
territory,” Dor said.<br><br>
The US intelligence unit in the American Embassy in Beirut also blames
the hacking and sharing of its ‘most secured communications’ on the
Russians while others claim its tit-for-tat for what the Mossad and CIA
did early last year in Georgia.<br><br>
US Embassy Internet security experts are unclear to what extent the
Russian military is directly responsible for “communication compromises,”
but they claim that the traffic patterns and servers used in the
operation are definitely coming out of Russia and result from increased
Russian activity in the Middle East.<br><br>
Some in Beirut speculate that this explains why the meticulously planned
US/Israeli “May Surprise” turned out to be a ”May Surprise” for its
sponsors and their local teammates, who were dropped like a bad habit
when the project imploded.<br><br>
To counter this problem, the US Defense Intelligence Agency’s newly
created Defense Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence Center is
authorized for the first time to carry out “strategic offensive
counterintelligence operations” in Lebanon and against any group anywhere
which the Bush administration considers “terrorist,” according to Mike
Pick of the DEA, who will direct the program.<br><br>
Covert offensive operations will be carried out in Lebanon and abroad
against people known or suspected to be connected to foreign intelligence
or international terrorist activities, according to Toby Sullivan,
Director of Counterintelligence for James R. Clapper, Jr., the
Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence.<br><br>
According to Walter Pincus, who covers counterintelligence for the
Washington Post, these sensitive, clandestine operations are “tightly
controlled departmental activities run by a small group of specially
selected people” within the Defense Department. The new unit is designed
to thwart what groups like Hezbollah might be trying to do to us and to
learn more about what they’re trying to get from us,” Sullivan said. In
the case of “terrorists,” the object would be to identify people who
might be “trying to do harm, collect information about us, and keep them
from doing that. So far we don’t know if Hezbollah is trying to do
anything to us but we will watch them,” he stated.<br><br>
“You stop, we stop,” is the Putin offer to the next US administration,
according to Congressional staff sources on the US Senate Intelligence
Committee. Many in power in Moscow also consider the Bush administration
a “terrorist cabal” and are awaiting the November election results,
hoping Obama wins.<br><br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">The Student Laptops and the
KKK Kid</b> <br><br>
</font>Hours before the Marriott was attacked in Pakistan, Fairouz
Husseini sat with her girlfriends in the courtyard outside Haifa Middle
School across the road from Shatila Refugee Camp, which is administered
by UNWRA in Bir Hassan. Fairouz and her friends were giddy two days after
receiving laptops at the 26th Anniversary of the Sabra-Shatila Massacre
Memorial.<br><br>
“I love it! I can’t believe it’s mine to keep!”, Fairouz exclaimed as she
protectively dusted off the pale green cover of her new XO laptop, and
recorded an interview with the screen sized video and built-in
camera. The XO laptop is part of an advanced teaching tool
developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that some believe
can revolutionize education in developing countries. <br><br>
“That American man told us that if we used it properly it would open the
doors to the Great Library of Alexandria for us and we can learn as much
as any student at the best schools anywhere in the World!” she
added.<br><br>
Amal, a very loquacious 13 year old friend of Fairouz chimed in, “We are
making a laptop club at our school. We call it: Learn for our
Return! Is that a good name? What do you think? Our friend Ahmad says
it’s a silly idea. Anyway, Ahmad does not behave properly and is sort of
wild. He is what we call a KKK kid - Kalashnikov, Kassem and
Katyusha. Anyhow, most students in the camps are peaceful and we
want to rebuild our country when we go back and we need lots of knowledge
to do it!”<br><br>
Fairouz and her Ramadan-fasting pals were already out of school for the
day even though it was not yet noon. Lebanon’s camp Palestinians are
severely challenged by a shortened school day due to overcrowding.
On average around there are 35, but sometimes there are as many as 50
students per class, and because UNWRA must run two shifts daily.
