Politics, media, public services… How Hezbollah became a “State within a State” in Lebanon

“Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.” In a video published Tuesday, October 8, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Lebanese and called on them to rise up against the Shiite movement. “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it sinks into the abyss of a long war that will provoke destruction et suffering like the ones we see in Gaza” threatened the Israeli Prime Minister.

Following the October 7 attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel, Hezbollah opened another front, in support of the Palestinian militia. For a year, cross-border clashes were almost daily between the Israeli army and the Lebanese movement, until the land offensive launched by the Jewish state in southern Lebanon on October 1.

With 100,000 claimed fighters and 150,000 rockets and missiles, Hezbollah is considered one of the largest military formations in the world for a non-state group. The “Party of God” was founded in 1982 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Since then, the Shiite organization, classified as terrorist by the United States and the European Union, has continued to increase its influence in Lebanese society. From an armed militia, it has also become one of the main political groups in the country, to the point of often being considered as a “State within a State”.

A network of hospitals and schools

Hezbollah was founded in South Lebanon in 1982. At that time, and still today, this agricultural region dominated by hills and mountains is inhabited by a “fairly poor population, made up mainly of Shiite Muslims”explains Clara Hage, journalist for the Lebanese daily The Orient-The Day. The latter are neglected by the Lebanese government, led by Maronite Christians and Sunnis, developing the program “Le Dessous des Cartes” on Arte. In this context, Hezbollah is built around a discourse based on social injustice. His manifesto published in 1985 is also a “appeal to the disinherited”note researchers Myriam Catusse and Joseph Alagha in an article (a PDF) from the collective work The Hezbollah (ed. Actes Sud). In southern Lebanon, the militia “is developing through charitable organizations to help the most deprived families. This also allows it to extend its influence and recruit members”continues Clara Hage.

“There is not a village in southern Lebanon where Hezbollah is not strongly present.”

Clara Hage, journalist at “L’Orient-Le Jour”

at franceinfo

Over the years, Hezbollah has expanded its influence into other territories of Shiite-majority Lebanon, such as the southern suburbs of Beirut and the Bekaa Plain, bordering Syria, as mapped The World. Thanks to financial support from Iran, Hezbollah “will build a world of charity, with schools, clinics, a university… This is why it has a very solid popular base within the Shiite community”notes Jihane Sfeir, specialist in the contemporary Arab world and teacher at the Free University of Brussels.

Hezbollah’s main social structure is the Martyr’s Foundation, which provides support, through its medical establishments, for the families of its fighters who died in combat. Hezbollah also created the Good Loan Foundation, which has been providing interest-free credits in the Shiite regions of Lebanon since 1982 in order to of “remedy the consequences of the Israeli invasion”according to the article by Myriam Catusse and Joseph Alagha. Even today, faced with the economic crisis that Lebanon is going through, training provides significant financial support to the population. In 2024, it notably deployed a magnetic card which allows its holders to have access to party stores and to benefit from significant reductions on essential products, reports The Orient-The Day.

A party that has become essential

Hezbollah first ran in Lebanese legislative elections in 1992, two years after the end of the civil war. The Taif Accords signed at the end of the conflict in 1989 strengthened the representation of Shiites in the Lebanese confessional political system. Hassan Nasrallah, who has just arrived at the head of the movement, made the decision to bring his training into Lebanese institutions in order to assert his interests and those of the Shiite community, explains specialist Jihane Sfeir. The “Party of God” then made its first entry into Parliament with eight deputies, recalls The Orient-The Day.

In 2004, four years after Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon after nearly twenty years of occupation, the UN adopted Resolution 1559, demanding the withdrawal of foreign forces, the disarmament of militias and the holding of a presidential election without foreign interference. Fearing losing its military and political weight, Hezbollah then decided to participate in the Lebanese government. In 2005, after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, blamed on Hezbollah and Syria, the Shiite group joined the Lebanese executive for the first time. Two of its members, Mohammad Fneich and Trad Hamadé become Minister of Energy and Water and Minister of Labor respectively.

“Hezbollah’s plan is to use the Lebanese political system to fight against Israel and defend its affairs. Gradually, it will gain power.”

Jihane Sfeir, specialist in the contemporary Arab world

at franceinfo

This power increased in 2006 when the Shiite movement managed to seal an alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement (CPL) of Christian President Michel Aoun. The two parties agree in writing on a diplomatic dialogue with Syria – ally of Hezbollah – or on the possession of weapons by the Shiite militia, supports The Orient-The Day. This alliance will subsequently determine the formation of successive governments, explains RFI. In 2016, Michel Aoun became president. “Hezbollah ended up swallowing up the Lebanese state and dominating the Lebanese political scene”, observes Rym Montaz, Lebanon specialist, in the podcast “Le Collimateur”. Today, Hezbollah participates in the government and its deputies form (with its allies) the largest group in Parliament. But no bloc has an absolute majority, preventing the election of a President of the Republic for almost two years.

Although Hezbollah continues to benefit from strong support within the Shiite community, part of the Lebanese political class blames it for having plunged the country into conflict with Israel since October 7. For part of the population, the image of “pure party” et “incorruptible” was also tarnished in 2020 with the explosions at the port of Beirut blamed on the militia, notes Jihane Sfeir. In July, only 30% of Lebanese declared having fairly great or very great confidence in Hezbollah, reports the specialized magazine Foreign Affairs. For some, “the state is bankrupt and Hezbollah is also dying,” observes Jihane Sfeir, after the pager attacks suffered by its members in September and the death of a large number of its commanders, including its historic leader Hassan Nasrallah.

A propaganda machine

Since its creation, Hezbollah has set up a media network intended to disseminate its propaganda. According to political scientist Olfa Lamloum, member of the French Institute of the Middle East in Beirut, the group has oriented its communication strategy around two constants: guaranteeing its visibility and defending its project with national and international media, and establishing a network independent media capable of reflecting its positions, she writes in an article (a PDF) of 2008. In 1984, Hezbollah launched its first weekly Al-Ahdresponsible for disseminating his political project.

In the 1990s, Hezbollah also created the Al-Manar television channel, accused in the early 2000s of having broadcast anti-Semitic and conspiracy soap operas, then the Al-Nour radio. All of these media activities are centrally supervised, allowing Hezbollah to be “of all the Islamist parties, the one which has invested the most in the media field, both in Lebanon and in the rest of the Arab world”, notes the researcher.

The channel (banned since 2004 in Europe and the United States) has notably acquired great popularity in the Palestinian territories, where it broadcast its imagination. “From now on, Hamas imitates the folklore of Hezbollah down to the smallest details: parades of future suicide bombers dressed all in black and clad in bombs, paramilitary parades mixed with kung fu, etc.”explained the journalist specializing in the Middle East Christophe Ayad in 2004 in Liberation.