Matthias S Klein
guardian.co.uk
Friday July 25 2008Britain's attempt to crack down on the military wing of Hizbullah is likely to strengthen the Lebanese Shia organisationLast week, Israel and Hizbullah completed the first step of their latest "body exchange" - in return for the two Israeli soldiers captured by the Lebanese Shi'ite Islamist group two years ago, Israel released four HA fighters and a Druze Lebanese terrorist who'd been imprisoned for almost 30 years.
This was widely portrayed as a great day for Hizbullah, and its media-savvy secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, as it proved – yet again – that the "party of God" keeps the promises it makes and continues to be the only Arab force that can deal with Israel on an equal footing.
By pure coincidence, just the day before the swap the British parliament voted to induct Hizbullah's military arm into the UK list of terrorist organisations. The official reason for this was given as follows:
"Hizbullah's military wing is providing active support to militants in Iraq who are responsible for attacks both on coalition forces and on Iraqi civilians, including providing training in the use of deadly roadside bombs. <…> Hizbullah's military wing also provides support to Palestinian terrorist groups in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad."
Allegedly, this decision has no effect Hizbullah's charitable and social programmes or NGOs working with it to raise funds in the UK. In reality, though, it is next to impossible for Hizbullah's social welfare branch (which provides medical or social services in southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs) to prove that none of its funds are used to buy weapons. Book-keeping is often basic, to say the least, and a post-9/11, post-7/7 environment of suspicion against anything "Islamic" has already led to a general sense of distrust. Who is going to believe a Hizbullah accountant?
However, the more important effect of this decision by parliament is not in the UK, but in Lebanon and the wider Middle East. In short, it helps Hizbullah. For an organisation that builds its reputation, its attraction, its brand on the symbol of "resistance" – to Israel, to the west, to local allies of the west – being vilified by western governments, and especially by those who have troops on the ground in the region, is a badge of honour – something it can market as a sign that it's on the right path.
When the plan to designate Hizbullah's military arm as a terrorist organisation was initially announced by the British government, Nasrallah immediately seized the opportunity to use it in a speech the following day, calling it "an honour and a medal for us" and immediately linking it to the long struggle for Palestine against Zionist occupation by reminding his audience that the UK is "one of the founders of the Zionist entity … and the permanent sponsor of the Zionist enemy".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jul/25/lebanon.middleeast