Student and teacher absenteeism is high, standards are low, text books
insufficient, infrastructure poor, and dropout rates increasing.<br><br>
Of the 59 Palestinian camps in the Levant (Syria, Jordan, Palestine and
Lebanon) only the camp schools in Gaza are as bad, indeed worse, as those
in Lebanon.<br><br>
Gaza Director of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) John Ging reports
that up to 60 percent of Gazan children at UNRWA schools had failed their
math exams last year, while 40 percent failed their Arabic exams at the
beginning of the year.<br><br>
UNRWA provides schooling for Palestinian refugee children from grade 1
through 9, but offers limited secondary education and, as in Lebanon,
these schools are forced to operate double shifts due to
overcrowding. ”Many children come to school hungry and unable to
concentrate,” according to Ging.<br><br>
Haifa Fahmi al-Agha, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Education
Ministry’s Director General in the Gaza Strip, has documented that
failure rates at schools in Gaza were deliberately lowered the past few
years to cope with overcrowded classrooms, too few schools and limited
educational funds. The same “lowering of the bar” trend is creeping into
Palestinian schools in Lebanon.<br><br>
Shatila Camp, as well as its sister, Burj al Baraneh, is located in
Ghouberi Municipality, whose Council is now controlled by Hezbollah,
whose party members won all 21 Council seats in both the 1998 and 2004
elections. Hezbollah security protects the whole area around Shatila
Camp, and Haifa and other Palestinian Schools with their Shia, Sunni and
Christian students. The Sabra-Shatila area is an increasingly close-knit
area bringing together the Sunni Palestinians and the Shia
Hezbollah.<br><br>
More than 90% of Lebanon’s Palestinian students interviewed recently, in
an admittedly unscientific poll, appear to believe that Hezbollah holds
out their best hope to return to Palestine, and insist their parents
would vote for Hezbollah in next year’s critical election if Palestinians
were allowed to vote in Lebanon.<br><br>
Before leaving for home, Fairouz introduced this observer to her lovely
mother, Nour. Nour is a community organizer who had come to collect
her daughter. She elaborated on why the Sunni and partially secular
Palestinian community of Bir Hasan (where the first killers assembled 26
years ago before being sent into the Camp) have come to support the Shia
Party of God despite a sometimes troubled past relationship.<br><br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">The Non-ID Issue and
Palestinian Gratitude</b> <br><br>
</font>Besides shared values regarding education, Hezbollah supports the
project that is now finally happening to give Palestinians identification
cards for the first time.<br><br>
“This is so important to our people in Lebanon. Actually Hezbollah worked
quietly with Prime Minister Siniora’s people to achieve this much needed
progress,” the community organizer explained. “They do a lot for us
but they don’t announce it to the public so much.”<br><br>
Many Palestinians credit pressure and dialogue from Hezbollah with the
announcement last month that the government of Lebanon will finally issue
temporary identification cards to perhaps as many as 5000 Palestinian
families (around 20,000 individuals) who have no documents and who
habitually hide from the authorities or risk imprisonment. PM Fouad
Siniora, in bed with the Bush Administration, wins kudos for his work on
this issue. Siniora appears to reject the Bush/Cheney and Israeli intense
antipathy toward Resistance supporting Palestinians.<br><br>
The Lebanese authorities have thus agreed after 40 years to give
temporary ID cards to “non-ID” Palestinian refugees. Palestinians without
any ID documents are subject to more capricious treatment by authorities
than those holding UNWRA ID or Ration Cards or NR (”Non Registered”)
cards.<br><br>
Most non-ID Palestinians are either former “Fedayeen” or descendants of
the Palestinian fighters who came to Lebanon in the 1970s after being
driven from Jordan during the “Black September” conflict with the
Jordanian monarchy.<br><br>
To qualify for the new IDs these individuals need to get a residence
notice from a Mukhtar and submit it to the Lebanese General Security. The
Non-ID card will help settle the legal status of thousands of
Palestinians living in Lebanon and is about the only good news for the
Palestinians here since their PLO protectors left Beirut in 1982, when
the camp’s steep descent into misery accelerated. Lebanon’s new PLO
“Embassy,” which was allowed to open in May of 2006, has already received
2,600 names of applicants.<br><br>
Like all Palestinians, the new ID-holders will still not be allowed to
work in professional vocations or to own property, but at least their
marriages will be legally registered and, theoretically, they can no
longer be rounded up by the authorities at whim.<br><br>
Sidon Mukhtar Mohammad Baasiri explained that dozens of Palestinians were
flocking into his office on a daily basis seeking IDs. “I have hundreds
of applications from Palestinians who want to get a residence notice as a
starting point toward getting an ID,” Mukhtar Bassiri noted.<br><br>
Over the past two years, more than 350 non-ID refugees had been arrested
in Sidon alone and more than 200 students were denied the right to access
its schools and universities. To its everlasting credit, UNRWA often
