Hassan Nasrallah
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (Template:Lang-ar) (b. August 31 1960, Burj Hammud, Beirut, Lebanon), is the current Secretary General of the Lebanese resistant organization and political party Hezbollah.
Leadership of Hezbollah
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Nasrallah became the leader of Hezbollah after Israel assassinated the movement’s leader Abbas al-Musawi in 1992. Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah became a serious opponent of the Israel Defense Forces in Southern Lebanon, managing to improve the organization's military capabilities and increasing the killing rate to approximately two dozen Israeli soldiers per year[citation needed]. Hezbollah's resistance campaigns of the late 1990s were believed to be one of the main factors that led to the Israeli decision to withdraw from Southern Lebanon in 2000, thus ending 18 years of occupation. Consequently, Nasrallah is widely credited in Lebanon and the Arab world for ending the Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon, something which has greatly bolstered the party's political standing within Lebanon.
Nasrallah also played a major role in a complex prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah in 2004 [citation needed], resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Hezbollah prisoners being freed and bodies returned to Lebanon. The agreement was described across the Arab world as a great victory for Hezbollah with Nasrallah being personally praised for achieving these gains [citation needed].
UN Resolution 1559 calls for the withdrawal of non-Lebanese forces, although some say does not apply to Hezbollah because it is a legitimate political party in Lebanon holding twenty-three parliamentary seats. In the aftermath of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri (sometimes referred to as the Cedar Revolution or Lebanon's Cedar Spring), Nasrallah initiated several large demonstrations expressing support for the Syrian government.
Nasrallah is also considered a hero by the majority of the Arab World.
Personal life
Nasrallah lived in South Beirut with his wife Fatima Yassin (who comes from the Lebanese village of Al Abbasiyah) and five children: Muhammad Hadi (d. 1997), Muhammad Jawad, Zeinab, Muhammad Ali and Muhammad Mahdi. In September 1997, his eldest son Muhammad Hadi was killed by Israeli forces in Jabal al-Rafei in southern Lebanon.
In 1975, the civil war in Lebanon forced the 15 year old Nasrallah and his family to move to their ancestral home in the South Lebanese village of Al Bazuriyah. Here he joined the Amal Movement, a political group representing Shiites in Lebanon. After a period of Islamic study in Iraq he returned to Lebanon, where he studied at the school of Amal’s leader Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi, later being selected as Amal's political delegate in Beqaa, and making him a member of the central political office. After the Israeli invasion in 1982, Nasrallah joined Hezbollah to dedicate himself to the resistance of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.
Nasrallah is a devoted Muslim and has spent periods of his life studying at religious centres in Iraq. In the mid-1970s he moved to a Shiite Hawza (Islamic Seminary) in the Iraqi city of Najaf to study Qura’anic divine sciences [citation needed], completing the first stage of his studies in 1978 before being forced to leave by the Iraqi authorities [citation needed]. Despite his ongoing commitment to Hezbollah, in 1989 Nasrallah resumed his efforts to become a religious jurisprudent by moving to the sacred Iranian city of Qom to further his studies. Nasrallah believes that Islam holds the solution to the problems of any society, once saying, “With respect to us, briefly, Islam is not a simple religion including only praises and prayers, rather it is a divine message that was designed for humanity, and it can answer any question man might ask concerning his general and private life. Islam is a religion designed for a society that can revolt and build a state.” [citation needed]
Nasrallah said once in an interview that he reads many books, particularly the memoirs of political figures, including Ariel Sharon's autobiography, “Memoirs of Sharon” and Benjamin Netanyahu's A Place Under the Sun, with the intention of getting to know his enemies [1].
His home and office were destroyed by Israeli bombing raids during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon crisis on July 14th 2006.
Terrorism allegations
The Hezbollah group under Nasrallah's leadership took the classic model of a political party acting as a front-end for questionable activities, branded as terrorism by the group's opponents.
The Lebanon government promised to disarm all militant groups but exempted Hezbollah by designating it a "resistance" force against Israel instead of a militia. In this way it is also exempt from money laundering and terrorism financing laws.
Hezbollah's TV station, Al-Manar, openly calls for Jihad. It has been banned in France, and the United States has declared it a terrorist outfit.
Nasrallah's speeches border on radical Islamic views, often hinting at full destruction of Israel and ridiculing its society. He opposes any normalization of relations with Israel.
In 1993 his operatives killed 26 Israeli soldiers, who at the time, were part of a security contingent occupying a part of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has been implicated in a series of terror attacks, including the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight, in which a U.S. Navy diver was killed. It is also widely believed to be responsible for the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural center in the city. Additionally, the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that left 240 dead were also believed to be carried out by Hezbollah.
Nasrallah has solidified his relationship with Iran and Syria, turning Hezbollah into one of the best-trained and funded militant organizations in the Middle East. Iran is believed to provide Hezbollah with annual support in the range of $100 million (U.S.); Iranian military officers are alleged to have helped train Hezbollah operatives to carry out attacks against Israel. However, Iran has rejected these charges.
Members of Hezbollah are hidden among the civilian population. Like traditional guerilla groups, they are working out of caves and tunnels, which makes them hard targets to hit. In recent years, hundreds of rockets have been fired regularly toward Northern Israeli cities.
In March 2004, again according to a State Department report, Hezbollah signed an agreement to join the Palestinian group Hamas in joint attacks against Israel. Israel has accused Hezbollah of illicitly shipping arms to Palestinians via the Mediterranean Sea.
In 2004, Israel released 430 Palestinian prisoners in return for an abducted Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers. On July 12, Hezbollah operatives, under the Nasrallah's guidance, staged a deadly, cross-border raid into Israel that left eight Israeli soldiers dead and two abducted.
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