By Meagan Dashcund

It was in 1982 that Hezbollah emerged as a reaction to the violence brought into Lebanon by the Israeli occupation. The group was made up of soldiers from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that had come to aid Lebanon, Lebanese Shiite dissidents from AMAL, and Shiite Palestinian sympathizers. The Revolutionary Guard, or Pasadan, were presumably sent by Khomeini himself to organize the new movement, and the continued support from Khomeini was evident in the significant financial and logistical aid from Tehran. Much of the formation of Hezbollah can be considered a result of AMAL’s participation in the 1987 civil war in Lebanon. The mysterious disappearance of Musa al-Sadr only months before the Islamic Revolution in Iran also contributed to the power vacuum that was left in AMAL’s leadership, causing internal tensions and power struggles.

The name Hezbollah, or ‘Party of God’, is derived from the Qur’anic verse where all of God’s partisans are promised victory. The group’s intent was to transform Lebanon into the Islamic order, and thus they pledged allegiance to Imam Khomeini of Iran. Their desire to create an elite society guided by strict Islamic values conflicted with AMAL’s desire to represent a unified Lebanese Shiʿite population, thus causing a rivalry between the two groups. Between 1982 and 1983, Hezbollah spread throughout the southern suburbs of Beirut and into southern Lebanon where AMAL had been most popular. The group was very successful in undermining AMAL’s ideology and military mobility, which led to fighting between the two from 1987 to 1989. Each side paid increasing attention to national politics and attempted to gain control of the Shiʿi Council as the Lebanese civil war drew to a close.

After the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1989, both AMAL and Hezbollah became the most popular Muslim political parties. Then, in 1990, the Ta’if Accord became the foundation for recreating post-war Lebanon. It removed any link between the Lebanese Arab identity and the West and attempted to eradicate confessionalism from the political sphere. The ideology brought by the Ta’if Accord encouraged rivalries between political parties. The winners of these conflicts were generally those who had the strongest relationship to Syria, which had been overseeing the reconstruction of the state since the end of the civil war. Syria’s position of power also came from the mediator position it had taken alongside Iran in the truce between Hezbollah and AMAL in 1990. During this time, the Higher Islamic Shiʿi Council reemerged as the overseer of Lebanon’s Shiʿi religious and cultural affairs.

The group ran for Parliament in 1992, winning 8 of the 128 parliamentary seats. It increased that number to 14 seats in 2005, with their main political opposition being AMAL. Over the decade, many AMAL supporters would convert to become supporters of Hezbollah, as they believe AMAL has lost its original values. Hezbollah has always been a group that resorted to violence, and some of its more popular ideology includes the “clash of civilizations” wherein the US, Israel, Britain, and France are the enemies of all Muslims. The group considers their conflict with Israel a religious one, and not one of colonial power struggles, as they often equate Judaism to Zionism and have focused heavily on combatting the Israeli occupation in Palestinian territories. These tensions eventually came to a head in 2006 when war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Although the war ended up in a stalemate, the group’s military legitimacy and determination to combat Israel improved its popularity with Lebanese citizens. 

The additional aid of Hezbollah militants in Syria has also bolstered the group’s legitimacy. “It now has its own tank divisions and special-operations units, coordinates with the Syrian and Russian armies in Syria, and leads complex offensives in hostile territories,” according to Raphaël Lefèvre, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center. His comment refers to the organization’s battle against Sunni extremists at the Syrian-Lebanese border. He claims that the group is gaining popularity among Lebanese civilians, as they are responsible for expelling a number of al-Qaeda and Islamic State-linked militants from the area.

As demonstrated by its involvement in Middle Eastern politics, Hezbollah has transformed and developed across several Middle Eastern and North African countries. This growth is mainly a result of its close ties to Iran, as Iran funds much of the military’s weaponry. This relationship also angers Saudi Arabia, which continuously fighting a regional battle with Iran. In November 2017, Saudi Arabia attempted to combat Iran’s influence in Lebanon by forcing Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, to resign. The move shattered Lebanon’s coalition government, including Hezbollah ministers, and instigated Lebanese citizens to support Hezbollah even more strongly than they had before. The main attraction of Hezbollah being its “stabilizing” effect in the country. This is the most recent example of Hezbollah’s rise in popularity in the region, and it is likely that they will only increase in strength and support in the future.