allows non-ID children to “sneak” into its schools - but they cannot pass
their examinations at age 18 and gain qualifications because that
requires legal papers. As reported by Daily Star’s Fayez Najjar, an
unregistered Palestinian father of 14 children from Ein el Helwe Camp
explained that his sons had been arrested for lack of ID several times as
they stepped outside the autonomous security system of
Palestinian-controlled camps. Hezbollah is credited with helping advance
this project.<br><br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2 color="#990000">Fatima Khalife’s Quadruplets
and Hasan Nasrallah</b> <br><br>
</font>This is another example of Hezbollah “good neighborliness”
mentioned by Hajjah Nour, which this observer had actually learned about
earlier while conducting research in Mar Elias Camp in Beirut.<br><br>
Many foreigners may not be familiar with the 6000-resident Mar Elias
Palestinian Refugee Camp located just to the Northwest of Sabra and
Shatila. It is small, one of the original camps set up in 1948. It
is heavily made up by Christians from Nazarath and surrounded by
Gulf-funded high rise construction projects. Salivating investors
eye its boundaries and prime location near the sandy beach of Ramlet al
Baida and Hamra.<br><br>
Last month, this observer, en route to an appointment inside the Camp,
was negotiating the sharp turns of alleys so narrow and dark that they
have likely never been warmed by direct sunlight, barely enough space to
advance along on a motorcycle.<br><br>
Suddenly I noticed a gaggle of squealing pre-teens lining up for
motorcycle rides and practicing their English with “hello!”, ‘how are
you?”, “welcome!” The kids apparently recognized me and the trusty steed
“Silver” from an earlier visit. But this time it was necessary to
apologize and explain in very weak Arabic what “next time” meant because
I was rushing to an appointment with a camp social worker, who told me
yet another “Hezbollah story” which affords insight into the Party’s
relationship with Palestinians in Lebanon:<br><br>
On August 9, 2005, a Palestinian mother named Fatima Khalife gave birth
to Quadruplets in Shatila Camp. One of the four babies, Omar, was very
ill and not expected to live. He needed life-saving surgery and his
family inquired at the nearby Safah Hospital. Being Palestinian, Lebanese
law forbids any assistance from the National Social Security Fund, meager
as it is. UNRWA contributed around $2000 and some local NGOs another
$1,500. Still about $37,000 shy, the family was very happy when an
article about the boy’s plight was published in the local daily, As
Safir. Two wealthy humanitarian Lebanese women came forward and
offered to help the infant by paying for his surgery.<br><br>
The Palestinian community was ecstatic and prayed for success with the
delicate operation. Shortly before the scheduled surgery, a call was
received at the hospital business office that caused its
cancellation. When it was learned that Omar is a Palestinian, the
well-to-do Lebanese ladies, perhaps with memories of the civil war and
lost loved ones, withdrew their offer of medical assistance.<br><br>
Word of what happened circulated in the crestfallen community. A local TV
station, New TV, ran a story about the Khalife family’s desperate plight
as Omar’s brain infection took a virulent turn. Within minutes of the
program being aired, the office of Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan
Nasrallah called Omar’s father. Hezbollah said it would like to pay for
the boy’s surgery and all subsequent expenses until the boy was well. And
it did. Nasrallah had watched the program and was deeply moved. Today,
Omar is healthy, sweet, rambunctious, beautiful, three years old who just
learned how to press the ignition button and start a foreigner’s
motorcycle.<br><br>
Hezbollah cannot solve all the Palestinian’s problems in Lebanon pending
their return to Palestine, but with no one to rely on but themselves,
Palestinians appreciate enormously such gestures as saving Omar.<br><br>
At the risk of over-simplification, one concludes that these kinds of
“Robin Hood” stories have created a broad admiration for the
Hezbollah-led Resistance in Lebanon’s Palestinian community - as do
Hezbollah’s straight-dealing with the Shatila and Burj al Burajneh Camps
in the Ghoberi Municipality, where it helps with infrastructural, sewer
and water projects (probably against “the law” and wishes of many in
Lebanon).<br><br>
This is not to say that there are no lingering personal grudges within
Lebanon’s Shia/Palestinian community from individuals who suffered at the
hands of the other over the past four decades during the civil war and
Zionist occupation. Yet, one Palestinian friend, Samer, a Mar Elias Camp
social worker, reported that both communities want to let bygones be
bygones. He points out that marriages between Shia and Sunni and
Christian Palestinians are increasing (his wife is Shia). He also pointed
out and that he personally has more Hezbollah friends than Palestinian,
as he introduced me to his best friend, Ali, a Shia and Hezbollah party
member.<br><br>
Franklin Lamb</b> can be reached at
<a href="mailto:fplamb@gmail.com">fplamb@gmail.com</a></u>. The
SabraShatila website is
<a href="http://www.sabrashatila.org">www.sabrashatila.org</a></u>. He is
finishing a book on Hezbollah.<br><br>
<br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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